I have booked a meal and an overnight stay at Wortley hall for my family to celebrate my mothers 70th birthday. Today I called the wortley hall hotel to ask if we could bring our own wine. I was told that the charge for bringing your own wine was the equivalent to the cost of the house wine. This is £12, how can anyone justify charging £12 to open a bottle of wine?

It's a licensed venue- they have the right to make it prohibitively expensive for you to take your own wine and deny them the revenue from selling you their own wine.

They may have a legal right, but morally I think it's bordering on outrageous.

I understand the concept of corkage charges - heaven knows I've paid enough, but £12-00??

At least Dick Turpin wore a mask!!

If it were my booking, I'd be requesting they wipe the charge or I'd be forced to cancel my reservation and offer it to their competitors.

Oh the joys of being a principles man! :)

Well, while they're serving drinks at prices that others will pay, I actually think they're well within their rights.

Granted, £12 for a house wine may be steep, but you're depriving them of their income otherwise .......

£12 corkage is beyond a disgrace and is surely questionable - its 100% profit.

Be careful, they will probably also charge for cutting your own birthday cake... :D

If they are not supplying the wine (as they would be if you bought a bottle of house wine) then surely the max they ought to charge is the 'profit' they have potentialy lost had you bought the House Wine, which may be around £6 at a guess. While they may legally be able to charge what they want, I would be sorely tempted to take my custom elsewhere.

Don't get me wrong, I think that as far as customer service goes, it's dreadful, but I can understand why they're doing it.

I'd probably take my money elsewhere too.

If they are not supplying the wine (as they would be if you bought a bottle of house wine) then surely the max they ought to charge is the 'profit' they have potentialy lost had you bought the House Wine, which may be around £6 at a guess.

What an excellent idea, Bonny!

:)

£12 corkage is beyond a disgrace and is surely questionable - its 100% profit.

Be careful, they will probably also charge for cutting your own birthday cake... :D

....Oh yes, I forgot about that....:)

Weren't they charging £1-50 per head?

How very dare he!!

Still, he's out of business now, so that gives me some comfort.

:)

How much do they charge you if you take your own food?

Don't see a problem with it to be honest, the money has to be made somewhere, and the majority of restaurants make their money on the wine (which is generally marked up by around 70% off the cost of the bottle) so by taking your own wine you're turning your meal in a loss maker for them.

Most of the places I've worked we've never allowed people to open their own bottles of wine, corkage fees or not. I do remember when I worked back up in the North East we had a wedding party who came in for a meal after having bought their bottles of wine at the pub next door, we charged them the cost of our bottle of house wine (£9.95) so they ended up with inferior wine, for the same price as our house wine. Maybe I'm just a bit of a harsh git who doesn't like to lose money ^_^

Awwww, some people just like being miserable. and alway see the glass half empty.

Just think of it as saving £5 on a £20 bottle of £3 pomaigne! :)

Why take your own if they sell it anyway?

Yeah, just buy their wine, let them pour it for you, enjoy drinking it, and have a good time.

This is £12, how can anyone justify charging £12 to open a bottle of wine?

Take your own corkscrew too and tell them they've no need to open it for you.

Take your own corkscrew too and tell them they've no need to open it for you.

But then you'd have to take your own glasses too ... where would it end ... your own cutlery and tablecloth ....?

Corkage isn't just a charge for opening the wine, it's a charge for providing and washing glasses, a mark-up on the loss they've made on not being able to sell you their own wine ... and so on.

Where I do think it's iniquitous is when they aren't even licenced and they want to charge a vast amount for corkage ...