EV charging companies adding chargers to vacation rentals
We imagine there have been more than a few AirBnB renters who've snuck an extension cord out of a narrow bathroom window to reach their electric vehicle parked temporarily in the driveway. While fun, these long wires might soon be a thing of the past. A new partnership between Enel X and Ok2Charge, announced Monday, will let property owners install Level 2 home charging units as an amenity for their guests, with full software and integrated payment abilities. The two companies say these are the first ‘home’ charing solutions that have been designed specifically for vacation rentals.
Ok2Charge runs a network of EV charging that are intentionally installed at destination locations for plug-in vehicle drivers on vacation. The idea being that if you can charge while you’re resting at night or seeing the sights, that’s better than stopping on the side of the highway, right? Yes, yes it is, and with the new platform, any guests who selected EV charging as an amenity when they booked the rental will be allowed to charge their vehicles and pay for through the Ok2Charge app.
EV drivers on vacation represent a growing market. Last month, AirBnB announced that over 850,000 of its hosts now offer some sort of electric vehicle charging capability at their locations as of the forth quarter of 2021. AirBnB said last year that it added a filter so that people who want to stay at an AirBnB location can search by whether or not those locations have EV chargers available. The number of searches by guests for EV Chargers doubled between June and December of 2021, with over half a million unique searches conducted by the end of the year.
Enel X is the “advanced energy services business line” of Enel Group and the co-branded EV charging stations use Ok2Charge’s smart EV charging platform that integrates with software commonly used by major property management systems. The new chargers won’t be limited to AirBnB rentals, since Ok2Charge’s software can integrate with property management software platforms like Escapia, Guesty LiveRez, LMPM, Streamline, Track and VRM. Ok2Charge said booking platforms Airbnb, Vrbo, Booking.com, Tripadvisor, Expedia, Agoda and some direct booking sites use those property management platforms.
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