Calis Beach and Fethiye Turkey Discussion Forum
Calis Beach Forum => Expat & Property Owners Q and A Forum => Topic started by: Phil on September 02, 2014, 12:27:20 PM
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If you want to annoy me then rent my villa, turn on all the air cons as soon as you get there and then go on a jeep safari all day.
Has any one fitted and used any of the products offered here http://www.ecosense.uk.com/?gclid=CMujr7y1wsACFazItAodYlkA2g (http://www.ecosense.uk.com/?gclid=CMujr7y1wsACFazItAodYlkA2g)
They might help to keep my blood pressure down.
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I've thought about these Phil but reckon that it's another piece of kit to go wrong. I have experienced this kind of thoughtless behaviour so it may be of interest to know that the A/C zappers work very nicely through glass from the outside. I'm fortunate in having someone to spot inconsiderate guests who leave all the units chuntering at full blast and he has a spare zapper to de-activate the conditioners !
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Just take a £200 AC deposit Phil, and clearly state that checks are made and if the AC is on while the villa is unoccupied, bye bye £200.
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When we thought we were going to rent out our Villa. We had one of those devices fitted whereby your house key is locked into a plastic disc that you have to put in to have the electric on and when you take it out the electric goes off. A bit like the cards you get in hotels.
We still have it, but of course, never used it.
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We have tried the plastic on house key system but you end up with chopped off keys !
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There are timers that will not let you to set for more than 2 hours. They may help a bit.
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Scorcher, if my keys come back unattcahed to the electricity fob then the guests don't get their security deposit back.
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Hi, I've got timers attached to my aircon and the maximum time they can be left is 2 hours, they do work well - made by Horstmann and sold by Screwfix - about £27 each - certainly worth the investment. Hope this helps
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Not when you wake up at 2am in an horrendous lather they don't! It soon heats up once the air-con is off so I would be really irritated having to wake and switch back on all through the night >:( Quite agree that to have it pumping out when you aren't even indoors is a selfish act but a timer wouldn't be good either.
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We rarely rent but when we do have never had a problem with our fob - which is welded to the key ring.
Why not just charge for electricity? Get someone to take readings before and after. That will make them think!
We have same system at our timeshare in Portugal. Makes us a bit more careful tbh.
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We have had this problem again this year just got August bill 419lira couldn't believe it , one lot of guests must have just arrived and left aircon on for the full fortnight morning noon and night, onesin the following fortnight during that really hot spell used very little can't understand what they must have been doing
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We have the key fob thing. It is no use though if the the guests are lounging round the pool and leave the air con on all day in the villa.
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Maybe you will have to start reading the meters. I know it's not practical if you aren't there but it's the only way really.
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Our lad on Violet just trips the electric. Fridges etc go back on but the aircon doesn't. Every site should have an Ali :)
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I have the key fobs have even put a notice on fridge door that you can't miss to say about leaving air-con on , my prob too is think as ground flor apartment you can leave fob in and go out by front balcony door , really have had only one lot abusing it and they want to come back again next year, think will have to put price up or as said take extra for air-con usage as well .
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My friends rent their place and what they do is include a set amount of units in the rental fee then anything above is charged and taken from the deposit.They make the renters take a photo of the meter at the beginning and email them with it and the same at the end of the the rental.If the usage is over the agreed units the charge it to them.
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That's sounds like a plan mac2010.
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Thanks for comments everyone.
Sadly it is quite difficult to retro-fit key fob type systems and so this isn't really an option and I have always thought they could be bypassed by any one determined enough. (and it doesn't stop people using the air con while they actually outside using the pool ! )
The payment schemes all seem a bit unfriendly and don't really reflect the relationship we try to cultivate with the guests (we have some visitors coming back for the fourth and fifth time). The timers would drive me mad and so I have so far avoided the temptation to fit them.
So ..................... I have purchased one of the occupancy sensors and I will fit it in September ....... I'll let you know how I get on.
(PS : My English neighbours have just had a 2,000 TL (Yes - two thousand lira) bill which covered rentals for about ten weeks)
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Phil - we have a timeshare in Portugal and pay for the electric we use. Meters read both ends of holiday.
Not really a problem or "unfriendly" if it's made clear on booking.
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Stoop , I hear what you are saying. But to my mind the Time Share and Villa Rental two different things really.
Time Share actually implies that most things are shared (maintenance etc) but it is perfectly reasonable that you would only expect to pay for the electric you use yourself. I would.
We chose to offer the Villa Rental as everything included - linen, electric, cleaning, Welcome Pack etc. This seems to work for us. I know some people offer some of these as extras (eg Welcome Pack) and I suppose we could charge by the towel, but it just doesn't seem to be the right way to do it.
I know that if I was a renter, I would want to know before my holiday how much I was paying and I wouldn't want worry about any bills at the end.
Vive le difference !
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Thanks Phil and I take your point about cultivating the right atmosphere with guests/clients. None of this would be needed of course if folks behaved responsibly ! Good luck with it and let us know if it works - I seem to remember this subject has been raised before on here.
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I'm totally with you on this Phil. But with guests not appreciating the cost of electricity it would be great if there was a 'friendly' solution.
The sensor gadget would be ideal if it was day v night sensitive and would need to be hardwired since I could see guests removing batteries otherwise!
Our electric meter is on the other side of the site so it would be a fiddle to operate a before & after reading.....& a calculation......by the gardener! Then he has to get the payment from the guest!
Increased rental costs are risky as you run the risk of not having an electricity bill at all !!
We've tried getting the gardener to switch off the mains (access by front door) if he notices aircon working while guests are away for the day but he isn't able to be there at all the appropriate times.
We've tried the key card but it can be circumvented.
So...no easy solution. I await further suggestions with keen anticipation. :-\
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Well I fitted one of the occupancy sensors in one of our bedrooms ................
Installing it was fairly straightforward (but very fiddly). You certainly need to be a confident electrician to be able to do it. I doubt if a Turkish electrician would cope with the English instructions provided.
Setting it all up and testing it was a bit of pain, but I finally got it all working.
The basic idea is that if the gadget does not detect any movement then it will switch the air con off after a short time (which you can set as 10 minutes, 30 mins or an hour).
There are several other settings (eg based on daylight ) but I did not select these. There is also an optional replacement remote which will limit the minimum temperature you can choose, but for the time being I have not installed this.
I tested it for a few days and nights and it seems to do exactly what it says on the tin.
I installed the hard wired mid-range option (not the basic battery model) and it is pretty much tamper proof. A determined person could download the instructions from the internet and then fathom out how to alter the settings or override the unit. My understanding is that the next model up is PIN protected.
I will fit another one next year in the main downstairs room but I will fit the top of the range model with a door sensor.
If it continues to function correctly I think it does provide a friendly solution which you would have to be pretty unreasonable to complain about. The only downside is that they are quite expensive to purchase. I wait to see how much savings they provide.
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Someone in Fethiye has started to import these aircon controllers. PM for his number (or is it OK to post it on here?)
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We stayed somewhere a couple of years ago and the rental price was set. But we agreed to pay the electric cost per unit which we read on arrival and then again when we left. This suited us very well. Clearly the rental price must affect this kind of deal, so maybe lower your rental cost to accommodate such an arrangement especially during summer months? Just a thought. :)