To ask guests to pay for air con?

[rubbergloots]

We live on a tropical island. Electricity is very very expensive here. The house has floor and ceiling fans which we run. In addition to this, there is also air con in the bedrooms. We never use it as it’s fine with the fans.

It would cost about £15 a night to keep the aircon on in one bedroom. We have guests coming to stay from the UK. AIBU to ask them to pay for air con if they want to use it?

We aren’t charging them to stay in our villa of course. They are not close friends. They have probably saved about £1,000 over the week they are staying here with free accommodation. We are also happy to pay for the maid to clean their room etc.

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.

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.

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!

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.

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

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'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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

Absolutely this, they are NOT saving £1000 as if you didn't live there they wouldn't be visiting. If you cannot afford the cost of electricity to host your visitors you shouldn't have invited them, or you should've mentioned before they stumped up the costs of flights and booked time off work.

Don’t go then.

That. If I was having free use of a villa on a tropical island, I wouldn't be remotely offended by being asked to pay for the Aircon.
But as the owner of the property, I'd feel more secure having it switched off centrally at the beginning, and having the conversation about whether they want it at cost, when they arrive.

I think it's reasonable to say you don't use the AC because it's too expensive and the fans are good. Hopefully they will take the hint that the AC is available if they pay for it. We'd probably pay it we like to he cool at night

Silly answer as using the aircon wasn't explained before they booked the flights.

How ridiculous- they are staying rent free so they are not paying accommodation. Therefore they are keeping the money they would have spent on accommodation elsewhere. If you stay at a friends/families place instead of paying for a hotel fo you not think of this as a cost saved. If you have family/friends living in say London and you travel down to see them from Scotland for example you save a lot of cash by staying with family instead of at a hotel. You make it sound like a financial hassle to pay the flights and time off work. I think it must be a good deal to visit somewhere different and be hosted by trusted friends.

If you tell them the aircon is broken, they may try to put it on anyway and then tell you it's fixed. Perhaps say your energy has massively increased recently, and because of this if they wish to use the Aircon then you would need to be reimbursed as you do not use it for that reason.