Electric Vehicle Charging at Hotels and Restaurants

Reston, Virginia
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12 posts
11 reviews
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Electric Vehicle Charging at Hotels and Restaurants
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Looking toward the future, it would be very useful for electric vehicle owners to have a search function that would identify hotels and restaurants within an area that have charging stations for electric vehicles.

While there are now lists of electric vehicle charging stations on the web, there is no correlation of those charging stations with either hotels or restaurants.

The number of electric car owners is now small (I am one of them). The numbers, however, are increasing. Being able to search for hotels or restaurants at which to stop with an electric car, particularly for pleasure trips, woudl be useful.

Pittsburgh...
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7,250 posts
65 reviews
111 helpful votes
1. Re: Electric Vehicle Charging at Hotels and Restaurants
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I think the first challenge would be to find hotels that actually have them. I haven't seen it, (but then again, I haven't paid much attention since I drive a gas-guzzling SUV), but do hotel chain sites have a similar feature? Just curious.

Limerick, Ireland
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for Limerick
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32,845 posts
101 reviews
135 helpful votes
2. Re: Electric Vehicle Charging at Hotels and Restaurants
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I'm sure its beyond your range but we have on-street charging facilities here in Limerick, a couple of which are just opposite "No 1 Pery Square" (a very nice hotel without their own parking).

Reston, Virginia
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11 reviews
8 helpful votes
3. Re: Electric Vehicle Charging at Hotels and Restaurants
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There are some hotels that do have charging stations. Marriott announced some time ago that some of its hotels would have them (http://www.marriott.com/corporate-social-responsibility/electric-vehicle-hotels.mi) and there are other scattered listings of hotels with charging stations (http://www.teslamotorsclub.com/archive/index.php/t-9843.html).

Notably, the Historic General Lewis Inn in Lewisburg, West Virginia has an electric vehicle charging station and I am not even sure that one is listed anywhere. The Greenbrier also has electric vehicle charging stations. But as far as I know, there is no easy way to search hotels and restaurants that have them.

Hampshire, United...
Destination Expert
for Eastleigh, Winchester, Hampshire, Southampton
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6,266 posts
115 reviews
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4. Re: Electric Vehicle Charging at Hotels and Restaurants
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TA could consider adding it to the 'Facilities' list for hotels and restaurant listings.

Mission Viejo CA
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1 post
3 reviews
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5. Re: Electric Vehicle Charging at Hotels and Restaurants
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I second the motion. I I am the proud owner of a Tesla model S and I am currently planning a trip from Los Angeles to Northern California. It would be very helpful to add the electric charging capability feature to the facilities list for restaurants and hotels.

Portland, Oregon
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12,789 posts
20 reviews
55 helpful votes
6. Re: Electric Vehicle Charging at Hotels and Restaurants
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If plug in cars ever become popular, I'm pretty sure there will.be a plethora of database systems for finding charging stations maybe tied to GPS listings like gas stations. But I doubt TA would be the answer.The majority of tourists going by car now need fuel, but those stations aren't listed here.

Pittsburgh...
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7,250 posts
65 reviews
111 helpful votes
7. Re: Electric Vehicle Charging at Hotels and Restaurants
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I agree with PDX. There just aren't enough electric cars being driven to warrant any major change to TA's hotel listings. "Refueling" stations, in whatever manner we're discussing, show up not just on GPS, but on Google Maps and things like AAA online TripTiks. Now, if TA were to upgrade the maps feature...

Buckeye, Arizona
1 post
1 review
8. Re: Electric Vehicle Charging at Hotels and Restaurants
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There will be over 30,000-40,000 Tesla Model S vehicles on the road by the end of 2013. These are mostly affluent people who can afford a $100,000 car. These people will visit establishments that have charging facilities. There are also many thousands of Chevy Volts that need a charge port as well as Nissan Leaf and others. So EVs are already popular and are only getting more popular.

Oregon Coast
Destination Expert
for Crescent City, Oregon Coast, Oregon, Redwood National Park
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45,473 posts
1,112 reviews
2,786 helpful votes
9. Re: Electric Vehicle Charging at Hotels and Restaurants
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A "few" thousands v. *millions and millions* of gas and diesel vehicles.

This thread is veering off topic.

Over my years on TA, I've seen numerous "special interest groups" ask for their own particular hobby to be added to TA in some way. The vast majority of these are an extremely small percentage of the average traveling public. Electric car owners are in that same extremely small percentage.

I would encourage everybody who drives an electric car to be sure to mention whether or not a hotel has a charging station when you post your review of the hotel. For those posters on this thread who are brand new to TripAdvisor, welcome; I'm sure you're anxious to start posting reviews :-)

TripAdvisor is only one tool to use when planning a trip. Hotel websites mention if they have plug ins for cars, don't they?

I'm sure there are apps which tell you where all the charging stations are. Yep, just googled it and there are several of them. Until electric cars gain a *far greater* market share, IMO they are a "special interest" and (again IMO) TripAdvisor does not need to include this tiny group to add to the facilities list for hotels, and certainly not for restaurants!

Edited: 7 years ago
Portland, OR
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2 posts
4 reviews
2 helpful votes
10. Re: Electric Vehicle Charging at Hotels and Restaurants
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So, we -- the "small" percentage of EV owners who want to plan a trip -- should have to take hours searching all the different motel/hotel websites and all the different EV charging stations maps and apps (those who do have apps) to find lodging that has a charger or is "EV friendly" so we can make a reservation. Yes, most EV owners make comments about whether or not they could charge and/or if the property was EV friendly in their reviews, but having to search for those comments in TA in order to plan a trip with your EV is tedious. It would be really helpful if TA would add this under Amenities -- or somewhere -- so that by browsing lodging by location you could find a hotel or motel where you can charge your electric vehicle. It would also be great if the properties themselves would make this information easily available on their own websites. We, the EV owners, want and need this service.

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