How to Charge Airbnb Guests for EV Charging

Quick answer: The simplest, fairest way to charge Airbnb guests for EV charging is to bill them per kWh actually used, at or below the unit rate your own electricity supplier charges you. Guests scan a QR code at the charger, pay by card for the electricity they use, and you receive the money automatically. You don't need an app, and you don't need to read a meter or chase anyone for payment.

More Airbnb guests are arriving in electric cars and expecting to charge overnight. That's good for bookings — but it leaves hosts with an awkward question: how do you actually get paid for the electricity, without it becoming a hassle or a source of friction at checkout?

This guide covers the practical options, the UK rules you need to know, and the setup most Airbnb hosts settle on.

Why "just include it in the nightly rate" usually backfires

Bundling EV charging into your nightly price feels easy, but it quietly punishes you. A single guest charging a 75kWh battery twice during a stay can use £25–£30 of electricity. Spread that cost across every booking and your light-use guests subsidise the heavy ones — while your margin takes the hit on exactly the stays where someone charges hard all week.

Flat "£10 for charging" add-ons have the opposite problem: they're a bad deal for a guest who tops up 10kWh, and a bargain for one who pulls 120kWh. Neither is genuinely fair, and neither scales.

Billing for what's actually used is the model that holds up — for your margins and for guests.

What the UK rules say about charging guests

Two pieces of UK regulation matter when you resell electricity to guests:

• Ofgem's Maximum Resale Price. When you resell electricity, you can't charge more per unit than your own supplier charges you. You can recover reasonable service costs separately, but the per-kWh rate is capped at your cost.
• The Measuring Instruments Regulations 2016 (MID). If you bill a guest based on measured usage, the meter doing the measuring has to be legally certified for billing. Some EV chargers include an MID-certified meter; others need a separate MID sub-meter fitted alongside.

We cover both in depth in our complete 2026 guide to EV charging for UK holiday lets and our MID-meter compliance guide.

The four ways to bill Airbnb guests (and which one wins)

1. Free charging, included. Simplest to communicate, worst for your margins, and unfair to you on heavy-use stays.
2. Flat add-on fee. Easy to set up in Airbnb's resolution/extra-charges flow, but arbitrary and a constant source of "that's too much / too little" friction.
3. Manual meter reads. Accurate, but nobody wants to photograph a meter at 11pm on changeover and invoice a guest who's already driving home.
4. Automatic per-kWh billing. Guests pay for exactly what they use, the moment they use it, with zero admin from you. This is what most hosts move to once they have more than the occasional EV guest.

How automatic per-kWh charging works

With a platform like GuestCharge, the flow is simple for both sides:

1. You connect your existing OCPP-compatible charger and set your per-kWh price.
2. You put a QR code by the charger (and in your welcome guide).
3. The guest scans, pays by card, and plugs in — no app, no account.
4. The session is metered, the guest is billed for what they used, and you're paid out via Stripe.

There are no setup fees and no monthly costs — GuestCharge takes a 10% platform fee on charging revenue only, and card fees are paid by the guest, not deducted from you. You can estimate what you'd earn based on your own booking and guest mix.

Will my charger work?

If your charger is WiFi-connected and supports the OCPP standard — most modern units from Wallbox, Easee, myenergi (Zappi), Pod Point and others do — it can almost certainly be billed automatically. You can check your charger on our supported list or ask us directly.

Getting it right in your listing

A few small things make EV charging a selling point rather than a question:

• Tick the EV charger amenity in your Airbnb listing so EV-driving guests can filter for you.
• Say clearly in the listing and house manual that charging is pay-per-use at a fair per-kWh rate — guests appreciate knowing it's metered, not a mystery fee.
• Put the QR code somewhere obvious and mention it in your check-in message.

The bottom line

You can absolutely charge Airbnb guests for EV charging — and the fairest, lowest-hassle way is automatic per-kWh billing within Ofgem's resale rules, using an MID-compliant meter. Guests pay for what they use, you stop subsidising other people's mileage, and there's nothing to chase.

If you want the full regulatory and installation picture before you start, read the complete 2026 guide, or see how it works on a dedicated EV charger setup for holiday lets.

Frequently asked questions

What's the fairest way to charge Airbnb guests for EV charging?

Bill them per kWh actually used, at or below the unit rate your own electricity supplier charges you. Guests pay for exactly what they put in their car, which is fairer than bundling charging into the nightly rate or applying a flat add-on fee.

Can I just include EV charging in my nightly rate?

You can, but it usually backfires. A single guest charging a 75kWh battery twice during a stay can use £25–£30 of electricity, so light-use guests end up subsidising heavy ones while your margin takes the hit on exactly the stays where someone charges hard all week.

How much can I charge Airbnb guests per kWh?

Under Ofgem's Maximum Resale Price rules you can't charge more per unit than your own supplier charges you. You can recover reasonable service costs separately, but the per-kWh rate itself is capped at your cost.

Do I need a special meter to bill Airbnb guests for charging?

If you bill a guest based on measured usage, the meter doing the measuring must be certified for billing under the Measuring Instruments Regulations 2016. Some EV chargers include an MID-certified meter; others need a separate MID sub-meter fitted alongside.

Do guests need an app to pay for charging?

No. With an automatic per-kWh setup, the guest scans a QR code at the charger, pays by card for the electricity they use, and plugs in — no app to download and no account to create. The session is metered and you're paid out automatically.

Will my existing charger work for automatic billing?

If your charger is WiFi-connected and supports the OCPP standard — most modern units from Wallbox, Easee, myenergi (Zappi), Pod Point and others do — it can almost certainly be billed automatically. You can check your charger on our supported list or ask us directly.