Hyatt Place hot spot for Teslas

Rehoboth Beach is set to install two electric charging stations, but Hyatt Place in Dewey Beach is already the place to be for Tesla owners.

The resort area is the perfect spot for people driving their cars from New York by way of the Cape May/Lewes Ferry, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington D.C., said Hyatt Place General Manager Chris Strouss.

The hotel installed charging stations for the high-end electric cars in mid-June, and between hotel guests and people driving through, Strouss estimates there have been an average of six cars a week using them.

“We've been surprised,” said Strouss on the popularity of the stations.

After spending the weekend in Frankford, Pennsylvania couple Jurgen and Joanne Balitzky used one of the stations Aug. 24.

"It was just dumb luck that we found this," Jurgen said of the Hyatt's station. He explained that Tesla's online system has stations identified in different places and he noticed the signal for the one in Dewey. He said now his car will store the location of the station in its memory and everytime they're in the area it will pop up.

The couple has owned their car since May and their license plate reads Watts Up. Jurgen said he thought he actually had enough mileage left in his battery to make it home, but stopping at the station in Dewey provided a "safety blanket."

Jurgen said there's a little more planning ahead with the electric car, and to have these destination charging stations available is nice. He said there needs to be more and is impressed that a station is at the Hyatt.

"I've basically been learning were all the stations on the East Coast are," he said.

The idea to install the stations came from the son of MJ Hotels Executive Vice President Kostas Kalogeropoulus. Hyatt Place is a client of the Danbury, Conn.-based management company.

Kalogeropoulus' son, Alex, lives in Pennsylvania, and the only place for him to charge his Tesla on his way to Dewey was at a station in Newark. A car fully charged gets 300 miles, said Kalogeropoulus, and the stations are strategically located.

Alex approached his dad with the idea of installing the stations in Dewey, and then, after getting the go ahead, asked Tesla about installing them.

The stations were shipped to the hotel in two boxes and immediately synced to the Tesla charging station system.

“It's amazing,” he said. “Every time I go, there's a car charging in the hotel.”

Strouss said there was no hesitation when the idea for the charging stations was presented to her. The company had been talking about installing charging stations for other electric cars, Strouss said, but their set ups are more elaborate, so it was decided to wait until Phase II of the Lighthouse Cove project was completed before installing them. The Tesla stations are compact and were able to tie right into the hotel's existing electric system.

“Obviously, there's a need, and there's value to having them from a marketing appeal,” she said of Tesla stations and the future electric hook ups.

Strouss said she didn't know what to expect when the stations were installed. For the first week, the only person using them was Kalogeropoulos' son. Then one day a man walked in and asked where the stations were.

“We were so excited,” she said.

Strouss said many of the drivers are in their early 30s. It's a group of people who have been able to make some money, she said, and are very interested in electric cars because they want to be environmentally conscious.

Drivers will base their trip on stopping here, said Strouss, and it's fine if they don't have a reservation. A lot of the time, she said, they'll stop, get dinner and then walk around while waiting for the car to charge.

“They might be clients later, so it's good for us and good for the town,” said Strouss.

Jason Mitchell, Hyatt Place chief engineer, said each charging station is a 480-volt hook up that charges an empty battery in about four hours. The hook-ups have been so popular, Mitchell installed Tesla parking only signs Aug. 19 for two spots.

Mitchell, a guy who makes his living working with electricity, enjoys having the Tesla charging stations at the hotel.

“It's been great. It's really brought a lot more life to the Hyatt,” he said.