Self Catering & Electricty & Gas charge

javirl

I recently booked a self catering apartment in the west of ireland for 2 nights. thurs - sat. we arrived late on thurs evening and we were gone all day fri due to a wedding. when we were checking out on sat morning we got a charge of €26 for electricity & gas. i couldnt believe this charge. we were told that the electricity was €20 and the gas was €6. we had the gas fire on for approx 2 hours on the night we arrived as the apt was so cold. apart from a little tv and the use of lights we did nothing else in the apt and i thought that the charge was way too much.. they charge 15c i think per unit.. we did not get a unit reading when we arrived. prob our fault for not asking but after a long drive in bad weather we never thought of it..
are hotels allowed to charge more than the esb for electricity. should this be complained about? i would hate to think what the charge would be if we were there for a week... i really feel ripped off...:mad:

Biggins

Wow thats some charge. Good luck fighting it. Your right to.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

They can indeed charge more than the Electricity Supply Company's rates. ( they are probably with ESB if they are a commercial concern). The "hotel" (although it's claerlty apartments) can set their own rate but even at 15c (not overly inflated) that would suggest you used 133 units which would be something like 4000 units in 2 months. My house wouldn't use that! Had you electric water heating? What about electric heating? Any tumble drier? Roasted a turkey or boiled a pudding?
Whatever about the rate per unit, the number of units seems very high. Why not ask them how many units you were hit for and what the average daily usage is normally like. Maybe a bit of calm reasoned discussion will come up with a compromise.

foggy_lad

they most likely have a set rate for weekends/weeks/forthnight stays and their weekend esb and gas rate is this huge figure.

write a letter to the owners stating your dissatisfaction with this charge and that you will not return to their hotel/apartments and will not reccomend anyone else stay there.

dudara

What was written in the terms and conditions of renting the apartment?

Although it seems a steep charge, the hotel are probably protecting themselves against people who stay there and leave heating, lighting, appliances etc on the whole time.

As previous poster said, get in touch with the management, and express your disappointment with this charge. See what happens.

javirl

thanks all.. i think il write a letter. im not too fussed about what they charge per unit but i do feel theres no way in the world we used that amount of units... il let ye know how i fair...