Here's an alcoholic one for debate

[Coco]

I'd be interested in comments on this.

I think I mentioned before that I put in my booking conditions that alcohol may not be consumed n the bedrooms, due to previous damage to linen and furniture.  What I do say however, (and I know Ian will probably want to slap my wrists!) is that beer or wine may be purchased to consume either in the garden or lounge.  I know I'm not supposed to sell alcohol unless it's to be drunk with the meal.  However, my way of thinking (right or wrong) is this:

In the past we have had several people bringing their own wine in and taking it to their room to drink, often leaving horrible ring marks on the furniture and occasionally lovely red wine stains on the white bedspread   Hence my booking condition regarding alcohol.  Now I know that legally I should just leave it at no alcohol to be consumed in the bedrooms, full stop.  The thing is, these people are adults, they are on holiday, they are wanting to sit and enjoy the garden on a summer evening but..... they're gagging for a drink  I suppose that I could allow them to therefore drink their own alcohol in the garden. 

Here's what I'm getting at.  IF the gendarmes turned up and asked if I was selling alcohol without a licence, of course I would say no, they're friends and I gave them a drink, or no they'e guests and they bought their own.  It can't be that simple, or no one would worry about licences, so I presume the onus is on me to PROVE that they bought their own.  So how many holidaymakers pop into a supermarket to get a bottle of wine to drink in the evening and keep the receipt to prove to the gendarmes it was their purchase, off the property?  Not many I suspect.  Therefore I can't prove that they bought their own, so I suppose I get "done". 

On the other hand, you may also get guests who weren't as forward thinking and therefore don't have a bottle of wine to drink but would love one.  Doesn't offering to sell them one go along with offering a good service to your guests, like hairdriers and tea and coffee in the room, or doing table d'hotes which we have discussed many times, is no great money-maker, just added value to make someone choose you above another B&B.  To me, if I were a guest in a B&B with a pleasant garden, nice weather and lovely views, I would be rather disappointed if I couldn't get a drink to enjoy whilst I was relaxing under these conditions.  Hence, I always make it known to my guests that we can sell them a carafe of wine, a beer or a bottle of cider if they would like.  I don't make much out of it, but it's a service that is doing no one any harm.

Now this is the bit that really p****s me off.  Someone enquires, you send the confirmation email with booking conditions, they agree to them.  They then arrive, you offer them a welcome drink, they have dinner, if they enjoy a drink they are inevitably given more than the allocated half bottle of wine per person  because we find that it usually balances out with those that drink very little and it makes for a much more pleasant atmosphere than having to stop and say "oh by the way, you've got to pay extra because you had two glasses more than your allocation".   In other words, you bend over backwards to make them feel welcome and overlook the odd extra glass because you want them to feel comfortable.  Perhaps we make them feel too comfortable because then the next night they choose to go out to eat, that's fine.  They then come back early, brazenly walk into the kitchen, ask for a bottle opener and two glasses and walk back into the garden with their own wine.  I know, I know, I should tell them that we have already told them that we sell the wine.  But I've never yet had the bottle ('scuse the pun) to do it.  I had hoped that by sending the conditions and asking people to agree to them that would be sufficient.

I think what annoys me most is not that they have bought their own wine, after all, I probably only make about 3 euros per bottle.  It's the fact that not only are they ignoring my conditions of booking but they are blatanly thumbing their noses at me by asking for the bottle opener and I just find it rude and disrespectful.  I would at least expect them to have their own and find a quiet corner of the garden to do it in.  After all, I've still got to prove to that gendarme that I didn't sell them the wine

I'd be really interested to see what other people do in these situations.  (You can probably tell I had one of these in last night!!)

 

[Mutts]

Hi Coco

I'm not a B&B or gite owner, but if I were one of your potential tourists I would expect: no more and no less than a specified amount of "free" wine served with a meal, plus a price list if I wanted more. Perhaps a note at the bottom of the menu saying that due to French legislation wine can only be bought/served with meals.

Corkscrews readily available in the gite.

Terms and conditions for deposits mentioning withholding of same if wine stains are found anywhere!

" The thing is, these people are adults, they are on holiday, they are wanting to sit and enjoy the garden on a summer evening but..... they're gagging for a drink  I suppose that I could allow them to therefore drink their own alcohol in the garden"

Is there a problem with this? If I were a tourist staying with you, I'd buy my own supplies in! Perhaps a note suggesting where the best buys are - repeating that you can't sell them wine without meals.

