electrikcuban
Member
I asked an Airbnb owner if they had a 110V outlet available in their garage, to charge an EV, and they cancelled my reservation and said they would not run the risk of the house catching on fire....
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When traveling, do you bother with trying to find hotels with EV charging? Can you depend on them?
- Thread starter KzooMYP
- Start date
ai4px
Wes
I use plug share. Most hilton properties have L2 charging now but you can't easily ID them on the hilton app. Also the Hampton Inn in Covington VA installed L2 but would not turn it on. So it showed on the Hilton app as having EV charging but the desk clerk said the owner installed it under duress and wouldn't turn it on. I've made it my hobby to find hotels with 120v plugs (Jackson AL), and also hotels where the Schwann Icecream truck stays over night. Schwann uses a twist and lock 20amp 220v plug so I've made an adapter for my car kit (MockingBird Inn in Monroe AL, and also Days Inn Jesup GA). So when searching for hotels on plug share, be sure to check the "wall" and "14-50" plug. I tend to call anything that's got 220v on it a 14-50 and try to make it very clear what it actually is in the comments.
ai4px
Wes
Tesla used to sponsor HPWC at very public locations like hotels and employee parking, but I think they stopped that program now. I would caution suggesting that hotels use a "wall connector". The standard 14-50 plug and also a normal 15/20amp wall plug is not meant for very many plug cycles. The contacts will become lose and it's just a problem waiting to happen. Also most of the 120v plugs I see in my travels are in a recessed wall box that you can't get the plug inside on the Gen 2 UMC. The gen 1 plug adapters work well though.
ai4px
Wes
Two examples I've run into.... Hotel in Atlanta chaging was ICEd and I said something to the desk clerk... she said the car blocking was her own and she parked there to keep locals from charging and other non-evs from blocking. She moved her car and wow... that was nice! At a hotel in Knoxville TN, I called ahead and to make sure the spot wouldn't be ICEd and the desk clerk went a put an orange cone in the spot for me. Awesome!
At a hotel in North Carolina a pickup truck had ICEd the charger. So I got out my handy dandy J1772 extension cord and draped it over his tuck bed and parked in the thru-fare of the parking lot.
At a hotel in Hampton Inn Owensboro Ky I called ahead and the clerk said it worked. Plug share said it didn't. Turns out they had cancelled their lease of the charger and chargepoint allowed it to operate using RFID card for 30 days.... I got there on day 31. Had to limp to nearby Evansville IN to get a charger.
Its the wild west out here right now.... one thing that is helpful is that there are enough superchargers now that it is not imperative that I stay at a hotel with an EVSE.
RTPEV
Active Member
Technically J1772 serves 100% of guests, and even though Tesla serves 70%, leaving 30% of your customers without a solution is not customer-friendly. Their calculus may be that it makes sense to spend the extra money to be truly universal.
Plus, many use ChargePoint which addresses the equipment cost issue and allows them to recoup/break even or even earn money by offering charging (although I think most offer it for free as an amenity).
And while I agree the potential for charging stations to be broken exists, it's not quite as bad as you make it sound. I have had one experience where one (out of two) charging stations at a hotel was down, but the rest of the time I've had no trouble. In fact, one station that looked like a fairly generic cheap Clipper Creek actually had an auto-reset circuit on it that worked like a charm. When I first plugged in it didn't work and I was afraid I might not get a charge, but I read the label and it said that it would auto reset after 5 minutes or something. Which it did, and then it worked just fine. So the more ruggedized versions of these L2 stations do have some nice reliability features.
I also doubt many properties are thinking about whether it shows up in the Tesla nav, as they probably don't understand the significance/marketing benefits of it.
Now of course the recent interest in NACS possibly changes the math a bit (although not completely, as there are still many J1772 vehicles out there and will be for years to come).
If a given property does want to benefit from the cost/reliability benefits of Tesla, one option would be to have a Tesla to J1772 adapter on hand for J1772 customers. Another would be to just buy a Tesla J1772 station, which is a bit more than the NACS version, but not much. But I think for most of the properties I've been to, they just go the ChargePoint route.
Olle
Active Member
cpa
Active Member
My experiences at hotels and motels over the past nine years:
I usually take my UMC with me. I have found that some of the older motels will have 120V plugs available if you look hard enough. That said, sometimes they are not hot, and other times other cars are parked to restrict access. Even 1.4kW for ten hours adds about 20% overnight. I also have the 5-20 adapter, and some locations even have 20A plugs which will boost the overnight charge to nearly 19kWh.
Many properties do not have their plugs listed on Plugshare or on their hotel amenity page. I ask the desk clerk or I telephone in advance to see if they have EV charging stations.
I have seen three properties that have ChargePoint J1772 ports that charge for electricity. Generally the desk clerks are clueless as to why there would be a fee for overnight guests, making excuses on behalf of the owner or some such. I have mentioned politely that if I am plunking down $1XX for an overnight stay why would management not provide a small benefit to charge our vehicles? After all, I selected this spot because of the charging availability, and the fee is 25¢/kWh. Twice the desk clerk had the authority to knock $7 off the room rate, so that seemed fair.
