Incoming Polar Vortex: Our guide to weathering the storm

Feb 5, 2021 2 min read

In case you haven’t heard, there’s a polar vortex coming (are there many other things that sound as ominous?!). With this arctic blast likely affecting most of our markets, we want to remind our community of hosts to prioritize safety during this time — the safety of yourselves, your guests, and your car(s). We’re here to weather the storm together and share with you our learnings from the last polar vortex we saw almost exactly two years ago.

What to expect:

  • Demand will be impacted. It should come as no surprise that rental volume will dip during this time. Please keep in mind that we won’t be charging renters any cancellation fees during the time of this inclement weather.
  • Battery Issues: Due to lowered demand and freezing temps, your car battery will be at risk of dying. We saw battery issues spike almost 100% in 2019, lasting from a few days to a few weeks after the storm.

So what can you do?

Though we rarely recommend reducing availability of your car(s), we do advise hosts who choose to adjust their availability during this time to do the following:

  1. Add a calendar block to your car(s) for the duration of the polar vortex.
  2. Reach out to our support team agents (via help center or your host app) to enable “Deep Sleep Mode” on your Connect device. This essentially limits the Connect’s lock/unlock functionality as well as GPS, which minimizes battery drain. We recommend removing your key from your car(s) if you choose to enable this mode.

If you choose to continue listing your car(s) in this time, here a few precautionary recommendations:

  1. Purchase a jump pack for your car. We’ve heard great feedback from other hosts who invested in this one from NOCO. This is a good device to have as a car owner, irregardless of impending storms. Just remember to plug it in and charge it up a few days beforehand! And if you’re able, we recommend getting your car(s) on the move every 4 – 5 days as another preemptive measure to prevent battery death.
  2. If you don’t already have one, having an ice scraper and snow shovel stored in your car for renters will provide them the ability to dig out your car(s) if they’ll be renting. Of the rentals that do occur, this ensures that the renter will be able to more conveniently access your car and take their trip.

If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to reach out to our team. Please stay warm, stay safe, and see you back on the road soon!