City hotels suffering from rise in bedroom boozers

crusher000 wrote: »

So What's stopping any hotel setting aside an area where they can sell bottles of wine or cans to take up to your room.

They don't even need a special area. Most pubs will do takeout drink over the counter. I was on a stag and the best man went & got a box of bottles from the hotel (in galway actually) at a good price and had them in the room before heading out, they knew exactly what we were at.

Clareboy wrote: »

Its a sad reflection on Irish society that people visiting Galway with its many attractions have nothing else do but to get drunk in their rooms.

But is this actually happening? its just gutter press telling you this happens. Like the vitners going on about the rife below cost selling, with no evidence to back it up. Its a sad day if you believe their crap without question. Sounds like its the same as what would happen at home, a stag night in your hometown, you might meet in a mates house and have some drinks, head to the pub, a stag in a distant town, do the same in the hotel. Waiting till everybody arrives & is ready.

shruikan2553 wrote: »

If off licences are making so much more money compared to pubs and hotels

if you believe many publicans then many offies are making a loss or barely breaking even!

http://www.galwaynews.ie/31191-city-hotels-suffering-rise-bedroom-boozers

City hotels suffering from rise in bedroom boozers
April 23, 2013 - 7:30am
Concern as more guests smuggle in their own cheaper alcohol
By Declan Tierney

Hotels in Galway City are counting the cost of guests ‘smuggling’ in their own drink and then isolating themselves away in their rooms for the duration of their stay.

Not only is it a source of concern for hotel owners but it is an issue that has been raised by those involved in trying to control alcohol abuse.

Hoteliers say that more and more people who avail of cheap hotel deals are often bringing their own alcohol to their rooms in an effort to cut down on the cost of the break.

A large number of guests bring in bottles of wine to their rooms, but it has been claimed that younger groups who book city hotels smuggle whole ‘slabs’ of beer into their rooms for drinking parties.

Paul Gill, Chairman of the Galway Branch of the Irish Hotel Federation, told the Connacht Sentinel that a lot of city hotels were complaining of the bedroom drink culture that had emerged in recent years.

He said that there was also a growing problem of residents of hotels bringing off-licence drinks to weddings on the same premises and often these had to be confiscated by staff.

“There is often very little we can do if people decide to bring in drink for consumption in their own hotel room but it is a growing problem in the city,” Mr Gill said.

Joe Treacy, Addiction Counsellor in Galway and Secretary of the Irish Psychiatric Nurses Association, slammed the practice of people bringing in alcohol to hotel rooms and believed that it should be outlawed.

I wonder if he thinks drinking in your own house should be outlawed too, little difference really.

Arian Rich Squad wrote: »

I never understood how banning people from bringing their own food/drink to hotel rooms/theme parks/cinemas etc was legally enforceable. If I've paid for my hotel room, I'll bloody well eat and drink whatever I like in there. Same at the cinema. I've paid a fortune for a ticket to watch a film, why should I be forced to pay for expensive snacks I don't even want? How do these places get away with this?

Very(!) quick legal answer - you're given a licence to remain on the premises (film viewing, hotel etc) backed by a contractual agreement. As part of that agreement they can dictate terms that you would need to agree to.

It gets interesting when contractual terms are not stated prior to completing the contract though i.e. terms and conditions on the back of your receipt or a sign up after you bought your ticket in the cinema/hotel.

Here's the wiki entry on this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incorporation_of_terms_in_English_law

and especially this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incorporation_of_terms_in_English_law#Contractual_document

Aidric wrote: »

Do such places exist in Ireland?

The hotel next to Fibbers is a one star hotel. It's meant to be pretty nice, probably only getting a low score due to "The Premises has a late bar every night till 02:30am, rooms on the first floor are affected by noise."

ScumLord wrote: »

You can't smoke in your hotel room. Not legally, plus setting off the fire alarm could end up costing you.

Get a smoking room. They exist in Ireland.

ScumLord wrote: »

I didn't think they still had smoking rooms in Irish hotels. I've been in one in the UK but they're as rare as hens teeth over there.

