Destination Charging at Hotels

[dmckinstry]

Thanks Rob. I do have a problem being that forthright, but I'll try it the next time I'm getting ready for a road trip.

 

[Denarius]

I always give preference to hotels that offer EV charging, even when I've flown somewhere and am in a rental ICE.

 

[Robert.Boston]

Fwiw I would rather see a hotel with four 40A J1772s than with two 80A J1772s or an HPWC. Sure, I've used a slow 30A hotel charger during the day, when I would have dearly wished for more juice. (And, yes, the hotel manager is fine with passers-by charging.) But I see a lot of value in having more charging points, which diversifies the risk of other EVs using the spots, getting ICEd, or equipment failures.

Of course, more is better. Four 80A is better than four 40A, but it's also more costly. At the margin, I'd rather see more points than higher amperage, at least once we get up to 40A.

 

[paulkva]

I've been doing similar to what to roblab does. I call individual hotels and ask if they have an outdoor outlet available and whether I can use it to charge my car overnight. Here on the east coast, 95%+ of the people I've spoken to had never heard that question before. I do offer to pay for electricity if needed but have never been asked to do so. And I've never found anything better than a 120V 20A outlet. I've even gotten a couple hostile responses, but nearly everyone is excited or at least intrigued by the prospect of EV charging at their hotel.

I have ended up calling at least 20 hotels to ask about charging so far, and I've charged successfully at 4 different hotels in the past year, and I added them all to PlugShare.

I realize 120V is insufficient in many situations, but (1) it helped me a ton on my trips, and (2) I think it's important to ask and to make use of what a hotel does have, to show people that destination charging is becoming increasingly relevant. In the long term, I'd love to see hotels offer a mix of L1/L2 plugs, regardless of whether they're 5-15, 5-20, 14-50, J1772, HPWC, or anything else. Eventually, I think and hope the best hotels will have at least a few high-amp L2 options plus lots of additional L1 & L2 outlets. L3 would be nice, and makes sense at some properties, but given the expense I don't expect them to be prevalent any time soon.

 

[TexasEV]

Interesting thread and responses. So how many of you want to get involved in installing chargers? I know some of you (like roblab, for instance) already are involved. How about the rest of you? I have some ways we can get involved ... J1772s, different level amperage, etc. Want me to get a new thread opened and we can get the right people in on the discussion?

What did you have in mind?

 

[JPP]

I've been doing similar to what to roblab does. I call individual hotels and ask if they have an outdoor outlet available and whether I can use it to charge my car overnight. Here on the east coast, 95%+ of the people I've spoken to had never heard that question before. I do offer to pay for electricity if needed but have never been asked to do so. And I've never found anything better than a 120V 20A outlet. I've even gotten a couple hostile responses, but nearly everyone is excited or at least intrigued by the prospect of EV charging at their hotel.

I have ended up calling at least 20 hotels to ask about charging so far, and I've charged successfully at 4 different hotels in the past year, and I added them all to PlugShare.

I realize 120V is insufficient in many situations, but (1) it helped me a ton on my trips, and (2) I think it's important to ask and to make use of what a hotel does have, to show people that destination charging is becoming increasingly relevant. In the long term, I'd love to see hotels offer a mix of L1/L2 plugs, regardless of whether they're 5-15, 5-20, 14-50, J1772, HPWC, or anything else. Eventually, I think and hope the best hotels will have at least a few high-amp L2 options plus lots of additional L1 & L2 outlets. L3 would be nice, and makes sense at some properties, but given the expense I don't expect them to be prevalent any time soon.

I was up in Napa over Labor Day weekend. Stayed in Calistoga at a well known Spa. Had called well ahead to ask about charging--not available. But when I got there I plugged into 120V and trickle charged on and off for the weekend. Worked out fine, just slow. I did e-mail the TM destination charging group and gave them the Spa information so they could reach out and see if they were interested in an HPWC.

 

[TexasEV]

I was up in Napa over Labor Day weekend. Stayed in Calistoga at a well known Spa. Had called well ahead to ask about charging--not available. But when I got there I plugged into 120V and trickle charged on and off for the weekend. Worked out fine, just slow. I did e-mail the TM destination charging group and gave them the Spa information so they could reach out and see if they were interested in an HPWC.

