“Free” chargers at hotels and car dealerships

[jhalkias]

Does anyone have any experience with the free chargers at hotels and various car dealerships? I used Ford’s routing tool and a lot of the chargers on the route that I did were free chargers at hotels and other brand car dealerships. I would feel like a thief pulling up and plugging in.

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[eager2own]

Does anyone have any experience with the free chargers at hotels and various car dealerships? I used Ford’s routing tool and a lot of the chargers on the route that I did were free chargers at hotels and other brand car dealerships. I would feel like a thief pulling up and plugging in.

At least with hotels, many are only for customer use. For example, at most Hilton properties where I've used one, I had to ask at the front desk for them to activate the charger -- they have a switch at the front desk.

 

[ChasingCoral]

Stop at the hotel restaurant for lunch or coffee while you charge.

 

[jhalkias]

At least with hotels, many are only for customer use. For example, at most Hilton properties where I've used one, I had to ask at the front desk for them to activate the charger -- they have a switch at the front desk.

Yes, we could stop to eat, and do they offer charging to members like Hilton Honors or Marriott Bonvoy?

 

[ChasingCoral]

Yes, we could stop to eat, and do they offer charging to members like Hilton Honors or Marriott Bonvoy?

Last one I was at just offered free charging in a parking lot for whoever wanted it.

 

[dbsb3233]

This is all likely to evolve as a lot more BEVs hit the road over the next few years. With more demand for those hotel chargers, they'll probably have to start controlling them more tightly.

 

[timbop]

Does anyone have any experience with the free chargers at hotels and various car dealerships? I used Ford’s routing tool and a lot of the chargers on the route that I did were free chargers at hotels and other brand car dealerships. I would feel like a thief pulling up and plugging in.

If you're staying at the hotel, then I don't see it as anything other than an amenity like any other (pool, gym, computer room, etc). I suspect that non-Ford dealerships will shoo you away.

 

[SD_Solar]

If you will be charging overnight frequently at Hotels, many of them will have Tesla Destination Chargers that of course have a Tesla style plug on the cable.

You can buy a TeslaTap Adapter for about $180 that allows you to plug the Tesla cable in one end of the adapter and the other end plugs into the Mach-E’s charger socket.

I have one I use on my Nissan Leaf SL+ and it works great.
And I never have had a hotel add a billing as long as I was staying there.

 

[eager2own]

Yes, we could stop to eat, and do they offer charging to members like Hilton Honors or Marriott Bonvoy?

I've only done it when I was staying overnight, and it's always been free of charge regardless of membership status (although I'm Hilton Diamond, they didn't ask that).
I've never asked about charging at a hotel when I was just using restaurant/bar. I suspect they'd be fine with it, but it may depend on who happens to be working the counter that day.

 

[Whatstreet]

I have used L2 at motels. It is nice to have the car fully charge when starting out the next day.

 

[RidetheLightning]

I’ve check a couple local hotels and sadly one has chargers with 4 hour time limits. Turns out the parking lot is attached to the hotel but privately owned so hotel doesn’t offer anything for that.

 

[JamieGeek]

You mean like this:

or this

You'll note that its the same hotel.

A hotel next to my old office installed two chargers. I would only use them when absolutely necessary (yeah ok you could argue that with the C-Max above it was never absolutely necessary as I could always drive on gas--I think they had just installed them so I did a quick charge that day). These were non-networked free chargers (they're always on and no activation is necessary--just like the Level-2 you'd have at home).

For months those chargers showed up as public, and free on plugshare. Also for months there was a Prius plugin there daily. Then one day: no more Prius and the chargers changed to non-public on plugshare. I guess the hotel didn't like someone taking advantage of them daily.

For me I only plugged in there 3, maybe 4 times (once with the C-Max and a few times with the Bolt when I knew I had long drives to go after work). Never checked in the front desk, just walked over and plugged in (these are on the back side of the building and not in direct view of the front desk).

 

[Deleted member 3569]

They are agonizing slow and some of them will charge you ... the best deal is the Tesla destination chargers, although they are Level 2 they deliver a lot more current than others, but you will need a Tesla proprietary to J7112 adapter (about $150 on eBay)... Tesla products are always ahead of the competition!

 

[RockwallRick]

I actually enjoyed my Harley Davidson charging experience in Panama City Beach! They had a low speed level 3 charger but the reactions I got there were priceless and the charging was free!

 

[dbsb3233]

They agonizing slow and some of them will charge you ... the best deal is the Tesla destination chargers, although they are Level 2 they deliver a lot more current than others, but you will need a Tesla proprietary to J7112 adapter (about $150 on eBay)... Tesla products are always ahead of the competition!

I think the point of most hotel chargers is to do overnight charging, just like we do at home. Thus slow is a good fit. Most that I use are roughly 6 kW.

We drive to Las Vegas frequently. Both of our regular hotels out there now have free L2 chargers in their parking garages. Been working great for us. There's also a free bank of L2 chargers at an office building a block from the hotel we use in a town along the drive. Works out perfect because the car is just hitting 100% about the time we're ready to leave the next morning.

While free is nice, it wouldn't bother me if they charged a small amount for them. In fact I kind of wish they would, to keep unnecessary charges to a minimum (i.e. travelers actually need a charge, while locals are often just plugging in because it's free, even though they can probably just charge at home, or are just topping off because it's there).

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