For a long road trip, I picked a hotel that was adjacent to a garage with 3 Tesla Destination Chargers (One was broken). The other 2 were occupied by 2 Model 2s - with charger plugged in. These cars have not moved in 3 days (so far). I am checked about every 6 hrs. (same tag#, hotel parking card) I had to go 20 miles to the nearest supercharger. I complained to the hotel - yes, they know the guests and it is not the first complaint - but it is not the hotel's garage. When things like this happen, I can appreciate Tesla putting on a hefty idle time charge to compensate for the free charge!
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Destination Chargers
- Thread starter MY-MTY
- Start date
There's no idle fees on destination chargers, and this experience is a definite issue with destination chargers. When choosing night accommodations I do look for EV charging before booking, but I also make sure there is a Supercharger also in range on my route in case the overnight charging is unavailable.
I don't know where you were staying or what area you were in but there's probably a other slow chargers available. Make sure you have your J1772 adapter with you, it comes with every Tesla. The car's navigation only shows you registered Tesla Destination Chargers, but there are other services for identifying more charging locations. PlugShare is definitely the preferred choice these days, and includes user reviews of the locations. You can tell it what plug types you want to search for and what kind of amenities nearby.
"Hotel/Lodging" seems to generally include parking garages that are a short walk from hotels. It's all user contributed data.
I don't know where you were staying or what area you were in but there's probably a other slow chargers available. Make sure you have your J1772 adapter with you, it comes with every Tesla. The car's navigation only shows you registered Tesla Destination Chargers, but there are other services for identifying more charging locations. PlugShare is definitely the preferred choice these days, and includes user reviews of the locations. You can tell it what plug types you want to search for and what kind of amenities nearby.
"Hotel/Lodging" seems to generally include parking garages that are a short walk from hotels. It's all user contributed data.
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RTPEV
Active Member
This is the double edged sword of free L2 chargers. Certain venues want to make the available as an amenity to attract customers, but people will abuse the heck of out of them and not be courteous enough to only use them when they are actually needed and not unplug when they are done. That's why I'm not usually in favor of 100% free public chargers. As much as people complain about the fact that they can charge less expensively at home (so do that, please!), sometimes having an available charger when you need it is worth the cost.
Probably the best you can hope for is clear signage that states fair use policy, and a willingness to enforce.
I will say that some properties are really on the ball with their chargers. If you call them up ahead of time, they may be willing to cone off the charging station and reserve it for your use. At some point, however, they will need to realize the EV traveling public is going to grow at a huge rate and will have to provide significantly more charging stations. This is going to start to be a major problem for hotels that will need to start devoting a significant portion of their parking for charging stations and manage the large power draw that comes with it. Fortunately there are solutions on the market for this, albeit they are niche right now.
Probably the best you can hope for is clear signage that states fair use policy, and a willingness to enforce.
I will say that some properties are really on the ball with their chargers. If you call them up ahead of time, they may be willing to cone off the charging station and reserve it for your use. At some point, however, they will need to realize the EV traveling public is going to grow at a huge rate and will have to provide significantly more charging stations. This is going to start to be a major problem for hotels that will need to start devoting a significant portion of their parking for charging stations and manage the large power draw that comes with it. Fortunately there are solutions on the market for this, albeit they are niche right now.
My wife and I just got back from a weekend trip into Oregon, and I encountered something frustrating with a hotel's charging resources.
This hotel had a Chargepoint J1772 station with two handles. Cool. I pressed the button on it to display rates, and it said that it was 15 cents per kWh. Also cool. But the idle fees were not cool. It had a 5 hour session limit. That won't fill my car, since we arrived pretty low. And then it was $2 per hour idle fees after the session.
I was there about to go to bed and would be there about 10 hours, so it would have stopped in 5 hours with my car still not full and then charged me $10 in idle fees for the other 5 hours. So we didn't bother with it and took extra time the next morning to charge at the Supercharger at the Fred Meyer in Bend.
Who would set a 5 hour session limit on overnight charging? It bothers me when businesses who don't own or use EVs set up charging infrastructure with these kinds of weird restrictions and policies that make them not useful because they are just ignorant of how they are used.
This hotel had a Chargepoint J1772 station with two handles. Cool. I pressed the button on it to display rates, and it said that it was 15 cents per kWh. Also cool. But the idle fees were not cool. It had a 5 hour session limit. That won't fill my car, since we arrived pretty low. And then it was $2 per hour idle fees after the session.
I was there about to go to bed and would be there about 10 hours, so it would have stopped in 5 hours with my car still not full and then charged me $10 in idle fees for the other 5 hours. So we didn't bother with it and took extra time the next morning to charge at the Supercharger at the Fred Meyer in Bend.
Who would set a 5 hour session limit on overnight charging? It bothers me when businesses who don't own or use EVs set up charging infrastructure with these kinds of weird restrictions and policies that make them not useful because they are just ignorant of how they are used.
RTPEV
Active Member
Yep. You need to make hotel management aware of the ridiculous billing policies and let them know that you will be putting such a comment in Plugshare that will warn other potential customers to not bother with that hotel. Hopefully they will reconsider their billing model.
I had a similar experience at a hotel in Tulsa, OK. The garage had multiple chargers, but all were filled and the owners never moved their car. I had a massive road trip after my stay. To have to go to a supercharger in order to be prepared for the trip was frustrating, since we had a hotel with destination charging.
The best solution I have seen to handle rude, inconsiderate, or clueless EV drivers, is to charge for the electricity at the very least. Then, charge idle fees AFTER they have had enough time to fill their battery. I would rather pay a little something and have an open charger, than to have a free charging but every spot filled indefinitely.
The best solution I have seen to handle rude, inconsiderate, or clueless EV drivers, is to charge for the electricity at the very least. Then, charge idle fees AFTER they have had enough time to fill their battery. I would rather pay a little something and have an open charger, than to have a free charging but every spot filled indefinitely.
This is exactly my worry. I'm planning a trip to DC for a 3 day conference and I see that the hotel has 3 destination chargers. It looks like the hotel is valet only parking so do they really tend to your car and make sure it's topped up? Or is it going to be a first come first serve and I have to leave the hotel and look for a supercharger if I need to charge? I'll have to give them a call but I find that's not reliable in some cases. The person you call paints a different picture than things really are. It would be fantastic if hotels even provided a 120v that you could just plug your own mobile charger in to. My car would be fully topped up by the time I'm ready to leave.
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