Tips for staying at hotels with EV chargers

One of the best things about EVs is waking up to a fully charged car. If that happens on a long road trip, it's even better. But how do you find hotels with EV chargers?
Here are my tips after four years of doing long electric road trips and staying at a lot of hotels.
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Chapters:
00:00 - Waking up recharged
00:16 - It all starts with ABRP
00:40 - hotels.com
01:16 - Check on plugshare.com, but maybe don't rely on it
02:24 - Airbnb
02:40 - Tesla Destination Chargers
03:23 - Have a plan B
04:27 - The most important thing

[@MrEV]

If you're in the UK, I highly recommend the Octopus Electroverse RFID card (and app). You may never need to use it, but it's fantastic for road trips in Europe (where contactless payments still aren't common) and also really useful for IONITY. £5 credit for us both if you use this link: electroverse.octopus.energy/network/sign-up?referralCode=free-sage-191 Thank you! ⚡

[@0-Will-0]

I thoroughly endorse this statement! Used in EU for a recent road trip.

[@Ian_Woods]

Sorry Andrew, but maybe its convenient, I don't know. BUT I would be very careful with this app as very quickly i have checked the price with 2 different charger networks with the chargers own app and electroverse. Electroverse are making a huge mark up. they tell me they are only charging what the network tells them is the price. Not true. i.e i have the checked iberdrolas network near me and iberdrola in there own app charge 45 cents for 50kw chargers and electroverse for the same charge 65 cents, 44.4% mark up and the wenea chargers , weneas own app 59c for 150kw cgargers and 42c for 50kw. electroverse charge 77c and 67c respectively. a 30.5% and 59,5% markup respectively. So may be convenient but you may want to check the networks own app for charging.

[@gchecosse]

​@@0-Will-0me too

[@carlarrowsmith]

@@0-Will-0 Me too, used nothing else on a recent trip to France and Belgium

[@sandyfordd1843]

I stayed in a lovely rural castle in Wexford over the weekend and they had a 3 phase Zappi. I charged to 100% overnight, (I left it charging at 17kW speed, much faster than my own home Zappi). In the morning my Ionic 5 was ready to go, as was I after a lovey big breakfast. I had left a big note on my windscreen saying that other EV owners were free to unplug my car if they needed to charge. The best part of all was that I wasn’t charged for the service, I asked how much it cost and they just said don’t worry about it, just tell your friends about us. Which I have been doing since then. ❤❤

[@MrEV]

Oh wow! That's fantastic!

[@1mw2mam]

Great video and very helpful. One caution - using a public car park in Caen, France to charge overnight (car park 5 mins walk form the hotel); I checked that there wen't car park fees in addition to the change rate - there weren't, but I missed the french small print - once the car was charged it went onto an overstay charge (bear in mind this was at around 3am) - the overstay charge rate was punitive - no doubt to discourage hogging the charger; but it did leave a very much bigger bill than I'd been expecting and I'd been congratulating myself on my choice of a cheap slow charger!

[@MrEV]

That's a very important tip, thanks!

[@grahamthompson4560]

Thank you so much for the video. I can now try trips out of France with less worry. Everywhere I turn around here there are chargers - every municipal car park, every supermarket and all along the motorway. Either other areas need to catch up or the whole range anxiety thing is a myth.

[@chrisrowe22]

If the hotel doesn’t have a charger, ask if they have an external plug socket you could use with your granny charger. We did this in France earlier this year. They showed me to the storeroom in the corner of the car park with a domestic socket and said I was welcome to use it free of charge. We’re going back there tomorrow!

[@MrEV]

Great tip! I have found that a lot of people are very happy to help. I think there's still quite a novelty having EVs stay and charge.

[@1sword4you]

Had the same experience in Poland - the supervisor hacked together some extension cords and also let us charge for free - I forgot to switch the charger to higher power so it charged only at 6A, but in the morning I was glad it did, because the extension cords quite thin and were noticeably hot to the touch - so there's that to consider - don't burn down the hotel with your granny charger

[@pete2094]

Also make sure your car doesn't need to be registered with the hotel (there will be a sign somewhere). Some hotels have rapid chargers which are managed by external parking management with ANPR cameras. You could run the risk of being fined even though you are legitimately parked in an EV bay.

[@MrEV]

Thank you! I’m annoyed at myself for not mentioning that.

[@markharding44]

100% I’ve been stung by this, BP Pulse at travel inns twice

[@timb3970]

I am gonna change from Low to High, Because I'm .......... tight 😆

[@lilacfiddler1]

Because why not

[@Jimmybones100]

Just arrived at my airbnb in Liverpool with 10% left in my ID3 pro S and now need to go and look for chargers,should have booked a hotel with a charger.

[@roderickmain9697]

Agree with everything you say here Andrew. Really handy when you are in a Tesla and hotel has half a dozen Superchargers outside...except you have to move the car after 20 minutes when its charged up. (yes, everybody really sad for me now 🙂 ) I have an electroverse card just in case there arent any superchargers around and theres an IONITY or similar about. (like on Sicily).

[@stanmuffels7873]

Andrew, I drove to the Heart of La Marche in Italie and i must say that charging at a hotel or Borgo is not as easy as said because they receive very little Power from the Italian supplier. An average House receives 3 Kw, an Upgrade means 6 Kw over 2 fases. The chargers from Enel-X do disappoint frequently (not working, and expensive) And the presumed output by the Enel-X App has to be devided by the number of Sockets. So in another case a 120 KW CCS charger from BeCharge Plenitude delivers 50Kw over CCS due to the fact it has also a Chademo en type 2 Socket. My advice is, charge as much as you can on the Motorway before you drive into the countryside.