I had a similar experience at a Holiday Inn in Dallas. I called ahead and asked if they have any outlets on the outside of the building that I could plug into. Front desk supervisor said she recently had another call with the same question, and had asked the chief engineer and he said no. OK, I didn't really need the overnight 3 mph charge. When I got there and walked from the parking lot to the front door I spotted a 120V outlet just around the corner from the entrance driveway where there was plenty of space for a car to park. I showed it to the front desk person who was the same one I had spoken to earlier and she was surprised to see it. Sometimes hotels don't even know what they have, or perhaps hear 'EV charging" and are thinking level 2 EVSE even when I'm asking about a 120V outlet.

 

[roblab]

I was up in Napa over Labor Day weekend. Stayed in Calistoga at a well known Spa. Had called well ahead to ask about charging--not available. But when I got there I plugged into 120V and trickle charged on and off for the weekend. Worked out fine, just slow. I did e-mail the TM destination charging group and gave them the Spa information so they could reach out and see if they were interested in an HPWC.

Don't know which "well known spa" you stayed at, because some do have charging.

Be that as it may, I live about ten miles away and am happy to let you charge in my garage while you use my car overnight, with prior arrangements, of course. I have other friends who do this occasionally.

We need to get outlets at these joints.

 

[Science->Truth]

Here's what I do:

If you're willing to call every hotel near where you need to stay, do it. It's virtually a free phone call. Use the local number, not the 800 one. Ask if they have a 220, 50 amp plug. About one in ten do. Even if they don't, they nearly always ask, after making a reservation, "Is there anything else we can do for you?" Bingo! Yes! How about a simple outlet for my car? It becomes clear that this might be a way to win or keep customers.

I also find that, since I stay at the lower priced motels, I have a record of using Choice Hotel Group. I have a letter from them stating they want tosupport the electric vehicle customer. I call the motels in that group and ask if they are willing to put in a simple outlet that every electric car can use, for when I stay there. I tell them they will be listed on a national registry so others will know where to stay. AND I offer to pay for it. You know, every one has refused, "Oh, we couldn't do that". One hotel says that they are required to put in two elevators in their two, two story buildings, which will cost them $12,000. A plug is nothing.

But you gotta ask. If they don't sound interested, tell them you will check with Super 8, or whomever. If you're in the area, and have stayed overnight, ask to see the manager! Give him a ride, and the Tesla Tour. Tell him you like his motel, but it sure would be convenient if you could put $5 worth of electricity in the car while you stay. OFFER TO PAY! They probably won't let you.

But if you don't ask this time, it won't be there next time. If you don't ask for yourself, someone else won't have charging later.

I know many of us aren't as forward, outgoing, gregarious, and downright irritating as me, but Elon and I are trying to make this a better world.

Nice post. If you cant do it all perfectly..., at least remember to just ask, at least say something. Every hotel booking call, every hotel stay. --Alex

 

[mknox]

Fwiw I would rather see a hotel with four 40A J1772s than with two 80A J1772s or an HPWC.

This is a good point. I've always believed that the power of the charge station need be inversely proportional to the expected length of stay. A NEMA 14-50 or a 30 amp J1772 is plenty for an overnight hotel stay. On the other hand, hotels often have business centers and host business meetings for all or part of a day. In that scenario a higher power charger would be beneficial.

 

[TexasEV]

Four 80A is better than four 40A, but it's also more costly. At the margin, I'd rather see more points than higher amperage, at least once we get up to 40A.

Free or half price 80A HPWC is less expensive than buying 40A charging stations
Anyway does 40A exist? Clipper Creek makes a 60A circuit unit that provides 48A. I don't know if there's anything in between that and all the 30A ones. If someone is going to buy a 48A unit, the price difference between that and 80A is small.

 

[andrewket]

Tesla's HPWC uses the J1772 signaling spec. If I owned Tesla's destination charging program, and my focus was to shift the world away from gas to EVs regardless of the manufacturer, I would create an HPWC that has a J1772 plug and offer that to businesses.

 

[Doug_G]

A NEMA 14-50 or a 30 amp J1772 is plenty for an overnight hotel stay.

I have to disagree about 30A. It's not enough.

Most hotels barely crack 200V, due to 3 phase supply. A NEMA 14-50 at 40A gives you 8 kW, which will do the job in about 10 hours. That's an 8 hour sleep and an hour before/after.

A 30A supply will give you only 6 kW. That's more like 14 hours. I'm sorry, but that's more than an overnight stay.

Also some stations are called "30A" but are actually 30A circuits, with 24A delivered. Now we're talking about most of a day to charge an S85. I recently encountered one of those with my Roadster, and luckily I only needed a partial charge overnight... and it wasn't quite done when I left.

