Tap Water

[Raincliffe1]

Any comments on tackling the thorny issue of tap water. My husband maintains that customers would never go into a 5* restaurant and ask for tap water, yet they do this when they are having evening meals with us. One night during the summer we actually had more people drinking tap water with their meals than drinks from the bar! Should you charge a nominal amount or not? One year I recieved an email from a gent who did not like the fact that I had charged him 50p for a 10oz glass of tap water which really upset me - since then myself and my husband have always disagreed over this. Any thoughts appreciated.

[Joyce Taylor]

Check your bar prices?

[BVC]

Hello, Why would you charge for tap water? Wherever I am eating I ask for tap water if I want it. I do not drink alcohol and soft drinks do not always go with a good meal. I may be entirely wrong but I thought that places serving food were obliged to provide free drinking water with meals if asked. Why not take the bull by the horns and put a carafe of water with glasses on the table. Most restaurants do this nowadays. I am sure your guests would appreciate it. BVC

[Raincliffe1]

90 pence for a tin of coca cola, £2.20 500ml Fosters, £1.60 25ml spirits, house wine 75cl £7.99. How does that compare with other hotel bars? The last time I purchased a drink in a pub was October 2007 at a pub in Torquay, watery coca cola out of the pumps was £3.00 a pint (but that was a food led pub operator), so I don't really have many establishments to compare our prices with.

[Sue: White Horse Walking Holidays]

With drinking bottled water now being one of the 10 deadly sins, I reckon it's essential to offer guests tap water at no charge. OK, there's washing up to consider but surely that sort of cost should be factored into your nightly rates?

[Raincliffe1]

Sorry to appear dim, but why it is a sin? Do you mean in terms of disposing of the plastic containers? At our last inspection the Hotel Inspector recommended that we put bottled water on our complimentary drinks tray which I must admit is often extremely wasteful when guests take one mouthful but I suppose that is their perogative.

[Scarlett]

We put a complimentary bottle of local spring water in each guest room. The empty plastic bottles all go for recycling so I don't feel we are committing any sins.
On the question of charging for tap water, I wouldn't, if it puts one guest off returning. It doesn't work out very cost effective on the grounds it costs more to advertise for new guests than getting repeat business.

[Sue: White Horse Walking Holidays]

Sorry to appear dim, but why it is a sin? Do you mean in terms of disposing of the plastic containers? At our last inspection the Hotel Inspector recommended that we put bottled water on our complimentary drinks tray which I must admit is often extremely wasteful when guests take one mouthful but I suppose that is their perogative.

It's just not green. There has been loads of publicity recently about people spending a fortune on something that is just as good from the tap. I guess in terms of H&S it may be that the powers that be consider it 'safer', I guess.

[Gill Horsfield]

I usually drink tap water with my meals both at home and when eating out. It would never occur to me to charge my guests for it any more than I would expect to pay for it; I quite happily throw in ice and lemon without batting an eyelid. I certainly wouldn't return to any establishment that charged me, nor would I be more inclined to order alcohol if there were a charge for tap water.

[Graham Durack]

Sorry to appear dim, but why it is a sin? Do you mean in terms of disposing of the plastic containers? At our last inspection the Hotel Inspector recommended that we put bottled water on our complimentary drinks tray which I must admit is often extremely wasteful when guests take one mouthful but I suppose that is their perogative.
Hello Raincliffe, Your Not dim, its just that there's a divided argument over the cfc's in the plastic bottle contaminating the water. I read an article somewhere warning people not to drink bottled water, especially if the water has been sitting in the car. Apparently what ever the chemicals were that go into making plastic water bottles again is meant to contaminate the water and cause cancer! Now I dont know whether this is true or is this just Britain throwing its teddies out of the nanny state pram, but until enough tests have been carried out to substaciate these claims, and until further research in to this allegation and that the government or someone in authority says Do not Drink Bottled water, we will continue to give it to our guests.

Re: serving tap water with meals. Im afraid I agree with the majority. There is nothing wrong with providing free tap water at meal times. We even put ice and if we have it sliced lemon in ours. If you change you outlook or opinion its easier for you to accept that it is minimum service to offer guests and you'll not feel so bad giving it to guests.
We are the same as in we are licensed and we feel slightly agrieved when people ask for tap water as it lessens our chance of making some hard earned profit.
You could offer both tap and mineral water but it depends on how far you would are prepared to go.