I usually take my UMC with me. I have found that some of the older motels will have 120V plugs available if you look hard enough. That said, sometimes they are not hot, and other times other cars are parked to restrict access. Even 1.4kW for ten hours adds about 20% overnight. I also have the 5-20 adapter, and some locations even have 20A plugs which will boost the overnight charge to nearly 19kWh.
Many properties do not have their plugs listed on Plugshare or on their hotel amenity page. I ask the desk clerk or I telephone in advance to see if they have EV charging stations.
I have seen three properties that have ChargePoint J1772 ports that charge for electricity. Generally the desk clerks are clueless as to why there would be a fee for overnight guests, making excuses on behalf of the owner or some such. I have mentioned politely that if I am plunking down $1XX for an overnight stay why would management not provide a small benefit to charge our vehicles? After all, I selected this spot because of the charging availability, and the fee is 25¢/kWh. Twice the desk clerk had the authority to knock $7 off the room rate, so that seemed fair.
ai4px
Wes
You are 100% correct that J1772 serves 100% of guests and Tesla plug serves 70%. Given that, it only makes sense for a hotel to install J1772.
ai4px
Wes
I'm cautioning aginst advising a hotel to install normal wall plugs... they aren't meant to be plugged and unplugged each day. The J1772 and tesla EV charge handles are designed for 10,000 or more plug cycles. Sorry if it wasn't clear.
You undercut your credibility when you lie to try to make your point. Of the four points you compared, one is true, two are false, and one is mixed.
The one that are true are the cost difference. Yes, the Tesla wall connectors are really good value.
The one that are true are the cost difference. Yes, the Tesla wall connectors are really good value.
This is a lie. It's 70% of guests or 100% of guests. J1772 wins.
This is a lie. What you are thinking of is the public DC fast charging networks, where charging companies are in charge of their upkeep and maintenance. Tesla keeps their Supercharger network very reliable. Companies trying to sell charging and not making any money at it fail miserably at it. But charging stations and owned and maintained by the hotels have nothing to do with that. Tesla isn't responsible for maintenance of their stations. At the last hotel I stayed at that had charging stations, they had two Tesla wall connectors and two Chargepoint J1772s. One station was out of order, and it was one of the two Tesla ones.
This is kind of mixed. Tesla ended the Destination Charging program a few years ago, which was more partnership where Tesla would add the stations to their navigation maps. That isn't available anymore, and if a hotel just goes and buys stations to install them, I don't think they can just get added onto the Tesla navigation or website. So some hotels do still have that, but if a hotel is just buying equipment to install, the station type doesn't just give them access to be listed with Tesla.
RTPEV
Active Member
I generally don't have a problem with paying a nominal fee for the use of the charging station. It gives the hotel an incentive to maintain the equipment (versus install it and then let it rot). And it keeps people from using it unnecessarily and keeping it free for those who have more of a need for it.
Of course I've heard stories of hotels that have their stations set up with idle fees which makes zero sense for a hotel (well, I suppose idle fees after 8 hours might make sense to prohibit people from arriving for a weekend, plugging in and then leaving their car plugged in the whole time).
Of course most hotels I've stayed at do offer charging as a free amenity, but given that it does cost them real $$ to provide the service, I don't mind paying a bit for the convenience, as long as it's reasonable.
I stayed at a Marriott chain hotel in Durango Colorado in April - they had several Chargepoint L2 chargers which required either a Chargepoint account or your room key to activate charger - no charge if you were staying there.
Seemed to me a good way to encourage people with EVs to stay there yet allow for public use if someone needed it.
Olle
Active Member
I always seek hotels, or other businesses with charging available.
Not because I need it, because I want to support businesses that make that decision.
Olle
Active Member
No it's not a lie, it's my estimation. If you would have read the post, you'd seen the source link that says almost 70% of US EVs are Teslas. I wrote that I estimate that the Tesla part of the fleet goes on more road trips because on average more range and easier supercharging, so that's over 70% Teslas
No that is not a lie, It's my personal experience. The J1772s that I have tried have most often been broken, and the Tesla HPWCs have not. You are welcome to have your experience, but please don't say that others experiences are lies.
ai4px
Wes
and I tend to tell the desk clerk to let their GM know why I chose their hotel.
ai4px
Wes
"no charge" if you were staying there.... and if you not staying there? no charge!!! ha! dad joke buried in there!
dhrivnak
Active Member
Yea I try to support hotels that have chargers within a reasonable distance and cost.
beatle
Active Member
You can also charge a non-Tesla on a HPWC (or UMC) using an adapter. I did just that when I had my Lightning and it worked great. If anyone is buying a non-Tesla EV, I'd highly recommend a Tesla adapter for the ability to charge in more places. The hotel I stayed at in Pittsburg a couple weeks ago had HPWCs only. Sometimes hotels have both, but only one type is available.
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