Against my better judgement I rented my property out for 3 nights over the Christmas holidays. The 10 guest used 350€ of oil central heating They altered the timer and must have had it running 24 hours a day & turned up to maximum.They also turned the electric hot water full blast day and night. and they left the house filthy.This is why central heating is metered after a fixed amount that may be included in the price.I rent out my beautiful manoir to keep up the maintenance so is no good running at a loss!

Until this year I have been with Visit England (The Tourist Board) who do not allow additional heating costs- everything muct be included in the rental price.  So many times has the heaing been on full, all windows open and guests gone out!  However rough with the smooth- it's not often used in the Summer when we are (normally except this year) busiest and rental prices highest so swings and roundabouts really.

I rent out my apartment in Spain and don't have access to my electric meter so I don't actually have the option of charging guests seperately for the electricity they use.

I've just received an electric bill for 140 euros for one weeks rental which is 100 euros more than usual so my renters must have had the underfloor heating and air conditioning on at the same time!

I can see that where possible charging guests for their consumption would encourage them to be more careful and economical. On the other hand when I rented a property abroad I didn't like the thought of being charged seperately for the electric used since I had no way of knowing what the final bill would be. In the event the owner didn't charge me anything for the electric I used. It's a tricky one, how can you encourage guests to be sensible with their consumption?

In winter the underfloor heating costs a fortune to run but guests expect cheaper rental rates. I think I will have to disable the underfloor heating and just use the aircon for heating in the future, what else can you do?

After guests staying for 14 nights used (abused!!) the air-conditioning for 24hrs non-stop (even with patio doors and windows open - as discovered by by management company when they went to delivery fresh linen and towels) we invested in a coin-operated meter.  We include 9hrs of air-con/heating per day/night included in the rental price and the meter is preloaded before the guests arrive. It is explained to them how the system works, and guests can see for themselves how much they have used and how much they have left on the meter clock.   If guests wish to have more than this when the meter runs out then they can insert 1Euro which will give them 3hrs extra useage.  We do explain the system and why we are doing it in our booking contract and we haven't had anyone not book because of it.  If fact we have had very good feedback.   Many other owners on the same complex in Spain have now installed this system as it works so well.

Well, we are in Normandy France - the prices we quote are inclusive of heating & logs...however we expect and we do expect our guests to run the wood burner as the main heat source...the electric rdiators are the ambient heat and the wood burner chucks the heat out. This is how we operate here - no gas & no oil fired - we are electric & wood.

Naturally we will show everyone how it works and how to balance it all...but if the guest is not prepared to do this then we say at the outset this is not the place for you - we are NOT flick of the switch here...