 

[Peter_M]

Here's what I'm going to do the next time I want to book a hotel stay: First look on plugshare.com or suncountryhighway.com to figure out which hotels have charging stations (around here, there are usually a few). Then call 4 or 5 OTHER hotels that I'd be happy to stay at if they had a charging station and ask them if they have one. When they say no, I say sorry, I can't stay there, and politely ask to talk to the manager to explain why (the front desk person likely wouldn't otherwise pass the message on). That should lead to interesting discussions about what the hotel could do to attract EV-driving guests (even leaving a voice message for the manager would be a start). And then after several expected strike-outs, call the hotel with the charging station, check that they can hold it for me, and book it, making sure they know that the charging station is what made the sale. That should start getting hotel managers to realize that they are losing business - maybe not a lot right now, but more over time.

- - - Updated - - -

I have to disagree about 30A. It's not enough.

I agree - I have a 40A 14-50 at my in-laws (runs at 32A) and it's often still charging in the morning when I'd be ready to leave if it was a hotel. And that's at 240V.

 

[TTT]

Hello:

I am a huge Tesla fan (I live in Manhattan so do not own one yet, but soon I hope...) and am working on a project to partner hotels with Tesla charging stations. We are looking for owners who would like to see more hotels have charging stations for their Teslas to tell us if and why that would benefit them or just add any comment (privately, no need for public comment).

It would be appreciated if you could respond to this post if that's important to you, and please spread word if you know others who might like to see a partnership.

Please feel free to reach me here or email me directly.

Thank you,

Sam

To answer Sam, this is very important to me

 

[iadbound]

+1.

 

[Jaff]

Sun Country Highway distributes a 40 amp Clipper Creek unit...I have one installed behind my office.

Free or half price 80A HPWC is less expensive than buying 40A charging stations
Anyway does 40A exist? Clipper Creek makes a 60A circuit unit that provides 48A. I don't know if there's anything in between that and all the 30A ones. If someone is going to buy a 48A unit, the price difference between that and 80A is small.

 

[bonnie]

People keep responding to the OP, yet she hasn't been on the forum since making the original post. I'm not sure she'll be back.

 

[Chris TX]

I agree. 30A outlets in a hotel are going to be on 200-208V which is painfully slow! We experienced a 203V 24A charge that we needed to top up and it was going to take 15 hours! If anyone is going to take the time and money to install a charger, make it convenient. It would be amazing to get a HPWC and put a J-plug on there a la Tony Williams. That way, anyone could use it. Although, not many EVs can take advantage of 40A or higher (yet!)

 

[Jaff]

I think there is one additional step to fully complete the "best" (from the hotel owner's business case POV) type of installation

Last fall, I stayed a few days at a Quality Inn in P.E.I. owned by an enlightened elderly gent named Alfred...the Inn shared a parking lot with a restaurant (which is also owned by Alfred)...to cover off all charging scenarios, Alfred installed two 40 amp Clipper Creek charge stations (for the overnight guests), and a 100 amp Clipper Creek station for his restaurant guest's "shorter term" stays.

From a business case perspective, he maximized the charging opportunities for both his Hotel and his restaurant...he gained economies of scale by installing all of the charge stations at the same time (common trenching / drilling through exterior walls / painting of charging spots / etc.)

I would argue that any hotel that has an "active" restaurant that is visited by folks who are not staying overnight, a fast Level II charge station needs to be in the mix...

I believe the Sun Country Highway charge station interactive map shows a few Best Western hotels in the U. S. Midwest that have installed this sort of configuration.

Sorry, but I disagree. I would say no. EVSEs are an order of magnitude more expensive to buy and install, and most people stay at a hotel on their way to the destination. If you want faster charging, get them to put chargers in at the actual destination.

At a hotel, all you need is a 14-50 outlet. One tenth the cost, and you're gonna be there all night anyway, or at least most of it. You don't need to recharge in 4 hours or so. And anyone can use it!

I say HPWCs at hotels are a waste of money and resources. Tesla has somehow gotten the idea that "destination charging" means hotels, but I think that's wrong. They could put 14-50s in a whole bunch of hotels where they are now planning nothing.

For instance, if they wanted to do some good, they might try to put HPWCs in between supercharger locations. There is a huge dearth of ways to charge from Shasta to Idaho. Can you make it? Only by going way out of your way. I think their HPWC program should be to fill in the gaping holes they have out there, where there are no plans to put in any other type of charging. But what do I know?