What are options for very high utility bills after a guest leaves?

[Barton0]

A guest spent 13 nights in my house and 2 weeks after she left, I got water and electricity bills that were over one third higher than I use in a month and I wasn't even there. What are my options and how is this dealt with?

[Ephraim0]

To be frank your options are to pay the bills or get services shut off. Unless you have some utility regulation in your house rules and a meter marking that period of time, unfortunately the bill is on you.

[Jeffrey45]

That sucks.  Sorry to say you are pretty much stuck with the bills if you didn't already have a provision in your rules making them responsible for abuse.  I went though that before with super high electric bills.  I bought this device called Smappee, that's used to monitor energy usage (electricity, gas, & water) and use it to regulate our guests energy consumption.  My rules state that energy is capped and they are responsible for thier overages.  I leave a tablet in the apartment so they can login and look in real-time at their energy consumption.  It's a cool feature that has paid for itself time and time again.

[Barb6]

You should be keeping all your utilite bills accounted for and using them on your taxes. I believe this would be the only thing you could do.

[David605]

I know that owners of rentals in Spain, where rural electricty prices can be extremely expensive, will indicate that a certain level of utility usage will be included in the rate, but that anything over these levels would be charged as an extra.  This model might work in certain circumstances, but does require arrival and departure meter readings to be taken, involves a lot of hassle and potential ill-feeling, and would be difficult to impliment with an Airbnb listing.

Better to work out your annual total utility bills, adjust for seasonal variations, and reflect such costs in your rates.  Accept that some guests may be profligate, realise that others may be thrifty, and try not to lose sleep over something that you have limited options to address.  Better to try to identify if there was something specific that caused the increased usage, and do a cost/benefit analysis to see whether changing to a more efficient piece of kit might result in long term savings.

[Isabelle193]

For information our water bill is now the equivalent of a household with 5 members We are 2 at home So hosting has to be well looked into as Airbnb are constantly requesting we lower room rates (!) 

[Dorothy128]

I've just had energy companies on my back, offering a better deal, rushing me through the signing of contracts  using an instant signing feature, only to discover the rates, especially elec which is way higher, they've tied me in for 5 years and theres is no 'cooling off' period. Has this happened to anyone else?