Hotel/Destination Charging Thoughts

[PianoAl]

I recently stayed at a hotel with a Tesla destination charger. I arrived at 3 PM. I wanted 100% for the next day.

If I had started it charging right away, it would have been done around 8 PM. I know it's okay to leave it at 100% for the 12 hours until the next day, but I didn't want to do that.

I could have scheduled it to finish charging the next morning, but I wasn't totally confident that that would work.

So, what I did was started it charging right away, but throttled back the charging rate so that it would finish the next morning.

One problem was that I was hogging the destination charger in case someone else wanted to use it. I put this placard on the dashboard:

But perhaps I should have charged up to 100 and unplugged so it would be available for others.

Any other tips or etiquette suggestions regarding destination chargers?

Thanks.

 

[Tam]

...I put this placard on the dashboard...

As long as you posted your courtesy sign, you are good to go. I think they'll be thanking you for the sign if they need the charge.

If it's a high traffic use charger, I would just charge it to 100% and vacate the spot.

As for the hesitation to charge 100%, the advice is:

"Never, ever hesitate to use 100% Charge. Ever."

because "You don't want to leave your car at 100% for months at a time, because that will slightly increase the rate of degradation of the battery pack. We’re talking months here, not hours!"

 

[PianoAl]

"Never, ever hesitate to use 100% Charge. Ever."

Thanks, I needed that.

 

[davewill]

I'll go one step further, you should charge to 100% and vacate. When using shared charging resources, good charging ettiquette trumps any other charging strategy. Anything that causes you to spend more time occupying the EVSE should be a nogo.

Charging to 100% is not going to cause any issue unless done every day.

 

[qdeathstar]

Went to snowshoe this weekend and arrived there with 25 miles of range left with put outside temp in the 20s... it was 2am when I arrived so I waited till the next day to charge.. luckily one of the chargers was available so I was able to pull right in, as soon as I got started someone else walked up and asked if I was almost done... NOPE! Unfortunately there are only two spots at snowshoe and another car was already charging. I told the guy I would be done charging at 5am and he could send me a text or knock on my door and I would move it once I was done, luckily the other car had finished and he was able to pull in. I did leave a placard and my room number (no cell service but WiFi texted work) but no one came pounding on my door so I moved it when I got up at 8...

 

[N54TT]

I recently stayed at a hotel with chargepoint chargers. The night before I left to head back home, I charged to 90% and vacated the spot. In the morning when I woke up I moved it back and topped it off as much as I could before leaving, but mostly just to heat up the car and battery from the 7deg temps overnight. The night I was arriving at the hotel...I wasn’t arriving until 1-2am. My options were to stop at a supercharger before arriving or head straight to the hotel and arrive with 10-15% SOC and hope there was an open charger. It was a long day and drive so I took my chances....luckily all chargers were available. Although you left a placard...I would have felt uncomfortable calling someone at 2am in the morning to move their car.

 

[iaflyer]

I think it's nicer to charge to whatever percentage you need, then vacate. Someone might drive by, see you parked in the EV spot and keep driving and park further away, not thinking to walk up to the car and look at the dashboard.

I wouldn't bother someone after 9pm or before 8am asking them to move their car. There aren't many chargers to use at hotels, who knows who might arrive after you. Someday it might be you needing that spot at midnight!

 

[PianoAl]

Yes, I'll just charge to 100% and vacate, and I'll add "Don't call after 9:30 PM or before 8:00 AM" to the placard.

 

[Chisale]

Agree with everyone else. Just plug in when you first get there. Charge at the maximum to the level you need and vacate immediately upon completion. A sign in nice, so is leaving a comment on Plugshare about what you are doing and when you plan to be finished.

 

[holmgang]

I would say simply finding a hotel with destination charging is futile.

I know there are apps and websites/services that allow you to look for them, but they are few and far in between. And they significantly narrow your selection in light of all other criteria when searching for accomodations.

And the chances of having an actual open charge point when you need it is a risk (as illustrated in thread)

I concluded I should just get whatever hotel I want. Then spend an extra 30 minutes at night at SC topping the car off. Or charge it in the morning while having coffee nearby.

A bit tangential to the topic, but maybe useful for someone planning a long trip

 

[PianoAl]

>I would say simply finding a hotel with destination charging is futile.

Maybe the situation is better in The States.

So far, I'm two for two in finding hotels with destination chargers.

There were four Level 2 chargers total at the hotel we stayed at in Redding, CA, and we have an upcoming trip to a hotel that has four Tesla chargers. I found 10 destination chargers in the Medford, Oregon area:

 

[Wvapoker]

Went to snowshoe this weekend and arrived there with 25 miles of range left with put outside temp in the 20s...

