How to Bill Holiday Let Guests for EV Charging (Without Estimating)

TL;DR

Billing guests for EV charging doesn't have to be a guessing game — the right approach is simple, fair, and legally watertight. Here's what you need to know:

• Bill per kWh actually used — not flat fees, hourly estimates, or stay-length guesses. This is the only model that's fair to guests and margin-safe for you.
• Never exceed your supplier's unit rate — OFGEM's Maximum Resale Price (MRP) rules apply. As of April–June 2026, the price cap rate is 24.67p/kWh; most owners bill at 25p/kWh.
• You can add reasonable service fees — billing, maintenance, and meter-reading costs are permitted on top of the unit rate, provided they're reasonable and disclosed.
• You need an MID-approved meter — required by law if you bill based on actual consumption. Most modern smart EV chargers include one or support one as an accessory.
• A smart charger solves the whole problem — session-level metering, guest attribution, and automatic billing in one device. No check-in/check-out meter dance.

Read on for the full breakdown — including a worked billing example and what to do if a guest plugs in via a granny cable without asking.

The pain owners actually have

If you've ever tried to bill a holiday let guest for the electricity their EV used, you'll recognise at least one of these:

• The check-in/check-out meter dance. You read the meter when they arrive, read it when they leave, and have to chase them for payment after they've gone home.
• The flat fee that's always wrong. £15/night feels reasonable until a guest charges a 75kWh battery twice and you've subsidised £20 of their fuel.
• The guest who plugs in via a granny cable. They didn't ask. You didn't see. You only notice the spike on your next electricity bill.
• The "is this fair?" guilt. You don't know exactly what your tariff is at the moment they charged. You guess. You feel like you might be ripping them off, or being ripped off yourself.

A real owner — a customer in our own pilot programme — put it bluntly in early conversations with us: "There's no way to charge for exactly how much electricity is used." That's the single biggest pain point we hear. Everything else (cost recovery, fairness, admin time) flows from that one missing capability.

The good news: it's solved. The technology exists, the regulatory framework is clear, and the cost of doing it properly is now low enough to make sense for any holiday let with even one EV-driving guest per month.

Why "estimating" doesn't work

Three common approaches all break down quickly:

Approach 1: Include charging in the nightly rate

What it looks like: You don't bill separately. The cost of any guest charging is absorbed in your standard nightly price.

Why it fails: Heavy users wreck your margins. A guest with a Tesla Model Y (75kWh battery) doing two full charges during a 5-night stay uses around 130 kWh — at 25p/kWh that's £32.50 of electricity gone, on top of all your other utility costs. Multiply this across a year and even occasional EV-driving guests can cost you £400-800 in unbilled electricity.

It also creates perverse incentives. Once a guest realises the charging is "free", there's nothing stopping them from arriving with 5% battery and leaving with 100%, even if they barely drove during their stay.

Approach 2: Flat fee per night or per stay

What it looks like: "£15/night for EV charging access," regardless of actual usage.

Why it fails on two fronts:

Compliance risk. OFGEM's Maximum Resale Price (MRP) Direction states that the per-kWh price you charge cannot exceed what your supplier charges you, and any extra fees must reflect actual costs (admin, billing, maintenance) — not be a profit on the energy itself. A guest who uses £6 of electricity but is billed £75 for "EV charging access" can credibly argue that £69 of that fee is undisclosed profit on the electricity, which is exactly what MRP prohibits. (Source: OFGEM MRP Direction 2014; OFGEM Call for Input on Reselling Gas and Electricity, October 2025)

Customer experience. Light users feel ripped off. Heavy users feel they got away with something. Both write reviews accordingly.

Approach 3: Manual meter reading at check-in and check-out

What it looks like: You (or your housekeeper) physically read a sub-meter dedicated to the EV charger when the guest arrives and again when they leave, work out the difference, and bill the guest.

