[Raincliffe1]

How does the hotelier tackle this one?

You pay for a premises licence, your personal licence, extra on your insurance and have a well stocked bar. We often turn a blind eye to the odd beer in the hotel bedroom or bottle of wine that is not purchased on the premises, but this weekend took the biscuit. One couple had a case of 12 lagers and 8+ bottles of wine in a cool bag in the room, plus bottles of spirits as well. My husband even said to the lady as she went on Sunday morning, 'let me get the door for you, you don't want to break any bottles.'

Personally, I would not dream of bringing my own alcohol into a hotel/guesthouse which had a drinks licence but I am beginning to think I am in a minority. On our advertising we state that only drink/food purchased on the premises can be consumed on the premises - but you cannot enforce this rigidly because it would be ridiculous mentioning every small snack for example. I do not consider our hotel bar is pricey: £1.70 for spirits, £7.99 for house wine, £0.90 for soft drinks.

My husband is fundraising at the moment so we are considering asking customers to make a donation if they wish to consume their own alcohol in the hotel rooms. Not sure how this will go down though...

Katherine

[_Sharpe]

We ignore it but it is annoying. Last May, we had a wedding party for the daughter of some long time clients. We discovered that a group of ten or so were sitting in our garden with their own brought in drinks hidden under the table. So cheeky!

Another time a family group holding a reunion asked if they could bring in their own wine as they didn't like our very reasonable and well balanced list. We charged corkage but I was dismayed to find their wines were all very cheap supermarket brands. I had thought they were bringing in some vintage wines which we could't supply.

[Jockney]

Not quite sure how it works south of the border but in Scotland I think you can nail it down quite tightly. To get the new licence you need to submit plans as to where guests can and cant drink. These are dedicated areas, so you have to submit plans of where guests can drink alcohol purchased on the premises so that includes the bedrooms, dining room any guest lounge and garden area if this is also a permitted area.

You then dedicate the garden area as a "Beer Garden" putting up a Beer Garden sign, supplement this with the usual Joe Bloogs licensed to sell intoxicating ....... sign above the front door and in the guest information wording along the lines of

In accordance with the terms of the Licensing (Scotland) Act 2005 designated licensed areas of ***** Hotel are the Dining Room, Garden and paved outside seating areas. Guests are therefore no longer permitted to drink their own alcohol in these areas. Guests can only drink their own alcohol in the bedroom and we are sorry but we are unable to chill your own wine or other drinks, or provide ice for drinks purchased elsewhere.

Though strictly speaking bedrooms are also designated areas for drinking alcohol purchases on the premises, our opinion is what guest do in the bedroom is up to them but this stops them drinking their own drink in the guest lounge and more importantly outside.

They are cheeky, they think they can drink in a hotel or guest house but I'm sure would never take their own cans and sit outside a pub!.

[Billie]

We have a notice in the rooms that NO alcohol or food is to be taken into the rooms without consulting with Management and for the most part this works well.

[Kim234]

I would do what the big hotels do charge corkage £7.00 per bottle.

[traveller]

Yeah, this is annoying, the only way to prevent it is charging it.

[burgy]

I hope the couple didn't drink all they brought!
We aren't too strict either when it comes to guests who bring a small bottle of wine or a beer but I think it's cheeky to drink it IN FRONT of us. There are leaflets on the table of the guestroom with a list of all the snacks and drinks we have in our stock, the prices are very fair I think and most guests order a beer or a small snack.