Price of Corkage?

pauliewallie

We are buying bottles of proseco for the welcome drink at our reception. We curently have our hotel corkage charge down to 10e a bottle from 14e a bottle.

The hotel say 10e is the lowest they can go but I would still like to get it down further if possible. Has anyone any experience of paying for corkage at their weddings or in a similar position at the moment?
any advice on how we could get further reductions?

D3PO

tell them your not paying it. simple as. bluff them tell them we wont bother with a drinks reception so.

watch them change their tune fairly sharpish.

nordine

That pricing is extortionate tbf.

toadfly

The hotel my sister is having aren't charging corkage.

janbaby

hey we got our hotel down to 6euro but i reckon I'm gonna try and get them to scrap it. I organised the xmas party in work and the hotel we booked didn't charge corkage cos its screw cap mainly now. They tried to charge a pouring fee but we said people will look after themselves!

tfak85

10euro is average for prosecco/champagne.. it's not so much to do with the opening or the pouring, more that they'll be missing a round of drinks at the bar.

what you could try and do would be even try and get them down to 8euro and if not then agree a number of bottles, get it paid in advance and buy magnums instead of regular bottles...

our party place is charging us 6euro per bottle of prosecco, i was quite surprised they went so low!! it's 5euro per bottle of wine but we're just doing processo reception...

Heineken Helen

We got our corkage scrapped too... it took a bit of chat but we'd an inside man at a rival hotel who said they usually scrap it, it's the first thing to go in the negotiating apparently.

macinalli

A bit off topic but was wondering about negotiating - is this best done before booking the hotel or should it be a case of ongoing haggling? About to get started so all advice appreciated!

Heineken Helen

macinalli wrote: »

A bit off topic but was wondering about negotiating - is this best done before booking the hotel or should it be a case of ongoing haggling? About to get started so all advice appreciated!

A bit of both really. Don't feel obliged to book immediately and don't book anything until you're happy with the price. But the negotiations can still go on even after you've paid your deposit.

cruty

Got my corkage for 3 euro!!

pauliewallie

cruty wrote: »

Got my corkage for 3 euro!!

Can I ask at what price the hotel started? this is the kind of price I would be happy to pay.

pauliewallie

Thanks for all the replies. we're inspired to get the price down!

cruty

Started at 5 euro and got them down to 3. Did this when I was choosing between 2 hotels and the other one didn't charge corkage so my hotel brought it down.

oal22

€10 corkage :eek:

That is beyond ridculous.

We're not paying for corkage at all. Just go back and tell them you're not paying for it...see what they offer you.

pauliewallie

Thanks again for all the feedback here.

Well we got onto our hotel and we put our case that the corkage is very expensive compared to other hotels plus we are a very young wedding so the bar will do very well all day/night, plus the fact that lads, generally, dont bother with wine/proseco and go straight for pints when they get to the hotel ....

and the hotel said they are not in a position to bring down the price any further (currently @ 10e a bottle)

not sure what to do next.

we could

1. threaten to cancel the drinks reception in the hope they bring the price down - we dont really wanna do this and they may call our bluff as its no skin off their nose really anyway
2. pay what they are asking. although money is tight and we feel we are being ripped off on this charge. overall the hotel is fairly reasonable.
3. pay and just bring magnum bottles.

anyone else got a suggestion? or a similar experience?

kc66

Our hotel wouldn't even allow corkage

afkasurfjunkie

not being charged corkage here either.

cormac21051983

our hotel said they wouldnt allow it but did in the end, but for the price of € 10 per bottle.

wedding is not for another year and a bit so i think i will go back and negotiate further closer to the time. :P

jackal

pauliewallie wrote: »

and the hotel said they are not in a position to bring down the price any further

That's hilarious, they are not in a position to bring it down? Are they being blackmailed?

Of course they are in a position to bring it down, its money for nothing essentially. As said above its to compensate them for people not buying a drink at the bar, as if its your job to ensure the place stays in business.

Lucy Locket

we are getting married in Waterford and there is no charge for it.

Hopefully you'll come to some sort of agreement that will suit yourselves good luck

Shybride2016

Hi all,

Firstly, apologies if I shouldn't bump an old thread but was searching for topics on corkage and this was the most recent that came up.

What's the general ballpark for corkage these days? We are visiting a potential venue tomorrow and just getting a list of questions together now so we don't draw black
When we're there.

Thanks!

willow tree

We were quoted €10/ bottle of prosecco, she said we may as well just buy it off them. & they're charging €1/ bottle of craft beer. It really bothers me to pay that. I will haggle, see what they say.