Why it fails:

• It's labour-intensive. If you have a cleaner doing changeovers, that's an extra 5 minutes per stay (per turn). Annualised across 30 turns a year, that's 2.5 hours of labour you're paying for or doing yourself.
• Disputes are common. Guests can and do contest meter readings, especially when they've already left.
• Late-night arrivals/departures break it. A guest who arrives at 11pm or leaves at 6am for an early ferry is not getting their meter read in person.
• It doesn't scale. Try managing this across three properties.

This approach is technically OFGEM-compliant if you do it correctly, but the friction means most owners give up and either revert to a flat fee or absorb the cost.

The right way: per-kWh, automated, MID-compliant

There's only one approach that ticks every box:

1. Bill per kWh actually used (OFGEM-compliant, fair to both parties)
2. Use an MID-approved meter to measure usage (legally defensible)
3. Automate the whole flow — guest scans QR or uses an app, charges, pays, owner gets a payout

Here's how it works in practice.

Step 1: Install (or upgrade to) a smart EV charger with billing capability

Not every EV charger can do per-session billing. The chargers that work for holiday let billing are those that:

• Include an OCPP 1.6 or 2.0 communication interface (the open standard that lets the charger talk to billing software)
• Either include a built-in MID-approved kWh meter, or have a vendor-approved MID add-on module
• Support per-session start/stop authorisation (the charger only starts dispensing electricity when the guest authenticates, e.g. by scanning a QR code)

The chargers most commonly used by UK holiday let owners that meet all three criteria as of April 2026:

• MyEnergi Zappi (with Harvi/Hub for MID-grade billing)
• Easee One (with Easee Equaliser for MID compliance)
• Wallbox Pulsar Plus (with optional MID meter add-on)
• Pod Point Solo 3 Smart (built-in MID meter on selected variants)

Cost ranges from roughly £450–£900 for the hardware, plus £350–£700 for installation. A landlord/small business can claim up to £350 off through the OZEV EV chargepoint grant. For a full breakdown, see our guide to EV charger installation costs at UK holiday lets.

Step 2: Connect the charger to a billing platform

This is the part that turns a smart charger into a billing system. A billing platform — GuestCharge is the UK-built option for holiday lets, with comparable services from OK2Charge (US), Voltshare, and Monta — integrates with the EV charger to enable:

• Authentication — only paying guests can start a charging session
• Metering — reads the MID-compliant kWh data from the charger
• Pricing — applies your set rate
• Invoicing — generates a receipt for the guest with full transparency
• Payment processing — typically via Stripe, with the money going directly to you
• Owner stay handling — recognises when you (the owner) are using the charger and excludes those sessions from billing

Most platforms charge a small monthly fee per property plus a small per-transaction fee (typically 2-5%). The platform fee usually pays for itself within 2-3 guest charging sessions.

Step 3: Set your rate

This is where many owners overthink things. The right answer is straightforward:

Set your rate at the per-kWh price your electricity supplier charges you. Round up to the nearest penny if you want.

For most owners on a standard variable tariff in 2026, that means:

Period	Average UK electricity unit rate (DD)	Suggested guest charging rate
April – June 2026	24.67 p/kWh	25 p/kWh
Jan – March 2026	27.69 p/kWh	28 p/kWh
Oct – Dec 2025	26.00 p/kWh	26 p/kWh

(Source: OFGEM Energy Price Cap quarterly updates, Feb 2026)

A few important nuances:

• Your actual unit rate may differ from the cap. If you're on a fixed tariff or a green/EV tariff, check your last bill for your specific p/kWh rate. Some EV-specific overnight tariffs (like Octopus Go) can drop to 7-9p/kWh between midnight and 5am — but you cannot pass on a daytime rate to a guest who charged overnight.
• You may add a small service fee for billing, maintenance and admin. OFGEM permits this, provided it's reasonable and clearly disclosed. Most platforms bake this into their per-transaction fee, so you don't need to add it explicitly.
• You cannot make a profit on the electricity itself. Any markup on the per-kWh rate above your supply cost would breach MRP rules. (Source: OFGEM MRP Direction)

Step 4: Communicate the policy clearly

OFGEM and the Cord EV team both stress the importance of clear, upfront disclosure. Your listing and welcome pack should state:

• That EV charging is available
• The per-kWh rate
• How payment works (e.g. "scan QR code on charger to pay")
• Any cap or fair-use policy (if you set one)

Wording that works:

"EV charging is available on-site via a smart charger. Guests are billed per kWh used at 25p/kWh, payable at the time of charging via QR code. Owner stays are excluded. No subscription required."

