EV Charging Is More Than an Amenity. It’s a Customer Acquisition Tool.
September 1, 2026|EVerged
How hotels, resorts, and casinos can turn EV charging into a customer acquisition, guest experience, and loyalty strategy.
For hotels, resorts, and casinos, EV charging is easy to think of as infrastructure. Install the chargers, mark the parking spaces, and wait for guests to use them.
But the business opportunity starts long before a vehicle pulls into the parking lot.
EV drivers increasingly search for charging as part of deciding where to stay, dine, visit, or spend time. Your charging stations have the potential to put your property in front of travelers while they are researching a trip, comparing hotels, planning a route, or looking for their next charging stop.
That makes EV charging more than a parking amenity. It is a searchable, marketable feature that can help attract guests to your property before they book.
Research is beginning to quantify that value. A peer-reviewed study published in the Journal of Hospitality Marketing & Management analyzed 2,248 U.S. hotels and conducted two additional consumer studies. Researchers found that EV charging infrastructure significantly enhanced customer satisfaction, green brand image, and booking behavior.
For hospitality operators, the opportunity is twofold: provide the charging experience EV drivers need, then make sure they know you provide it.
EV Drivers May Be Searching for Charging Before They Search Your Brand
Traditional hotel marketing often starts with the property. An EV driver’s journey can start somewhere else: Where can I charge?
That question can influence which hotel, resort, restaurant, casino, or destination enters the consideration set.
Major travel sites already help travelers identify properties with charging. Booking.com provides an “Electric vehicle charging station” facilities filter, while Expedia includes electric-car charging within its amenity filters. Specialized services such as PlugShare give drivers another way to locate charging at hotels and destinations.
In-vehicle navigation adds another discovery channel. As Everged has previously discussed, properties with reliable, visible charging gain exposure through connected vehicle navigation, charging apps, and online travel platforms, reaching customers who might not otherwise have considered the property.
This changes the role of the charger.
A guest does not necessarily need to know your hotel first and then find out that you offer EV charging.
They can find your charging first and then find your hotel.
For independent hotels, destination resorts, casinos, and properties competing against larger brands, that creates an additional customer-acquisition channel.
The Business Case Is Getting Stronger
A 2025 survey commissioned by the Boutique & Luxury Lodging Association and El-Monde surveyed 300 U.S. EV drivers. 91% said they were more likely to stay at lodging with EV charging, and nearly three-quarters indicated a willingness to pay a higher room charge.
EV drivers also represent an attractive consumer demographic.
Plug In America’s 2025 EV Driver Survey collected responses from more than 5,300 EV drivers. Among respondents who reported household income, 67.5% reported annual household income above $100,000, including 17.3% reporting more than $250,000.
There is also evidence that charging draws new customers to hotel properties. An EV Charging analysis of 78 hotels found that more than half of hotel charging sessions in a given month came from new drivers. They also reported an average monthly hotel charging-session growth rate of 3.3% across the properties it studied.
For a resort or casino, the opportunity extends beyond the room itself. A charging guest has time to spend on property at restaurants, gaming areas, spas, retail, entertainment, meetings, and other amenities.
The charger brings the vehicle to the property. The property experience determines what happens next.
Installing Chargers Isn’t Enough. Guests Have to Find Them.
A hotel could install an excellent charging program and still leave much of its marketing value on the table if potential guests do not know it exists. That means your EV charging strategy should include a visibility strategy.
Think about every place a potential guest searches, books, plans, or communicates with your property.
Travel and Booking Platforms
Make sure EV charging is accurately identified as an amenity everywhere your property appears.
That includes major OTAs and travel platforms such as Booking.com and Expedia, along with other booking channels relevant to your brand. 64% of the top 14 travel booking platforms including Booking.com and Expedia include an EV charging filter. Properties without chargers may be hidden from view when guests apply this setting.
Do more than check a box where the platform allows additional information. Tell travelers:
- How many chargers are available
- Whether they are Level 2 or DC fast chargers
- Whether charging is restricted to guests
- Pricing or complimentary charging policies
- Hours of availability
- Valet-managed charging availability
- Where chargers are located
The goal is to eliminate uncertainty before the reservation.
Your Hotel or Resort Website
Don’t bury EV charging at the bottom of a general amenities page.
Create a clear EV charging section and incorporate charging information into the places guests already visit, including your homepage, amenities section, property/location pages, parking information, FAQs, and booking experience.
For destination resorts and casinos, connect charging to what guests can do while they charge.
