How to Win Hotel Placements for Your Phone Charging Stations

A phone charging station for hotels works when it follows the guest's day (checkout, the lobby bar, the pool, the ballroom), not when one box sits alone in the lobby. In our experience, hotels are among the strongest venue types for paid rentals: guests spend hours away from their charger while the boarding pass, the ride and sometimes the room key live on the phone. We have far fewer hotels than bars on our network, so treat that as a lead worth testing, not a settled result.

For illustration only: say one guest a day rents a bank at the desk instead of borrowing a cable, about 30 rentals a month. At $5 a rental you keep $4, or $120, and about $105 after an assumed $15 a month in costs. That covers a J8 Pro from the 5-pack (about $950 with shipping, list price at the time of writing) in about 9 months, or a single J8 (about $1,235) in about 12. It's a scenario, not a typical result: a station can rent far less, and the table below includes rows where it never covers itself.

Who signs off at a hotel

At a flagged hotel, find out who owns the yes. An ownership group may own the building, a management company may employ the GM, and the brand sets standards for what guests see. Ask the GM:

1. "Can you approve guest-facing equipment, or does it go to your management company?"
2. "Does the brand have a standard or an approved-vendor list for lobby equipment?"
3. "Which company names go on a certificate of insurance: the owner, the management company, or both?"

Then write the one page the GM forwards: a photo of the spot (or a mock-up from your portal's 3D Viewer), the station's size and power rating, the standard terms, what the screen may show, and your certificate of insurance.

Phone charging station for hotels: scout the guest's day first

Shortlist hotels with at least two of: a lobby bar or restaurant open late, a pool, weekday meetings, a shuttle or ride-pickup line, mobile keys. Independents go first, since the GM or owner is usually on site and one walk-through can end in a yes; limited-service properties, where guests walk straight to their rooms, go last. At each, spend 20 minutes in the lobby at checkout (about 10:30 to 11:30), then walk the pool entrance and meeting floor. Note:

• Phones on lobby outlets, and guests waiting by them with bags held.
• Mobile-key or brand-app signs. If phones open rooms, that's your desk line.
• Groups on the meeting-room signs. No groups most weeks, no tower.
• A free outlet on the guest side of the desk, in staff view, with about 9 by 9 inches of counter or a wall for a mount.

A boutique with three small spots may suit three J8s better than one tower. Skip guest floors, the gym, the spa and parking levels. A desk bank can go back at the pool: returns work at any free slot at any JB Charging station.

The pitch, person by person

At the front desk (come back between 1 and 3pm, when it's quiet; if the GM is out, leave a pitch card):

Quick question before I bother your manager: how many phone chargers does the desk lend out on a busy day? I run phone charging stations around [area]. Guests tap a card or phone, take a charged power bank to the pool or the shuttle line, and drop it in any free slot. Nothing for the desk to hand out or chase. Who decides what goes on this counter?

Email to the GM (same day):

Subject: The chargers your desk lends out

Hi [name], I spoke with [desk agent] today. I'd like to put a phone charging station at the end of your front desk.

• A guest who checks out at 11 and flies at 7 can take a charged bank to the bar, the pool or the shuttle line, and drop it back before the ride.
• With mobile keys, a dead phone sends guests to the desk for a plastic one.
• The desk stops lending cables. Guests tap to pay with no app, and get help from JB Charging, not your desk.
• The screen can promote your restaurant, spa or late checkout.
• Under my standard agreement there's no cost to the hotel beyond electricity, and a bank that doesn't come back is charged to the guest's card, never the hotel. We agree every term in writing before install: it runs 6 months, then month to month on 30 days' notice, and removal is free.

Could I walk the lobby with you for 15 minutes on Tuesday or Thursday?

P.S. Since March 27, 2026, international aviation rules cap passengers at two power banks and bar recharging them on board, so guests can't count on topping up in the air.

The P.S. is from ICAO's 2026 power-bank rules. The last bullet is our standard venue agreement (edit it if yours differs), which also asks the hotel not to host a competing charger during the term; raise that before they sign. Link our page for hotels too; it's written for the GM to forward and scripts a check-in line for the desk.

On the walk-through, see all four spots, ask for the desk now, and set a date to come back about the pool or pre-function. With the director of sales, remember that a group's planner may pay to sponsor attendee charging; trade-show sponsorships covers the pricing.