This single paragraph, included in your Airbnb listing and welcome book, eliminates 90% of confusion before it starts.

A worked example

Let's run the numbers for a typical guest on a typical stay.

The guest: A family of four arriving in a Tesla Model Y (75kWh battery, ~3.8 miles per kWh efficiency).

Their charging behaviour:

• Arrive Friday at 60% charge (after 200-mile drive). Plug in overnight to charge to 90%, drawing ~22.5 kWh.
• Local driving over the weekend uses about 30 kWh, topped up Sunday night with another ~30 kWh charge.
• Total session electricity: ~52.5 kWh

What the guest pays at 25p/kWh: £13.13

What you pay your supplier (at 24.67p): £12.95

Your service margin (after platform fees): Roughly £0 on the energy itself — but you've protected your margin (no unbilled charging) and added an amenity that helped you win the booking in the first place.

This is the point most owners miss when they look at the per-stay charging revenue: the real win is not losing the booking to a property with charging in the first place. EV-equipped properties book at approximately 12.8% higher rates per Beyond and OK2Charge data. On a £150/night property, that's £19/night of extra revenue from being EV-equipped — which dwarfs the per-charge billing economics.

The charging revenue covers your electricity cost. The amenity itself drives bookings and rate. That's the dual mechanism worth understanding.

What about owner stays?

This is one of the most overlooked details and it's where dedicated billing software earns its keep.

If you stay at your own property — for a weekend, a full week, or just dropping by for maintenance — you don't want to be charged for your own electricity. But if you're using a generic public charging app or a manual meter system, the charger doesn't know whether the person plugging in is a paying guest or you.

The fix: any decent billing platform integrates with your booking system (PMS) and only bills sessions that fall during a confirmed paid guest reservation. If there's no paid booking on those dates, the charger still works, but no bill is generated. This is sometimes called "owner-stay protection" or "booking-aware billing".

Without this feature you'll either:

• Bill yourself by accident (annoying, refundable but a waste of time)
• Have to manually disable the charger every time you visit (annoying, easy to forget)
• Open the charger entirely (defeats the point)

If you have multiple properties or use the property yourself frequently, this single feature is worth more than all the other bells and whistles combined.

Comparison: the four billing approaches side-by-side

Approach	Compliance	Fairness to guest	Admin time	Cost recovery	Recommended?
Free / included in rate	OK	High	Zero	Poor — you absorb all electricity cost	Only for very low rates of EV-driving guests
Flat fee per night/stay	Risky (MRP)	Low to moderate	Low	Variable — over-recovers on light users, under-recovers on heavy	Not recommended
Manual per-kWh metering	Compliant	High	High	Good if you do it consistently	Single-property owners only
Automated per-kWh billing	Compliant	High	Minimal	Good — protected margin, no admin	Recommended for most owners

What about if my guests don't have an EV?

Then the charger sits idle until they do. But the trend line is unambiguous:

• 23.4% of new UK car registrations in 2025 were fully electric. (Source: SMMT, January 2026)
• December 2025 hit 32.7% — almost one in three new cars. (Source: SMMT)
• The UK has over 1.97 million electric cars on the road as of March 2026, plus another ~1 million plug-in hybrids. (Source: Zapmap)
• The UK ZEV Mandate target rises to 33% in 2026 and continues climbing.

If even one in twenty of your guests in 2026 arrives in an EV — and the actual proportion is already much higher than that, particularly for affluent and rural-leisure travel demographics — having a charger pays back the installation cost in 12-24 months. By 2028 at current trajectories, it'll be closer to one in three.