If there are any Hotel inspectors out there who read these articles, why not add your comments. Its partly your fault we are having this discussion because you go around recomending that we the land lord and land lady supply it for our guests. But your not the one who foots the bill when like someone said, a guest opens the bottle takes one swig out of the bottle and then leaves the rest un drunk! What a waste of money! it makes us mad to but we accept that it is something we were recommended and as a four star establishment find that people like the extra little bits they get.

[redhouse]

I was on a legionella course recently and I believe the reason not to drink bottled water was that if the water is reaches over 20 degees centigrade than it can contain legionella and that sparkling water is the worst culprit as this can be inhaled when the water bottle is opened.

[Raincliffe1]

Yikes - that's certainly food for thought. So you need to consider cool storage of bottled water and once it is in hotel bedrooms for example, it should not be put near a heat source (e.g. radiator) -sounds like common sense but I did not know the exact science of it. This highlights the importance of going on food hygiene/safety courses. A couple of years ago, I went on the HACCP course and it was a steep learning curve but well worth it.

Katherine

[Briarscourt]

Very interesting discussion which has set us thinking. We're a small B&B, don't do evening meals but started to supply bottled water (free) to rooms to improve service. However many bottles are partly drunk and I worry about the amount of plastic waste. We now plan to put a small notice on hospitality trays with glasses explaining that all our cold water comes straight from mains so is safe to drink, but if guests prefer bottled water they are welcome to ask. Our bottled water will be stored in a cold cellar for safety.

[Sue: White Horse Walking Holidays]

I have a small B&B (mainly for walkers) and keep a supply of fresh filtered tap water in a jug in a small fridge in the guest lounge. That seems to work well and although the fridge was an additional expense, it also means I can supply fresh milk which is always nicer than those horrible little longlife things. I also put a few soft drinks in there and so far no-one has abused that free facility. Guests can also use the fridge for their own odds and ends of food. - space permitting of course.

[Dartmoor B&B]

Excellent idea Briarscourt, I think we'll do that too ! On the original topic, we do evening meals and we have a small tea rooms and we never charge for tap water. I'd never go back to somewhere that did.

[Raincliffe1]

Well in the end we increased our meal prices and do not charge for tap water. Not one single person (either repeat or new visitor) has said our meals are bad value quite the contrary. Confusingly, we have actually sold more drinks from our bar than in 4 previous years over the same period and very few people this year have asked us for tap water - so there you go, nowt as queer as folks...

Katherine#-o

[Billie]

We supply bottled water and if there is water left we use it to water indoor plants.
As for charging for tap water...............NEVER.

[Puddingchops]

Hi

As an ex sales manager and hotel manager, when we are taking drink orders, we have trained all our staff, when asked for water to reply - 'still or sparkling?'

In 50% of the cases they usually answer either Still or Sparlking and hey we've sold a bottle. If someone say just tap then we provide a small jug and glasses annoying as it is.

The previous owners used to put water on the table before guest came in for dinner, but his results in no drink sales at all.

We also have staff trained to ask - 'Which wine may I get you this evening' or 'What drinks may I get you this evening', rather than 'Would you like some wine or drink?' it is much easier to say no to this.

What ever you do, you will never get everyone to buy something.

[richardfreer]

Not sure I see the problem with tap water. I have long since stopped ordering bottled water when I eat at restaurants, and invariably get a jug of iced tap water to help things down.

I would never consider charging for a jug of water at the meal table. I think mains water is one of the consumables that I include in the cost of the room, whether it is used in the shower, the toilet or down the throats of the guests, therefore it is part of the room rate. If someone wants bottled water (which have to hand also) then we charge at the normal 'cost plus profit'.

[Judy Marsland]

I agree the inspectors need to get their act together. If you are part of a green business scheme, you are supposed to discourage bottled water - think about the extraction, transport, the oil resources used to make a plastic bottle etc - even if you recycle, it's not as good as not using a plastic bottle in the first place. So one set of inspectors don't want us to use them - and another set are encouraging it. VisitBritain need to raise both their environmental and economic game here - it wastes our money and the earth's resources to use plastic bottled water.
We are on a private water supply - and I recycle our guests plastic containers for them - 4 cottages produce two dustbins a week of plastic - despite our water (treated of course) coming straight off the mountain and just as good as the bottled 'mountain' water they insist on buying! Mad!

[Kim234]

we are lucky as we produce bottled local water (ie Harrogate Water) and it is in a glass (recyclable) bottle but we only supply it on request.

[Ryder]

I think you must check your bar prices first and try to not charge a single penny for tap water..!!