To ask guests to pay for air con?

Hospitality turns into free accommodation the minute you live in a place tourists want to come visit but these people would not have bothered to come visit you if you lived in another place. Hoapitality is when the primary purpose is to come see you and they would come whether it is the carribean or hull (or wherever). They are not even close friends in this case so clearly this is free accommodation.

Goodness me. When I check into a hotel or apartment I have to have aircon at 68degF which is the lowest it will go in many hotels.

At 25degs I'd rather open the window.

For ref, even when we had the 40degC heatwave in the UK in 2022, our bedroom temperature dropped to 14 at night as we live in a valley by a river.

I don't know how people cope in new build houses.

OP, just tell them how much it is and ask them to pay. I would be absolutely fine with that as a guest.

And if it cost 15 pounds a night, you clearly don't have solar panels (something most homes in hot countries have) and are with the wrong electricity provider and need to switch companies.

I'd be happy for you to say, if you want to use the air-conditioning I'm afraid you're going to have to pay for the electric, which will be x.

You can afford something as expensive and opulent and a complete waste of money like a maid, but you you can't afford something as basic as airconditioning? I think you have your priorities all back to front and messed up. Sack off the maid for the time they're there if you are too tight to provide something as basic as making them comfortable in a hot climate!

I would do this and turn it all off at the fuseboard.

YABU. You invited them, and they are probably not saving £1000 because they likely would not have come at all if they weren't staying with you. Guests are guests, and before you invite them you really need to take into account that they will make reasonable use of your house. Hosting guests always costs money - whether for extra food, or for replacing something that got broken, etc - but that's just part of hosting.

I also live somewhere with hot summers, and I never use a/c just a fan. But people from the UK tend to sleep with a/c on at my place. For people from a totally different climate, it can be uncomfortable sleeping in a hot, humid room.

When we use our friends villa, we pay the electricity for the week, the pool cleaning and insurance for the car. We don’t mind at all and it means they don’t feel taken advantage of.

Did you invite them or did they ask to come?

Are they coming to spend time with you, or are they just using your villa as holiday accommodation and doing their own thing?

If you invited them and they are coming to spend time with you, I probably wouldn't charge for the use of the aircon. If they are just staying with you to have a holiday where you live, you should definitely charge them as you have already saved them a fortune.

When did hospitality become "getting free accommodation "???

My toes curl at the thought of charging guests for anything.

Totally fair, as they're getting a freebie!
It's one thing having people stay with you, but quite another if you end up out of pocket because of it.

I sympathise @rubbergloots, I live in Spain and it can be €€€ to run the aircon if its run too cold.
We pre set ours to 24 and warn guests that if they want it on any cooler they will have to pay ( this is after we had a friend over who ran hers at at 17 for 24 hours !)

If they aren’t close friends, why are they coming to stay in your house for a week?

I would feel a bit weird about charging for this. I get your point about then having a free holiday, but I feel like if you invite someone to stay with you, you can’t then at the 11th hour start springing some charges on them.

I also think you’re maybe overthinking the situation. Just don’t even mention the air con. If they ask about using it just downplay it and say it doesn’t work very well, you never bother with it as it’s expensive to run, the fans are all you need. Just don’t entertain it.

Wish I lived on a tropical island......

Pre warn them. Ordinarily I'd say it was cheeky but £105 for the week is pushing it, particularly if they aren't close friends and are enjoying a cheap holiday thanks to you.

You've made an insane suggestion out of what could be a reasonable ask. "We're not charging you to stay here, but we do want you to pay 200 pounds to stay here."??? That's crazy. It's also very far removed from 'we don't normally use the aircon because it costs about 25 a night and we think it's expensive and not worth it since we think it's fine with the fans; if you do find it too hot, you can switch it on here and we'd appreciate it if you'd pay us the difference since we think it's too expensive'. If you're asking for money for the aircon you have to make it contingent on them actually making use of the aircon, not a blank sum.

This is the best course of action.

I think as you've left it late to mention it, I'd just ask them to be sparing with the air-con as it is very expensive, and hope for the best.

Are you joking?
If not, I think you need to get in touch with them now and tell them you can't afford to host them, and how much their contribution will be.
I've travelled in the tropics and while fans have been perfect some nights I couldn't have slept at other times of year without air con. It would be hell to be holidaying for a week without sleep because I hadn't budgeted properly. They need to know what costs to expect.

What sort of guests are they? If it’s friends that aren’t part of your nearest and dearest group and they’re there more for a cheap holiday than to spend time with you, then it’s fine to charge them. Just be clear about it now.

If it’s people who would go anywhere in the world to visit you and wouldn’t otherwise want to go to your island, then it should be easy enough to be honest with them and they would offer to contribute or be sparing with the air con.

Are you expecting them to have it on ‘cool’ or ‘dry’? Dry is much cheaper to run and in a humid climate perhaps all that’s needed.

You might consider setting a limit on how cool they might set the temperature. 24-25 degrees I find quite comfortable with a draught.

I asked this about heating (friend wanting it at 23+ twenty four hours a day for the entire visit ) - and people literally accused me of abusing my child. Pop your hard hat on 😂.

I wouldn’t lie that it was broken, but I’d tell them “we don’t use the air con because of the cost” and that gives them an opening to offer to pay if they do want to use it.

Absolutely understandable to ask but this shoukd have been discussed when the stat was arranged not a week before they arrive !

Next just say we charge a nominal fee of '£X a week to cover, electric, air con and cleaning.

Can you not just disable it and explain it’s due to the high cost of running ?