The question isn't "will my guests want to charge?" It's "how soon do I install before I start losing bookings to properties that already offer it?"

Frequently asked questions

What's the simplest way to start billing for EV charging?

Install a smart charger with built-in MID metering (e.g. Pod Point Solo 3 Smart, or Zappi with MID add-on), connect it to a billing platform, set your rate at your supplier's unit rate (typically 25p/kWh in April–June 2026), and add the policy to your listing.

Can I just charge guests via my existing electricity bill?

You can if you read the meter manually at check-in and check-out, but realistically the admin overhead means most owners stop doing it within a few months. Automated billing is the only sustainable option above one or two charging sessions per month.

Is it legal to charge a flat fee for EV charging?

It's a grey area. If your flat fee approximately matches the actual electricity costs incurred, you're probably fine. If a flat fee exceeds the realistic electricity cost a typical guest would incur, you could be in breach of OFGEM's MRP Direction. Per-kWh billing avoids this entirely. (Source: OFGEM MRP Direction 2014; Call for Input October 2025)

What's the OFGEM Maximum Resale Price (MRP)?

A regulation that prevents resellers (like landlords and holiday let owners) from charging more for resold electricity than they paid their licensed supplier. It applies to gas and electricity resold for domestic use, including EV charging at private accommodation. (Source: OFGEM, "Reselling gas and electricity")

Do I need a special meter?

Yes — for billing purposes, the meter must be MID-approved (Measuring Instruments Directive 2014/32/EU). Most modern smart EV chargers include an MID-approved meter or support an add-on module. A guest can legally refuse to pay any meter-based bill where the meter isn't MID-certified. (Source: Camax UK; Rayleigh Instruments)

What rate should I charge?

Match your supplier's unit rate. As of April–June 2026 that's around 24.67p/kWh under the OFGEM price cap. Most owners round to a clean number — 25p/kWh is the most common.

Can I make a profit on guest EV charging?

Under current OFGEM rules, you can't profit on the electricity itself, but you can recover reasonable costs for billing, admin and maintenance. Most billing platforms bake this into their per-transaction fee. As OFGEM is reviewing MRP rules specifically for EV charging in 2026, this position may evolve. (Source: OFGEM Call for Input, October 2025)

What happens if a guest unplugs and another plugs in?

Modern billing platforms handle multi-session billing automatically. Each authentication starts a new session against the relevant guest account. If you have multiple cars from the same booking, they all bill to the same guest by default.

How do I prevent guests using a "granny cable" through my outdoor socket?

Two practical options: (1) install a lockable cover on outdoor sockets, or (2) state in your house rules that EV charging must use the dedicated charge point (not domestic sockets). Some owners install a smart 13A meter on their external sockets specifically to detect unauthorised charging.

Can I charge guests from outside the UK?

Yes — billing happens at the charger via QR code or app, so the guest's home country is irrelevant. They pay in GBP via card.

What this looks like in practice with GuestCharge

GuestCharge is a UK-built EV charging billing platform designed specifically for holiday let owners and operators. We make it possible to bill guests automatically for the electricity they use, while staying compliant with OFGEM's MRP rules and the MID.

How it works in three steps:

1. Connect your existing smart charger (Zappi, Easee, Wallbox, Pod Point and other OCPP-compatible chargers).
2. Set your rate in the dashboard. We surface the current OFGEM price cap as a reference point and remind you that the rate must match your supplier cost.
3. Guests scan a QR code on the charger to pay. You get a monthly Stripe payout. Owner stays are excluded automatically when integrated with your booking system.

We're currently piloting with UK holiday let owners across the Lake District, Cornwall and Suffolk. To learn more or join the pilot programme, visit guestcharge.co.

Where to go next

• EV Charging for UK Holiday Lets: The Complete 2026 Guide
• MID-meter compliance for UK holiday let EV chargers

Coming soon:

• Best EV chargers for UK holiday lets: Zappi vs Easee vs Wallbox vs Pod Point
• How much does it cost to install an EV charger at a UK holiday let?
• OFGEM rules on reselling electricity to guests