Hilton Garden Inn Hotels in Salina

We stayed at the Hilton Garden Inn in Salina KS. Shortly after plugging into a ChargePoint L2 charger I got a message that I am going to be charged $2.31 per hour for the first four hours, and then the rate would go to $5.00 per hour. When I looked at the full charge schedule, they were also going to charge $0.25 per kWh for the first 4 hours and then it would increase to $0.35 per kWh. My experience with Hilton properties has been that L2 charging is generally free, so you could see why I was so surprised. I unplugged and drove to an EA L3 charger and then came back to my room. Knowing full well that the price on the charging was above his pay grade, I complained to the manager that this was excessive since based on the 6 kWh put out by these chargers, it would normally take all night to reach 80% charge. He was full of misinformation. The first thing he said was that all Hilton Gardens charge the same rate. So, I did a little research. The Hilton Garden in Hays KS has 4 Blink L2 chargers and they charge $0.39 per kWh, and no parking fee. The $0.39 is a reasonable rate and I wouldn’t have any problem with it, although the Hampton Inn in Hays is totally free. I also, just for grins, checked in Hilton Garden Inn in downtown Colorado Springs. The downtown hotel charges all guests for parking, but charging is free. His second bit of misinformation was that the reason the rate goes up after 4 hours was that vehicles should be able to fully charge in 4 hours. At a charge rate of 6 kWh, this would never be the case if the battery is down at all. And even if it were two, you check in a 9:00 pm and then need to get up a 1:00 am and unplug the car? His final bit of misinformation was that the rate goes up after 4 hours because it puts more stress on the charger. Well, I am not an electrical engineer, but I have been following charging technologies for several years, and I have never come across any indication that extended charging on a L2 charger stresses it. Could be the case on extended charging on a L3 charger, but it would also be hard on the car’s battery. In any case, I won’t be staying at this hotel again. There is a Marriott Courtyard a couple blocks away that has free charging. But I will be sure to check the price on charging before booking hotels in the future.