75 for 3 bottles of water normal in london?

[Digger]

Thanks. Makes sense now.

[Funkycoldribena]

Digger said:

Next time he should order 9 bottles of San Pellegrino (£49.50) and see if they still have the gall to add on the minimum spend, or would adding the Service Charge negate that?!

Also if the minimum spend is £50, why £50.17 on the receipt?

Next time????!!!!

[David A]

Cheaper and nicer than a Regus or similar room for a couple of hours, more expensive and nicer than starbucks.

Clearly the hotel don't want their nice lounge cluttered up with people using it for free meeting space all day. Suspect some people do that in places they know they can get away with it (I may or may not have done similar myself when I've had time to kill in various cities around the world.)

[pcvdriver]

Funkycoldribena said:

Digger said:

Next time he should order 9 bottles of San Pellegrino (£49.50) and see if they still have the gall to add on the minimum spend, or would adding the Service Charge negate that?!

Also if the minimum spend is £50, why £50.17 on the receipt?

Next time????!!!!

+1

[Slyjoe]

Fartomatic5000 said:

Seems ok to me. You can't expect to hog a table for a business meeting, taking advantage of the location and nice surroundings and be a cheapskate.

I hadn't given it much thought until you posted that, It now makes sense. Guess he could have met them in McDonalds for a much cheaper price.

[Prawnboy]

his own stupid fault for not having a classy seventies style meeting involving cocktails.
i hate that everyone is afraid to order booze at meeting when out.

[pcvdriver]

Slyjoe said:

Fartomatic5000 said:

Seems ok to me. You can't expect to hog a table for a business meeting, taking advantage of the location and nice surroundings and be a cheapskate.

I hadn't given it much thought until you posted that, It now makes sense. Guess he could have met them in McDonalds for a much cheaper price.

His issue doesn't seem to be the cost to be honest - it was not being told about the minimum spend per head that pissed him off. Like another poster has suggested, if the waiter/waitress had been on the ball they should have perhaps have suggested to the OP that he'd be better off buying some wine and nibbles.

[Disastrous]

Prawnboy said:

his own stupid fault for not having a classy seventies style meeting involving cocktails.
i hate that everyone is afraid to order booze at meeting when out.

Seconded!

[Magog]

Didn't want to create a scene in front of the clients, but doesn't mind kicking up a fuss later in the national press later. Right.

As others have said, you're paying for the time and the space, not just the drinks. Same applies in apub with a nice beer garden etc. If he wasn't made aware of the minimum charge then that's a legitimate complaint.

Nobody comes out of it smelling of roses once it 'goes viral' and becomes Metro/Daily Mail forum fodder.

[greygoose]

Moonhawk said:

Shaw Tarse said:

It seems the hotel came out looking bad on Twitter, regardless of who was in the wrong.

Their response did come across quite flippant.

Indeed it seemed to be a fk you reply, not the way to generate good publicity.

[Type R Tom]

What annoyed me more was the service charge, £8.33 you would expect as part of that service would be to advise that a min charge per person would be put in place.

I wonder what would have happened if he had refused to pay the service charge, would they have rebilled him with an increased minimum spend?

I’ve been caught out before walking in to places and ordering without checking the menu (not to that extent) so anywhere I’m slightly suspicious of I always check to make sure I’m not being stung

[Du1point8]

Cheapskate business man doesn't want to hire a meeting room, tries to impress clients by taking advantage of upmarket hotel instead.

Upmarket hotel don't like people like this business man using their expensive areas for business meetings instead of for their clientele, so charge minimum spend... He spends 1-2 hours talking business thinking he can do that for price of 3 small bottles of water.

Fool... Still probably cheaper than hiring a meeting room.

I guess they also do it to stop tourists hanging round all with a glass of tap water 'people watching' for celebs, etc.

[Moonhawk]

Du1point8 said:

I guess they also do it to stop tourists hanging round all with a glass of tap water 'people watching' for celebs, etc.

I totally understand the hotel's position on this.......but the manner in which they have gone about it seems a little off.

As others have suggested - the waiting staff should have probably made the guy aware of the minimum spend policy and given him the option to order food/drink to cover the minimum spend. Their seemingly off hand reply in response to his complain does't look too good either.......it's almost as if you have to have to be of a certain status for them to consider what may be a legitimate complaint.

The hotel claim that they make guests/visitors aware of the minimum pricing policy - is it not conceivable that one of their staff dropped the ball on this occasion and didn't do so?

[jonah35]

Du1point8 said:

Cheapskate business man doesn't want to hire a meeting room, tries to impress clients by taking advantage of upmarket hotel instead.

Upmarket hotel don't like people like this business man using their expensive areas for business meetings instead of for their clientele, so charge minimum spend... He spends 1-2 hours talking business thinking he can do that for price of 3 small bottles of water.

Fool... Still probably cheaper than hiring a meeting room.

I guess they also do it to stop tourists hanging round all with a glass of tap water 'people watching' for celebs, etc.

Exactly.

[foreright]

Moonhawk said:

I totally understand the hotel's position on this.......but the manner in which they have gone about it seems a little off.

As others have suggested - the waiting staff should have probably made the guy aware of the minimum spend policy and given him the option to order food/drink to cover the minimum spend. Their seemingly off hand reply in response to his complain does't look too good either.......it's almost as if you have to have to be of a certain status for them to consider what may be a legitimate complaint.

The hotel claim that they make guests/visitors aware of the minimum pricing policy - is it not conceivable that one of their staff dropped the ball on this occasion and didn't do so?

FWIW I agree - hotels don't want people holding "free" meetings or tourists hanging around but is this legally enforcable? Can somewhere REALLY allow you to order, not tell you there's a minimum charge and then arbitrarily whack £50 on the bill?

[toohuge]

It's likely there are signs at the entrance of the restaurant and on all the bar menus too, explaining that there is a minimum charge whilst in the area.

I don't see the hotel suffering whatsoever. Those that have an issue with the hotels response are a) not likely to be guests at the hotel anyway and b) are the types of people that sit in expensive hotels and order tap water to people watch. Neither of which the hotel will be sad to lose as 'potential' customers.

Chris

[Mr Will]

Hackney said:

If the hotel doesn't want people using their nice chairs and tables..... why do they put chairs and tables out.

They don't want people using their nice chairs and tables without paying.

[anonymous-user]

They've got to get a certain return per table per day/hour to make it worthwhile.
Serious businessman should know this!
I haven't read the article but I'd like to see if this guy has any premises with public access so I can turn up and have a meeting in his place, I'll bring my own water, I only want to use the benefit of his lighting, shelter and general ambience, he's already paid for that so he won't mind me borrowing it.

[22s]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

Businesspeople have meetings in hotel lounges and bars all the time. He had his meeting, ordered the drinks the clients presumably asked for, and then finished the meeting and paid. I'm not sure what your point is about bringing your own water?

I do understand the idea behind hotels doing the minimum spend, but in my experience it's only pretentious hellholes that do it anyway. There are plenty of nice 5* hotels and top-end bars in London that don't do a minimum spend unless you specifically reserve a table to sit at.

[Disastrous]

Exactly. What sort of fking loser would go for a no expense spared slap up afternoon in a hotel lobby?

I had always assumed that these places put out tables and chairs and serve coffee/water precisely to attract business meetings.

1). They'll be there for an hour tops
2). They'll always order a coffee/bottle of water
3). They'll be smart enough and not scruff the place up
4). They'll be zero trouble whatsoever

Hotel guests fk off about the city during the day and as mentioned, you'd have to be the worst sort of pervert to actually go to a city hotel for a afternoon out so I'd suggest that passing business trade is exactly what they want.