Objections you'll hear at hotels

"We have USB ports in every room." Those cover the night, not checkout, the pool or the ballroom. Ask how many chargers the desk lent last weekend; those guests had USB ports too.

"We already lend chargers" or "We have a vendor." Ask how many of the desk's chargers come back. If another charging company is in, ask when its agreement renews and offer to be the second quote, without knocking it.

"It'll look cheap in our lobby." Let the GM pick the spot and see it first: a photo of one of your installs (with that venue's permission) or a 3D Viewer mock-up. A J8 wall-mounted at the end of the desk takes no counter space. Put in writing what the screen may show, and point out the exit: after the first 6 months, 30 days' notice and free removal.

"Brand standards" or "Corporate has to approve." Don't argue with the standard. Ask the three questions above and send the one page.

"Guests will take them to the airport." The hotel is never charged. By default, a bank that isn't back within 24 hours puts a $40 non-return fee on the renter's card, and the renter keeps it; you can change both per station. Replacing it may fall to you (banks list at $200 for 10 at the time of writing), so check the replacement coverage in your distributor agreement, and put a "Drop it in any slot before your ride" sign by the shuttle line.

"Lithium batteries? What will our insurer say?" The banks carry FCC, CE and RoHS markings, and the station uses a standard outlet, no extension cord, clear of exits. For the certificate of insurance, see insurance and COIs for operators; for any other safety document, ask us first.

The math: how many rentals cover a hotel station

Illustrative assumptions:

• One J8 Pro at about $950: a 5-pack station ($4,499.95 list price at the time of writing) plus its share of the $245 shipping shown at checkout.
• Assume $5 a rental, a mix of half hours ($3) and hours ($6) at the default $3 per 30 minutes.
• $15 a month in costs for fuel and the odd replacement bank. Card processing is already inside our 20%. Deliberately low: no time, insurance or taxes.
• No screen-ad revenue.

The 10% is a hypothetical, not a standard rate; many venues host a station as a guest amenity with no share, and any share comes out of your 80%. No row is a prediction: revenue isn't guaranteed, a station can earn less than its costs, and hotels can say no. Which row a hotel lands in, if any, depends partly on you (the desk over a side corridor, a pool station in before the season, a station kept online and stocked) and partly on things you don't control: occupancy, weather and how many guests run low.

A tower in pre-function. A J24 Pro is about $3,550: $3,299 list price at the time of writing plus $250 freight as shown at checkout. On the same assumptions, covering it in two years takes about 41 rentals a month, or about 4 per meeting day at 10 meeting days a month. If sales can't point to that, start with J8s.

A free first hour. If the GM says guests shouldn't pay, you can offer up to an hour free. Say half of 30 desk rentals end inside it, and the other 15 run 30 minutes past it, paying $3 each, or $2.40 to you. That's $36 a month, $21 after costs and about 45 months to cover the J8, worse than the 12-rental row. Ask for a second spot in return, and talk to us before promising more than an hour.

To run a hotel's numbers yourself, use the worksheet in how to estimate what a kiosk makes.

Pricing and watch-outs

• Price for long rentals. Pool afternoons and checkout-to-shuttle waits run long. At the default $3 per 30 minutes, 3 hours costs the guest $18 and a bit longer reaches the default $20 daily max, so at a pool the daily max is the price guests feel. You set pricing per station, so agree the pool price with the GM, install before the season, and judge it in season, not in February.
• The screen. You keep 100% of the ad revenue you sell, but you find the advertisers, and sales aren't guaranteed. Pitch tours, attractions and museums that want visitors, not the steakhouse across the street that competes with the hotel restaurant. Put what may run in the agreement, and give the hotel's own promos a free slot.
• The desk team. On install day, register them with the station's staff code (staff get free rentals within daily and weekly limits), and ask the front office manager to add the check-in line, so the desk points guests to the station instead of lending cables. If the cable drawer stays open, guests will pick free.
• The 30-day ask. Take the Venue Insights trend and what the desk noticed to the GM, and ask for the next spot. If the hotel hosts for free, decide first whether to show dollars; revenue on the table can start a share conversation.

Next step

Have three hotels in mind? Book a call and bring their names; we'll talk through spots and station mix. Before the call, run each in the revenue calculator, which shows gross rentals before the 20% and any venue share.

Examples are illustrative only, not a forecast or a typical result. What a station earns depends on the venue, placement, pricing, local demand, and how actively you run it.