Is it normal for electricity usage to be capped in holiday rental?

[TreadLightly3]

Hi everyone I’d really appreciate your thoughts/experience on a holiday house rental we’re at in Europe.

Is it normal practice that we’ve been told how much electricity we can use each day included in the price and that we have to pay for any more used over that? Seems a bit unfair given it’s not a cheap place either. Thanks

Yes.
Either that or a meter.

Why how much do you think you would use anyway when you are on holiday ?

I know Spain has put limits on air con to prevent black outs this coming winter so I wouldn't be surprised at this being a thing now.

In summer it's unlikely to be an issue. But people can be arses and use every gadget and the tumble drier and the heating in a heatwave because "they've paid for it".

This isn’t Spain but that’s interesting.

Fair enough if it’s normal practice but we’re already paying for a heated pool and my worry is that might go over the limit which wouldn’t seem that reasonable given that the house is priced accordingly?

it’s been many years since we’ve done any kind of break of this type so I wasn’t sure but thanks for the responses.

Someone suggested it to me when I put my place on Airbnb. I think the idea is to discourage people switching on fans then going out for the day! The house has thick stone walls and if the shutters are kept closed during the day it stays beautifully cool.

I take it you’re somewhere in Northern Europe or a mountainous region if you’re heating a pool in the middle of August?

@GrandSlamFinalee ha ha no clearly not needed this week but next week the temperature is set to drop significantly here especially at night and so a bit of pool heating may be welcome. I have no clue how much that uses nor what proportion of the allowance that might be.

Takes a bit of the fun out of the holiday if you’re worrying about whether it’s ok to slow cook something in the oven or watch Netflix for a few hours on the big telly. We wondered if the owner was being a bit grabby charging so much and then extra for electricity but it seems the consensus is this is normal.

I think its grabby if they are keeping the limit below what is normal. You don't go on holiday and pay shit loads of money to have to worry about the electric bill! There should be a fair usage amount, like there used to be with internet bills.

I believe we can use 5 kwh per day. Is that a lot/not much?? Considering the pool and 2 bathrooms/5 bedrooms?

Even if we don’t use the pool hearing there’s the filtration system

Yes- even in the late 1990s i remember this in southern France. We got 5 kWh free and then paid the extra at checkout. I’m surprised it’s not more widely used here- a matter of time I think.

Stayed in a holiday cottage just outside London a few years ago, there was a coin meter for electricity. The owners put in £10/£15 I think it was and we were told if it ran out we had to top it up ourselves.

It ran out on our last morning, we had all showered and had breakfast, the tv went off and the dishwasher was halfway through it's cycle. We decided we weren't going to put money in just so the dishwasher could finish so we left deciding that the owner would need to put money in for the cleaner anyway.

Oh god sounds like heaven ! Please share a link if you're comfortable . This is what I need after my 30 degree newish build

Never had this in any holiday home. I think it's grabby and takes the fun out of the holiday. Another reason to stay in hotels

@stevalnamechanger I've sent you the link. 🇳🇱🥂

I think it’s to do with making sure people switch of air con.

I haven’t experienced it but if it’s likely to be that then fair enough.

Have stayed in nice villas for years and NEVER have encountered this . Unless you were made aware prior I would be VERY annoyed 😠!

One of the reasons we stopped using villas were the additional 'rules' only found out once arriving at the place you've rented. Our last one (Italy) tried to get us to pay the cleaner again; we'd pre-paid, as per their own arrangements, and also said to please avoid using the aircon or fans (in August, hugely hot and no breeze). We did as asked up to a point, as we didn't fancy an additional charge but we knocked them on the head after that.

We've never had it but haven't stayed in a holiday rental for quite a while tbh. Dd hasn't mentioned it - she uses air B and B with friends sometimes -but if it has they clearly haven't gone over it.

I couldn't go on holiday and be unsure if I can freely use air on inside tbh.

Air con

Here in Italy all households as standard have approximately a 3kw limit all year round, so you can't have lots of appliances on at the same time or it trips, mine did today as I had the oven, dishwasher and threes fan on at the same time. People here check the wattage of anything before buying it and are are really careful with how much they use as it's so expensive, so I wouldn't be surprised if it was the same throughout Europe and that's why they've capped it.

i think this will become more of a thing now more people have electric cars! I know a few people who take the mains plug for their car on holiday to plug into the holiday let for a top up.

But that's basically what's been suggested.

I can see why they've done it, to stop people running fans and air con 24/7 when they're not even there or when all the doors are open.

I know someone who had that with a villa in Turkey a few years ago. The deposit they paid covered damage as well as electricity use, and if they used more than a certain amount, money was deducted from the deposit at the end of the rental. I think they did lose quite a lot, it sounded like a bit of a swizz, but I don't know the details.

I would never stay somewhere that said that, I understand not wanting aircon left on while out and would never do that - but I don't want to spend my holiday worrying about how much electricity I'm using. I've never had it and have stayed in a lot of airbnb's in Italy, Spain, Turkey etc.

If it wasn't made clear before you booked i'd be pissed off. If that's the case I would write reviews on different sites to tell others.

I've been in villa's abroad several times and never had this. Most recent holiday was in June this year to Lanzarote