[@DuncanBooth]

Travelling through France this year with my wife's plugin hybrid (BMW 225e) we found the hotels now all want money for a charge, mostly flat rates (€11, €15, one hotel we paid per kWh + perminute giving €12 for the charge but could have had flat rate €18 if we'd plugged in after 6pm). One hotel though, the Holiday Inn in Dijon, wanted €20 per hour for its Tesla destination chargers so we told them to stuff it and drove just on petrol the next day. Worth checking the prices in advance next time I think.

[@MrEV]

Some hotels are getting really cheeky. A hotel in Italy charged €25, and it was only a 3kW charger.

[@Knott1701]

I was quite surprised to find a destination charger at a hotel near Dijon we were staying at last year, there was no mention on the web site, so worth calling to check

[@briangriffiths114]

That was very informative, thank you.

[@petermoody173]

Andrew, great video and all the previous ones. They are our 'go to' for our trips. We have done several UK road trips in our Ioniq 5 and ventured through France and Gerrmany in Spring 2023 (about 1600 miles) with no issues at all. We head off for four weeks through France, Switzerland and Northern Italy (Florence area) in the spring of 2024 (nearer 2000+miles) and can't wait. The charging is easy if you plan and agree with you that Electroverse, Ionity and Chargemap have been invaluable. Cheers, Peter, Rob and Pamela (our Cavachon, who comes with us, of course)

[@StephenRedmond]

Stayed in the Novotel La Rochelle during the Summer and it was great to have 100% - they also had different rates overnight than during the day!

[@MrEV]

That's interesting. Very sensible!

[@salibaba]

I travel quite a bit in the UK for work and if I’m in range enough to drive, I’ll ask at the hotel if they have a point, even if not listed anywhere, just to show the demand is there. The past few have said sadly not, but were informed enough to be able to tell me exactly where the closest ones were. For ones further afield where I need a hire car at the other side, I’m making mental notes of hotels near our work sites with charge points, in the hope one day my boss says “OK fine, you can book the Tesla”

[@michalrybinski3233]

Mate... like you read my mind :D I was wondering around this exact topic like two weeks ago as I am planning trip to Poland in my EV and was even thinking about messaging you if you would consider making video about your experiences on that topic but looks like great minds think alike! ... or something ;) Thanks!

[@richardeskins]

Lately we’ve had a hotel that used to have (free) tesla destination chargers, but now has charging from a company charging superchargers prices for 7kWh charging. Luckily the Tesla chargers were 10 mins away and less than half the price. Then had a hotel in Newcastle with charging, and Airbnb in Somerset with charging (neither advertised). It does make things simpler when travelling.

[@joannereynolds7133]

Great to come across an informative video on this subject, much needed - well done :-)

[@MrEV]

Thank you so much!

[@joannereynolds7133]

@@MrEV Excluding our dreadful traffic congestion in around England, I'd put the lack of hotel car parks with plent of ordinary destination chargers as one of the main pains of my worklife, as some of my jobs are a way off. Anyone would think we're still in the pre-Covid era.

[@lookoutleo]

It's so far from Oban just down to Kent . I would love to do road trip abroad :)

[@SirHackaL0t.]

One question worth asking is if the chargers are working. More than once I’ve asked if they have a charger and have been told ‘yes’ despite the chargers not actually working.

[@MrEV]

Ooh, good tip!

[@bshah4831]

And if you have a problem, leave feedback on Zap Map or Plug Share. I stayed at a hotel which had a BP Pulse which was faulty but the engineer could not access the transformer room. In the UK, Tesla use Europe standard CCS. Also I find in most cases even 7kwh charger is sufficient for 4 hours so ask other customer to move/unplug. And I also ask hotels if they have a 3 pin external power point as this can be useful f staying for 12 hours.

[@MrEV]

Thanks - great tips.

[@alexlowe30]

Great video Andrew :)

[@MrEV]

Thanks Alex!

[@Roy-qn2ie]

Wtb roadtrip vid back from Italy to England

[@MrEV]

It should be the next video. Hopefully next week.

[@Roy-qn2ie]

Well this didnt age well @@MrEV

[@MrEV]

@@Roy-qn2ie I know, I know. Life keeps getting in the way! I'm just tweaking the edit so it'll go live next weekend now.

[@somethingpeculiarthistime]

Great video, like always! But I finally gotta ask, after thinking for months - tillathenun, what does it mean? I understand the Till, but after that? :) Till At He Nun? Till A The Nun?

[@MrEV]

A friend at school called me it and, for some reason I regret daily, it stuck. So yes, a bit like Atilla the Hun but he found it funnier to call me Tilla the Nun. 😀

[@judebrown4103]

​@@MrEVah well done that man for asking what I've been wondering about for a while! Friends are so lovely aren't they?!😅

[@MrEV]

@@judebrown4103 Perhaps I should have saved it for a whole episode!

[@bimlico]

Oh for the love of Jesus, would you ever get an ICE car. The amount of faffing around. Do you have an Rfid card. Does the hotel have an ev charger? Is it working? Is there somebody else using it? Ffs, these reviews have absolutely convinced me not to even think about getting ev. I'll stick with my diesel. No 2 day planning before I leave. No range anxiety. Full tank on my 520d gives me 1,100 kms. And I can refill it in 2 mins. And the pumps are always working.