Instead of: “EV charging available.” Tell the guest what the experience looks like:
“Charge while you stay, dine, play, meet, or relax.”
That turns infrastructure into a reason to choose the destination.
EV Charging Apps and Maps
EV drivers use charging apps and directories to plan routes and locate charging.
Make sure your stations appear accurately on the charging network associated with your equipment and on widely used charging discovery platforms.
Verify the basics regularly: location, charger type, connector information, availability, access restrictions, pricing, and operating status.
A listing is marketing. An inaccurate listing is a poor first impression.
In-Vehicle Navigation
Charging discovery increasingly happens from inside the vehicle.
Networked charging stations and charging-location data can surface through vehicle navigation and route-planning ecosystems. Everged identifies in-vehicle navigation as one of the channels through which charging locations gain exposure to drivers looking for places to stop, stay, shop, or dine.
That creates an unusual hospitality marketing opportunity.
Your property can appear in front of a traveler at the exact moment they have a reason to stop.
For casinos, resorts, restaurants, and destination properties, that traveler may represent incremental traffic beyond overnight guests.
Loyalty Programs
EV charging also gives hospitality brands another opportunity to strengthen loyalty.
Consider incorporating charging into existing loyalty programs through benefits such as complimentary guest charging, preferred rates, charging credits, priority access, or premium packages.
This works particularly well when charging is positioned as part of the stay rather than as an unrelated parking transaction.
For example:
Stay + Charge Package
Room + overnight EV charging
EV Road Trip Package
Room + charging + breakfast
Resort Recharge Package
Overnight stay + EV charging + resort credit
Casino Charge & Play
Charging benefit tied to an eligible loyalty tier or visit
Urban Charge & Valet Package
Room + valet parking + valet-managed EV charging, with the vehicle charged and ready when the guest needs it
The objective is not to create complexity. It is to connect an amenity the guest values with a loyalty program you already operate.
Pre-Arrival and Guest Communications
Once a guest books, use charging to reinforce that they made the right choice.
Add EV charging information to:
Booking confirmation → Pre-arrival email → Mobile check-in → Arrival information → In-room/guest communications → Post-stay follow-up
Tell EV-driving guests where the chargers are, how to access them, what they cost, how long they should expect to charge, and whom to contact if assistance is needed.
For properties offering valet-managed charging, the experience becomes even simpler: arrive, hand over the keys, and let the property manage charging and vehicle readiness.
That turns charging from something the guest has to manage into something hospitality manages for them.
When Guests Choose You for Charging, Reliability Matters
Making EV charging visible helps attract EV-driving guests, but visibility also sets an expectation. If a traveler specifically selects your property because charging is available and arrives to find an offline or unsupported charger, the infrastructure problem becomes a guest-experience problem.
For EV-driving guests, charging is more than an amenity. It is part of their journey. They may be relying on your property’s chargers to get home or reach their next destination. When charging isn’t available as expected, guests may need to find another station, adding an unplanned stop, extra time, and frustration to their trip.
Recent hospitality research supports the relationship between charging and the broader hotel experience. The 2025 study of U.S. hotels found a significant relationship between EV charging infrastructure and customer satisfaction, brand perceptions, and booking behavior.
If your property installed charging several years ago, evaluate: Is it reliable? Is there enough capacity? Is it easy to use? Is it visible online? Does the experience reflect your brand?
If chargers are broken, aging, or unsupported, Everged’s Zero-Cost Swap Program provides qualifying properties with a path to replace eligible equipment without the upfront capital investment associated with a conventional replacement project.
From Parking Amenity to Customer Acquisition Channel
The hospitality industry has spent decades optimizing how travelers find properties through search engines, OTAs, loyalty programs, social media, advertising, and direct booking. EV charging adds another path.
Search for a charger. Find a property. Book a stay. Charge overnight. Spend on property. Return because the experience worked.
That is why hospitality operators should stop evaluating EV charging solely as electrical infrastructure.
The better question is: How much business could your charging experience help bring to your property?
Whether you operate a hotel, resort, casino, conference property, or destination venue, Everged helps evaluate how EV charging fits your guest experience, parking operations, marketing strategy, infrastructure, and financial goals.
From new Level 2 and DC fast charging to valet-managed charging, charger modernization, flexible ownership models, renewable energy, battery storage, and intelligent energy management, Everged brings the pieces together into one property-wide strategy.
Ready to turn EV charging into a business and marketing asset?