Install
a card meter in your home, either on the complete consumer unit
or on part of it ( for example the air conditioning )
How it works:
You give your tenant/ guest a supply of cards for the duration of
their holiday.
The cards can be valued at 10€ or 20€ .
If they run out of electricity there is a small reserve to allow for
emergencies.
However they will have to buy another card from your key holder or
yourself.
As you factor in the cost of electricity into your rental anyway you
are merely
giving them the opportunity to be cautious with their consumption.
If the air con is left on all day, or the doors are left open whilst
it is on
you will soon get large bills.
One of the benefits of the card meter of course is that there is no
money left in the apartment tempting
theft. You can also set the meter so that the price per unit charged
is slightly higher than your cost.
This will enable you to pay the small admin charge your key holder
will make for carrying the cards for you.
Another method of administration could be to let them have more
cards than they would need but you
only return the deposit taken once the cards given back. If you
state that the holiday includes say 20€
per week, give them say 80€ worth of cards if they return only say
20€ then in a two week stay you will
only refund the deposit less the excess which they have used.
Of course as you will be paying your key holder to clean the
apartment on their departure you may wish to
use the money paid to a key holder for extra cards as part or even
whole payment towards their costs.
How you administer its use is entirely up to you!
The cost including installation by a fully certified electrician is
150€ plus i.v.a plus an annual service
contract of 50€ plus i.v.a
This includes 500 x10€ or 20€ cards (once the card has been used it
cannot be used again, it must be
discarded).
We would strongly recommend that the meter be placed on the whole of
the consumer unit for you to
benefit from the raised tariff.
If the meter is only on the air con there is no control over costs
if someone leaves on the oven, iron or
fan heater (if they are cold they may well buy one !)
Here is the bonus.
Once your client has gone, you or your keyholder can reset the meter
to zero each time.
Ever been told by the car rental company leave the car without fuel.
You try frantically to gauge how
much to leave in for the return journey to the airport. You never
can risk running out on the way back.
Same with the meter. Once you have used your card there is no
refund, so you benefit from any unused
credit!
Install
a card meter in your home, either on the complete consumer unit