Have always been able to get a smoking room in the UK, Ireland and France.

=-=

The publican will serve you until you can no longer handle your drink, and then throw you out of the pub. How the funk is that being responsible?

Thirdfox wrote: »

Very(!) quick legal answer - you're given a licence to remain on the premises (film viewing, hotel etc) backed by a contractual agreement. As part of that agreement they can dictate terms that you would need to agree to.

It gets interesting when contractual terms are not stated prior to completing the contract though i.e. terms and conditions on the back of your receipt or a sign up after you bought your ticket in the cinema/hotel.

Here's the wiki entry on this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incorporation_of_terms_in_English_law

and especially this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incorporation_of_terms_in_English_law#Contractual_document

Thats all well and good, but for a contract to be binding, you have to be given a chance to review it and accept or reject depending on whether or not you agree to the terms. At what point in booking your hotel are you informed of all these rules and regulations?

Id say 99% of hotel bookings are made online, and I certainly cant ever remember ever being informed I could only consume food and drink that was purchased on the premises.

Stone Deaf 4evr wrote: »

you don't listen to the lefty show by any chance?

No, why?

Dempsey wrote: »

No, why?

no reason, just its an online podcast that literally went through what we were saying. Very interesting.

I'm not a fan of people bringing drink to a wedding, my cousin got told before her wedding that if they found people taking their own drink into the wedding it would be pulled. The various stunts I've seen is some one coming in carrying what looked like a big wedding present wrapped in wedding paper and all and sit it under their table when it fact it was full of cans, another is girls filling up empty glass water bottles with vodka.

southsiderosie wrote: »

Were they not serving alcohol at the wedding?

They were, but a lot of guests have started to bring their own drink with them instead of going to the bar at weddings

Roll on the galway beers where i shall bring more drink into a galway hotel room than they have ever seen before :pac:

bbm1 wrote: »

or because people are stingy.. I know their is a lot of expense with weddings but its one day and if you cant afford to drink then dont drink

So wait in line to pay over the odds or dont drink? You serious?

As I work in the management of a chain of hotels I will try and clarify some of the issues in this tread.

Number one point to make is that the purpose of this article in my opinion is so that the IHF ( Irish hotels federation) is seen to have a meaningful reason to exist, and more importantly charge their members the annual fee.

We left the IHF more than six years ago as they offered no real value, we have recently left the vintners for the very same reason.

Now in one of our hotels we cater for a lot of hens and stags, we prefer stags for the simple reason that the bag goes into the room and the body goes into the bar. Hens come into the hotel with boxes and bags of drink to bring into the room. We would prefer they drank in the bar but it is not a requirment nor would we ever try to prevent this happening.

With regard to smoking in rooms, the smoking ban had an exemption in relation to hotels where up to 20% of rooms could be smoking rooms. Most places choose an outright ban. Also if you are in a hotel room and want to smoke will you do it out the window and DON'T remove the sensor on the ceiling. Cigarette smoke won't set it off but removing it will register a fault in the system.

When people book into hotels this Is generally considered there place of residence for the night so they can essentially do anything in the room so long as it doesn't affect other guest, damage hotel property or be outright illegal. So the notion of banning people drinking in the room is already a bit ridiculous.

Another point raiseed was an off licence in the hotel, we did this three years ago in one of our hotels and have plans to do it in all of the hotels over the next three years. There is the stipulation that it cannot be drank in the bar but any wine purchased in the off licence may be consumed in the bar or restaurant for an additional €5 which we feel is quite reasonably.

Also in our hotels we don't charge extortionate prices for drink e.g. Pint of Guinness €4, vodka €3.70 (free white/red lemonade, orange, black, lime cordial).
But in the interest of truth our bar prices go up €0.10 30 minutes after closing for the residents.

Someone mentioned a hotel just having housekeepers and front office staff I.e. no food and beverage staff. Unfortunately hotel is a protected term. And to let people stay in an establishment you need an annually renewed licence from an organisation called TAMS which has some pretty strict basic requirments. Food being one of them.

I am as always open to correction on these points.