Destination EV Charging for Hotels, Pubs and Retail

Destination charging — chargers at places people already visit, such as hotels, pubs, restaurants, gyms and retail parks — works when the charger speed matches how long visitors stay. An overnight hotel guest needs nothing faster than 7kW; a 45-minute supermarket shop justifies 22kW or more. And the honest commercial case is rarely the tariff itself — it’s the bookings, dwell time and footfall from being visible to EV drivers planning routes. (How you take payment and run the back office is a separate decision from the hardware.) This is not a niche play — destination chargers are the single largest segment of the UK’s public network, 62,630 of the 121,171 public chargers Zapmap counted at the end of June 2026.

Match charger speed to dwell time

The most common mistake is over-specifying. A 7kW charger adds roughly 25–30 miles of range per hour — an installer rule of thumb — so a guest parked for eight hours overnight leaves with a full battery from an ordinary 7kW socket. A rapid charger in a hotel car park spends most of the night idle.

One caveat: most EVs’ onboard chargers cap AC charging at 7–11kW, and only a minority accept the full 22kW. A 22kW unit can still future-proof a bay for shorter dwell times, but it needs a three-phase supply — installation costs rise accordingly, and your installer will assess your supply and distribution board as part of the quote.

Rules of thumb — real-world speed depends on the car’s onboard charger and your supply.

Compare specific units on our charger comparison pages.

The honest revenue story — and how to set the tariff

Be sceptical of any pitch that presents destination chargers as a profit centre: with a handful of sessions a day, per-kWh margins take a long time to repay hardware and installation. The realistic return is indirect: EV drivers filter for venues with chargers when planning trips. Zapmap — which reports over one million registered users — found hotel and accommodation charging provision grew by nearly 36% over 2025, with 28% of surveyed drivers using hotel charging.

That leaves two tariff models:

• Free as an amenity. Effectively a marketing cost. It works best when bundled into a stay or membership; consider time limits so bays turn over.
• Pay-per-kWh. Fairer at scale, but it needs payment hardware and a back office — and HMRC’s published position (Revenue and Customs Brief 7 (2021)) is that supplies at public charge points are standard-rated for VAT at 20%, not the 5% domestic rate. The tax treatment of free versus billed charging is one for your accountant, not this guide.

Who pays: grants, your own capital, or a funded operator

The Workplace Charging Scheme offers £500 per socket (75% of costs), up to 40 sockets across all sites, with funding confirmed until 31 March 2027; the amount rose from £350 on 1 April 2026 (last checked on GOV.UK, July 2026). Crucially for hospitality: public authorities, charities and small accommodation businesses — hotels, B&Bs, holiday accommodation and campsites with fewer than 250 employees — face no restriction on who uses the chargers, so guests and customers can plug in. Ordinary businesses must show the parking is for staff or fleet use. You apply online, receive a voucher valid for 180 days, and an OZEV-authorised installer redeems it. More detail on our grants hub.

On cost, WePowerYourCar’s commercial guide puts a typical installation at around £1,500–£2,000 per socket (their published range); groundworks, cable runs and supply upgrades push it up. Budget from itemised quotes, not averages — find an installer or request a free quote.

The alternative is a fully funded deal: a charge point operator pays for and runs the chargers in exchange for the tariff revenue (sometimes shared) and a long-term agreement on your bays. Operators such as GeniePoint, Osprey, Pod Point and Tesla are active at hotels, pubs and supermarkets; RAW Charging supplies venues from Greene King pubs to McArthurGlen outlets. Read contract length, exclusivity and break terms carefully and have a solicitor check them — that’s legal advice we don’t give. The funded route also settles maintenance — the operator handles faults, uptime and the helpline; own the chargers and those jobs are yours, usually via a maintenance contract.

Bays, signage, accessibility and the rules that apply

If the public can use your chargers — and GOV.UK guidance explicitly includes hotel and supermarket car parks — the Public Charge Point Regulations 2023 apply: new charge points of 8kW and above must take contactless payment, the maximum price must be displayed in pence per kWh before charging starts (on the unit or via a device that needs no prior sign-up), and drivers need a free, staffed 24/7 helpline. Chargers genuinely restricted to staff are exempt.

On layout, PAS 1899 — the BSI specification for accessible charging, published in 2022 and sponsored by the Motability charity and OZEV — covers bay placement and spacing, kerbs and surfaces, and signage. It’s voluntary, not law, but designing bays to it costs little at build time and is a genuine differentiator.

Two more rules worth knowing: in England, new non-residential buildings with more than 10 parking spaces must include at least one 7kW+ chargepoint plus cable routes for one in five spaces (Approved Document S), and adding chargers to an existing lawful car park is usually permitted development, with exceptions near listed buildings and scheduled monuments. Our commercial charging hub covers the wider picture.

Grant amounts, the charge point regulations and planning rules all change — everything above was last checked in July 2026, so confirm the current position on GOV.UK and legislation.gov.uk before committing, and let your installer’s site survey settle what your supply can support.