Guest EV Charger Booking

Reserving an EV Charger with the Room Reservation

Guests make more than 80% of same-day bookings through a mobile device. They can use your app to select their arrival time and reserve amenities. Similarly, guests will expect to use the app to reserve an EV charger with their room reservation. Something that Future Energy’s custom-built software, Interface, is capable of implementing with your establishment’s current software programs.

Connect to Hotel Booking Software

Future Energy provides an API that integrates with your booking software. Combining your reservation system with EV charging reservations is more convenient for guests and is easy to implement on any software that allows for APIs.

Prioritize Hotel Guests over Public Access

You want your guests to have first priority when it comes to access to your EV chargers. When you allow guests to reserve chargers through your app, you can limit charger access only to legitimate guests of the hotel. Patrons of the establishment next door won’t be able to sneak over and use a charger intended for registered guests. 

Gain Visibility across Franchises

Hotel franchise owners benefit from centralized visibility into guest EV booking, regardless of where the property is located. Future Energy offers a software solution called Interface that lets you monitor EV charging and other smart systems from one screen, on any device, in real time.

Interface collects data from your networked EV chargers. Future Energy works with our hospitality clients to determine how best to use this information to obtain valuable insights into how your guests are using EV charging. 

Determining EV Charging Payment Options

How much will offering EV charging cost your business? It’s a complex issue with no single answer. Future Energy works backward from your company’s goals to determine the best strategy to address cost.

There are fixed costs involving electrical infrastructure, equipment, and other hardware. Many fixed costs can be offset by government and utility grants and rebates. Ongoing electricity costs accumulate with guest EV charging use, and it’s important to think in advance about how you will offset them. 

Offering EV Charging as a Perk 

Many hotels offer their premium guests special benefits, such as free high-speed internet or free breakfast. Similarly, you may choose to offer EV charging as a perk as part of your loyalty guest program. You can absorb this cost as part of your operations or build EV charging into a special room rate.

One important distinction: the internet allows an unlimited number of guests to connect at once. EV charging for multiple guests needs to be carefully managed so that no matter how many premium guests are staying at the hotel, they all will have access.

“Charging for Charging” 

Another option is to charge guests outright for their use of EV chargers on your property. Just as a guest might purchase other amenities, such as access to the health club next door, you can offer EV charging as an add-on.

And while this seems like a straightforward way to cover costs, electricity rates vary widely by time of use. Additionally, you have to be able to manage power use so that you don’t exceed your business’s peak load, which can affect your electricity rate for the entire year.

Setting the Rates

As subject matter experts, Future Energy can help you establish a dynamic pricing structure that accounts for variations in electricity rates. Every state has its own regulations regarding how you are allowed to charge guests to use your equipment. This complicates the equation multiple-fold if you have franchises in different states.

For example, only 30 states allow businesses to use kilowatt hours for their public charging (kWh pricing). With kWh pricing, EV drivers pay for charging based on the amount of electricity consumed as opposed to time spent at the charger. 

Future Energy helps our clients set their costs automatically based on live energy rates from the utility company. We can build a certain profitability ratio into Interface so that you always maintain a profit as the rates adjust.

Managing EV Charging for Multiple Guests

With significantly more guests than EV chargers available, the management of charging time becomes an important consideration. Future Energy works with your business to analyze use cases and understand the business challenges. Then we can work on solutions that will keep your guests satisfied and facilitate EV charging management for your employees.

Data Management

Unlike a vehicle identification number, which is private information, EV charging data is visible to your business. You can collect and integrate this data using Interface so that you can set parameters for EV charging. 

First, Future Energy consultants help you to identify your goals. Then, our experts fine-tune the algorithms that power Interface. You can customize the software to optimize for cost, charging efficiency, availability, or any other parameters that fit your business needs.

As for guests, they will be able to use their hotel app to determine at what time a charger will be available and for how long.

Valet Rotation

Instead of having guests manage their EV charging needs themselves, you can assign the task to your valet team. Valets can use Interface to monitor EV charging of multiple vehicles in real-time. As guest EVs reach their charging capacity, your valet can rotate cars to optimize EV charger use.

The valet screen can show all guests’ vehicles, their projected in and out times, level of charge, and disconnection time. It’s possible to proactively set schedules so that all of your guests are satisfied and aren’t left frustrated waiting for a driver to return to the vehicle to unplug. 

Parking Enforcement

Public-facing chargers will attract EV drivers who may not be guests at the hotel. You will need a way to manage parking enforcement so that you prioritize EV charging for overnight guests.

Future Energy offers a comprehensive EV charging environment called ChargeParc™. Among many other features, ChargeParc features bollards that contain cameras. These cameras read license plates and facilitate automatic ticketing. Unauthorized use of a hotel’s EV charger would result in the police sending a ticket directly to the EV owner or notifying a tow company for unauthorized use.