In short
Guests charge e-bikes in bedrooms and corridors, on premises with sleeping accommodation and occupants who do not know the building. Prohibiting in-room charging only works if there is somewhere obvious to do it instead — and the moment to tell them is at check-in, not on a laminated notice.
Why hotels are a distinct case
Three factors combine that rarely appear together elsewhere. Occupants are asleep. They are unfamiliar with the escape routes. And the person charging the battery has no stake in your fire strategy and will not read a policy document.
Cycling tourism has made this common rather than exceptional. A guest arrives on an e-bike after a day’s ride, wants it charged by morning, and the obvious place is beside the bed. That is unattended overnight charging of a several-hundred-watt-hour pack in a room with a sleeping occupant — which is close to the worst arrangement available.
What works
- Provide a designated charging location away from bedrooms and escape routes — a secure external store, an outbuilding, a bike shed with power. Guests will use it if it is secure, because their concern is theft.
- Say it at check-in, out loud. “Bikes and batteries charge in the bike store, not in rooms — here’s the code.” A verbal instruction at the moment of arrival works; a notice in the room does not.
- Make it a booking condition if you take cycling groups. Set the expectation before they arrive.
- Contain and detect the designated point. Concentrating charging is only an improvement if that one location has detection reporting to reception or a monitored system. See charging cabinets.
- Brief housekeeping and night staff. They are the people who will find a bike charging in a corridor at 2am, and they need to know it matters and what to do.
- Do not forget your own equipment — cleaning machinery, grounds tools, kitchen devices. Same rules.
The duties sit with the responsible person under the applicable fire safety legislation, and the fire risk assessment needs to address e-mobility explicitly rather than leaving it inside a general line about guest electrical equipment. See regulations and e-bike battery fires in the UK.
Frequently asked questions
Can we prohibit guests from charging in their rooms?
Yes, as a condition of stay, and many hotels now do. It only holds if there is a secure alternative: a guest who fears their bike will be stolen will take the battery upstairs regardless of the sign. Secure storage is what makes the prohibition real, and it is worth stating in the booking terms so it is not a surprise at the desk.
Is a bike store with charging points concentrating the risk?
Deliberately, and that is the point: one location you have chosen, sited away from sleeping accommodation, with detection, rather than a dozen bedrooms you have not. It has to be genuinely away from the building where practicable, and the detection has to reach someone awake.
What if a guest’s battery looks damaged?
Do not charge it, and do not store it with others. Move it to a separated external location if it is safe to carry, or leave it where it is and keep people away if it is hot or venting. Tell the guest plainly why. Your night staff should know this without having to ask.