I’ve driven my Dual Motor M3 to Snowshoe twice this season. I would love to see them add two more chargers at the Top of World parking lot. The area where the two at the village are located is extremely congested most weekends. They do charge fairly fast which is nice. Hopefully since they are located next to management parking they’ll see the value and add more of them.

The first time I drove there I arrived on a Friday evening with 12% and a wall connector was available. I charged until we left that evening. Two weeks ago we arrived on a Saturday morning with 18% (we stopped at the Weston Supercharger) both connectors were full. So we parked a the Top of World and skied until 6pm. When we came back the car was cold and down to 13%. I left the trunk cracked so I’m not sure if that contributed to the charge state. Luckily, I know it takes 6% charge to get to my house in Marlinton. We arrive with 7% and I used my homemade 40ft extension cord to charge from my basement dryer outlet.

Fun fact my 900 square foot mountain camp has 200 amp service but my primary residence only has 100 amp service. I don’t run the dryer and charger the car at the same time at home.

 

[Sklith]

I would say simply finding a hotel with destination charging is futile.

I know there are apps and websites/services that allow you to look for them, but they are few and far in between. And they significantly narrow your selection in light of all other criteria when searching for accomodations.

And the chances of having an actual open charge point when you need it is a risk (as illustrated in thread)

I concluded I should just get whatever hotel I want. Then spend an extra 30 minutes at night at SC topping the car off. Or charge it in the morning while having coffee nearby.

A bit tangential to the topic, but maybe useful for someone planning a long trip

Maybe things are different in Europe, lots of hotels here in North America have destination chargers. Even more common are 120V 20A outlets, and I think getting ~20 kWh overnight isn't bad.

I've driven more than 15k miles worth of long distance traveling here in NA, and almost 1/3 of my energy consumption comes from destination chargers available at hotels. It's especially nice having a destination charger during the winter so the battery will be nice and warm in the morning.

 

[PianoAl]

We drove from California to Denver and back recently. We chose hotels along the way based on how tired we were of driving. It wasn't worth the extra logistics of finding a hotel with a destination charger just to save ten bucks or so.

If I were still a frugalista (as I used to be), I would plan out a route to get to a hotel with a destination charger each night and with a low charge level. Here are the destination chargers along our route.

 

[FFR6288]

I like the placard idea, but not so excited by "charge then vacate". The reason is that every time I have used hotel destination charging, I have arrived early enough that there were spots available. But when I left the next morning, all the other spaces were ICEd. It does my fellow EVers no good to leave a vacant charging space, only to have it ICEd.

 

[davewill]

I like the placard idea, but not so excited by "charge then vacate". The reason is that every time I have used hotel destination charging, I have arrived early enough that there were spots available. But when I left the next morning, all the other spaces were ICEd. It does my fellow EVers no good to leave a vacant charging space, only to have it ICEd.

Maybe it would get ICEd, but maybe it would turn out to be the one spot that was open when the next EV needed it. Not vacating is just being lazy.

 

[N54TT]

I like the placard idea, but not so excited by "charge then vacate". The reason is that every time I have used hotel destination charging, I have arrived early enough that there were spots available. But when I left the next morning, all the other spaces were ICEd. It does my fellow EVers no good to leave a vacant charging space, only to have it ICEd.

What’s the difference between being ICEd or another EV thats fully charged but still taking up the charger? Fellow EVer still can’t charge. If using the placard…. would you want to call someone’s number in the middle of the night or be woken up in the middle of the night to move your car?
Maybe I’m just alittle bitter today lol… Because I got to work hoping to charge and all chargers were full with not ONE car still charging…luckily I made it back home with 10% SOC.

 

[Vaillant]

What’s the difference between being ICEd or another EV thats fully charged but still taking up the charger? Fellow EVer still can’t charge. If using the placard…. would you want to call someone’s number in the middle of the night or be woken up in the middle of the night to move your car?
Maybe I’m just alittle bitter today lol… Because I got to work hoping to charge and all chargers were full with not ONE car still charging…luckily I made it back home with 10% SOC.

At our work, they have “EV Connect” chargers that are set up to be free for the first 12 kWh, but then start charging you $1 per kWh starting at 13 kWh. This way people are really good about moving their cars! We also are required to have our name and phone number on the dash while charging.

Another option is to space chargers out so that there are at least two parking spots per charger. That way you can unplug a finished car and plug yours in.

 

[Rocky_H]

If I were still a frugalista (as I used to be), I would plan out a route to get to a hotel with a destination charger each night

Real frugalistas won't use hotels with destination chargers because they cost 2X what an AirBNB does.