On Santa duty with granddaughter Maya
Being asked to pay the earth in hotels and restaurants has become commonplace on both sides of the Channel. Here's an innocent example and how it was put right ...
The time of year has come again for Salut! to wish all its readers - and readers of the other sites, Salut! Sunderland
Salut! Live and Salut! North, a hearty Joyeuses fêtes.
The staff of the Corus Hotel off the Bayswater Road in London deserve a special mention. Just don't say a word to the people at Drink Aware.
Friends we see in both London and the south of France asked us to join them for dinner. They were also staying the night, as they have done before.
The meal was good without being special. The others all chose from a section of Malaysian dishes. I had duck, successfully negotiating a pepper sauce instead of beetroot, which I have loathed from boyhood. No desserts, no digestives. We had a solitary bottle of wine and made do with Château Robinet - the tap - for water. The only extras were tea and coffee at the end.
John, male friend, took possession of the bill and glanced briefly at it before showing it to me. It was just under £172, the Corus having awarded itself a generous service charges which I think worked out at 12½ per cent. John duly produced his half share in cash and I paid the rest with a debit card.
I have become so accustomed to rip-off prices, in France as well but especially in the UK, that it struck me as being no more than one further example of what restaurants and hotels believe they can get away with. But in later conversations, our female friend, Helene and my wife, Joelle, both felt there must have been a mistake.
It was next morning before I re-checked the bill. Overcharged we had been. The total included all the Malaysian food but also charged all four of us for the two-course formula I alone had chosen, in other words for three more than had been served.
Add the service charge element and we were £70-75 out of pocket. Fortunately our friends were still in the hotel.
The reception desk's response when they mentioned it on checking out? Bless 'em. "Would you care to have drinks up to the amount you overpaid?" someone asked with an entirely straight face.
Now, even at London prices, you would presumably need to consume quite a lot, or from rather an expensive bottle, to get a drinks bill up that high. To their credit, the hotel soon realised that breakfast-time binge drinking was not an option for a couple intent on getting back home to Essex, and by car. And rather than split hairs and complicate negotiations, they agreed simply to refund what had been paid by card, namely £86.
So there you have it: I have praised the giant Tesco and a prominently placed London hotel in the space of two days. It must be Christmas.
Have a happy one!
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