To ask guests to pay for air con?

How long are they staying? When we’ve stayed at friends’ holiday places we’ve been asked for cleaning contributions and also contributions for utilities which is more than fair so I personally wouldn’t mind paying, especially what would be a nominal amount in light of the very generous offer of accommodation

As an aside, if you live in the Tropics, and electricity is that expensive, get solar panels. They would be an absolute no brainer for you. If you combine with a modest sized battery then you can store enough energy to run the aircon overnight in the battery, and using them effectively becomes free.

With people saying put the fans on, I live in a very hot country. Many of us here know all fans do is circulate hot air. They're not really an answer. I almost live with aircon on 24/7. Going to the OP's place would also be hell for me because I am peri-menopausal and am so beeping hot all the time, even with the aircon at 22deg c. I get severe migraines in the heat, so going to a tropical place with nothing but fans would make me quite ill, so it would be a health issue.

I think you’ve muddied the waters a bit by having people to stay for free who are not close friends. Will you be in the villa too? Did you invite them or did they ask you?

If you were hosting close friends who were coming to see you then no - it’s about being a good host so you can’t charge.

However, if you don’t know them that well and they’ve invited themselves (you should have said no) then you could outline the fact that you don’t use the aircon as it costs £15 per night and see what the response is.

I think we need more background info.

I’m normally of the opinion that if you’re hosting then do it properly or don’t host. I can’t work out this situation.

You’ll have the fans on. No need to offer aircon as well. If they ask you tell them you can’t afford to run it on top of the fans.

In future it would be better to give guests the heads up when they book. Some will happily pay for their own aircon given the free accommodation others won’t care one way or another.

Whilst I agree that you shouldn't be hosting people if you can't afford it, it's a bit too late for that now so the only option really is to be honest with them now before they arrive.

For holidays? Google will tell you if you don’t know.

Let them know and arrange a means of payment. It’s fine to ask for this cost to be paid.

I think it's fine to message them and say you're looking forward to seeing them but wanted to let them know you don't usually use the Aircon as it's too expensive. They are welcome to use it but please could they pay the £10/15 a day it will cost. If they are unhappy with that then they are very unreasonable. People should expect to pay their way not get a free ride. I would be quite happy to pay it if I was them. Mumsnet is very OTT on this and then on another thread a poster will get told not to be a doormat and stand up for themselves.

If they are coming next week you've left it too late to mention it now. You could just comment that you don't use the air con very much because it is super expensive.

If someone offered for me to stay with them, I would assume that meant inclusive of the facilities — showers, hot water, etc. Being able to cool down is part of that. I don’t think it’s appropriate to withhold or charge for the AC.

I've stayed with friends abroad who don't use their air-con due to cost and asked for a contribution if I wanted it on.

I didn't mind in the slightest as I was well aware i was saving a fortune on accommodation.

Absolutely fine to either say “we don’t use the air con as it’s ridiculously expensive to power”, (and possibly add in) “if you are uncomfortable without it, it would be £15 per night of use”. I’ve lived on a tropical island on a backpackers budget and I know how insanely quickly the electricity ran out when the air con was used - I never ever used it again!!

I would disconnect or just say "Please don't put the Aircon on"

Tell them the situation before they get there. Tell them ASAP.
Just say "need to let you know that we do have air con units in the bedrooms however we never use them as they are staggeringly expensive to run. If during your stay you feel that you need them switched on then we would really appreciate a financial contribution to running them. They cost around 15 pounds to run for a full night. We manage fine with just the fans on which we always run.. but we are used to the climate so I thought it best to let you know about this before you arrive. Thanks for your understanding"

Don't just lie and say they don't work because your guests might really struggle in the heat and be happy to fork over 15 quid for a good night's sleep if they understand the situation.

If I was staying with a friend somewhere hot I would have absolutely no problem if they said "we wouldn't normally run the aircon as it costs about £15 per night per room to run it, so if you need it please could you make an appropriate contribution to our electricity bill." - that seems totally reasonable to me.

However any aircon system that isn't run very often is a serious hazard for legionnaires disease so be cautious!

You can ask them not to use the ac because it is so expensive and tell them that even you only use the fan because of the costs.

Can you disconnect it? If so, then I would say it's disconnected as it ran to £15 a night. If you say it's broken, they may try to fix it, find it works, and then you have to pay for a bill you didn't want.

@Lobstercrisps For ref, I am not in the UK. I am not in a valley nor am I by a river. I am in a house that doesn’t need to comply with UK or EU building regulations and when it is 32 degrees at 10 pm at night, 25 degrees is very comfortable. It’s the movement of air that aids cooling.

Also, setting the temperature at 68f/20c is not cost efficient and that it what the OP is concerned about https://www.csiro.au/en/news/all/articles/2024/january/air-conditioning-tips-and-tricks

I think you are fine to ask them. They aren't close friends. They don't have to use the a/c and they are staying for free.
Alternatively I would ask them not to use the a/c and to speak to you if they think they need it, then you can make noises about how pricey it is. If they have any common decency they will offer to pay at that point.

One problem is that as northern Europeans, a lot of us tend to put the aircon on at a very low temperature, for example 18 degrees.

The first thing to understand here is that setting the temperature so low won't make the house cool down any faster than setting it at a higher temperature. You are just instructing the thermostat to only turn it off when it gets to that temperature. That will rack up your bills if you run it for hours at a time.

The second thing to appreciate is that when it is really hot outside, then just cooling the air down inside by a significant margin already feels much more comfortable. Being too cool inside can really make you suffer with the uncomfortable contrast when you go outside. If it's 40 degrees outside, then eg 23 or 24 degrees makes a very comfortable contrast.

Indeed, the Spanish government have passed a law that public buildings cannot be cooled to less than 27 degrees as a result of the recent energy crisis, and this is what you will experience eg at Spanish airports nowadays.

Are they coming to see you or having the villa to themselves? If the latter you can definitely charge. If the former then you probably need to address the issue and decide on a plan because you will find a steady stream of people wanting to come and visit you since you live in a holiday destination. I personally would just switch off the aircon altogether and say you don't use it (take the fuse out of the fuse box) rather than charge. Guests need to live how you live and if they don't like it they needn't come again (assuming the temperature really is ok with just fans).

Not necessarily - the costs of getting there might be as much as they would pay for another holiday in its entirety.

The "main places"? Which would those be?

Is this somewhere tropical where solar panels are not the usual? Fine to ask people to cover basic running costs if expensive at the point at which they are deciding whether to come over, not when they have committed and paid for airfares, etc. I know someone with a ski chalet. When people they know stay in it they are asked to pay for the housekeeping and other fees. It still works out a lot cheaper than renting the chalet. But everyone knows this is advance.