You must have had some fairly horrible experiences..........

Linda

[Cerise]

Hi Coco

We have a fridge for guests in which they can keep their own beer, wine etc and we supply corkscrews, glasses etc.  In practice we also give people the odd carafe of wine, bottle of beer.  I know Ian will probably shout at me, but everyone else does it, local bar owners know and don't care, so I think it is just good service.  We supply bottled water in the rooms too - in theory I suppose someone could query whether we are selling it, but I am just not that paranoid.

Our local French competition sell all kinds of drinks and icecreams and have been doing so for years.  If I thought I was upsetting anyone I wouldn't do it, but I honestly think that it is fine to give someone a welcome beer and I can't really see anyone reporting me for doing so!

At least half the B & B in this area are not licensed, registered or anything else so should the gendarmes start a purge I think they will have better things to worry about than a few bottles of LeClerc's cheap beer.

I also ask people not to take wine into the rooms, and have not found that to be a problem as we have plenty of places they can sit and have a drink. 

Do you think I can ban suntan oil as I seem to get all sorts of things - wall, bedside rug, towels - messed up by that.

Maggi

 

 

[Teamedup]

Doesn't this boil down to expectations.  We don't expect this sort of service in some of the hotels we use and would never expect it in a chambre d'hote which is not after all, a little country pub with rooms.  

 

It is very nice though if we have been offered a beer etc when we got somewhere or an after dinner drink.  We wouldn't expect this, and wouldn't ask for it either. Even if we hadn't previewed anything.

[Alan]

With my guest hat on, when on holiday I must say I like a drink in my room before going down to dinner or going out for the evening. I find the prices hotels charge for room service just to expensive so there I do take my own. We have stayed in a few chamber d hotes and must say I have never been given any conditions when booking or really when we have arrived so would still do the same. Also I find when staying away from home I always get thirsty during the night so would always ensure I had water or a juice with me

 

Now as a chamber d hote owner, I also know I will be shouted out and nobody will agree with what I currently do. As far as wine with the meal is concerned I supply one free bottle per couple, if  people do ask for an extra bottle then I charge the cost price, we make no money on the wine at all. This I offer as a service. In the rooms we supply free bottled water daily, there is also a small fridge which  has soft drinks and beer, for these we run an honesty box where guests pay for what has been consumed. We give a guide to the prices but leave it up to the guest if anything is put in the box. In the 2 years this has been in operation we have never had any problems with guests taking advantage. As I don’t make any profit from the drinks I really don’t mind if the guest wish to bring there own in thats really not a problem for me.Those that sit round the pool in the afternoon do still bring there own soft drinks etc, we also supply tea and coffee that can be taken outside for them to drink

 

Alan

[Ian Hoare<br>All the best<br>Ian<br>La Souvigne Corrèze<br>http:www.souvigne.com]

Hi Coco,

I'm afraid you're right! The petite licence is to consume drinks with the meal, the licence de debit de boisson a consommer sur place 1 cat is for non alcoholic beverages. Would you break licensing laws in the UK? (I wouldn't)

So you have every right to insist that guests don't drink in their rooms, but what about the sitting room? That's what I do. I say, you are welcome to have a drink in the sejour, glasses are in the cupboard, here's corkscrew, help yourself, but make sure everything's spotless when you go to bed. If you don't have a sejour, then the garden verandah or whatever.

You shouldn't sell alcoholic drinks, and you CERTAINLY shouldn't publicise the fact that you do. That's asking for trouble. No doubt your unlicensed french competitors who do are the mayor's second cousin once removed, you're not. That's the difference and that's the way it is here. WE have to be squeaky clean.

Some have said here, they should have a drink when they want. So they should go to thew local caviste/supermarket and get a bottle to bring back - that's what the licencing laws say. So apply the law and tell people that's what you're doing. I really don't see the mania half of you have here to seek to avoid, evade, and whittle away at the legal fabric of what we're doing. You don't like the way France runs things? So sell up and go somewhere where you CAN do what you want. Jeepers!! It's all pretty easy going, you know.

As for making a mess in the rooms, that's not the behaviour of adults, but of ill mannered louts, behaving like indisciplined 3 year olds. If that's your experience with Brit visitors (I've never EVER had a french visitor do that), then you may just have to apply different rules to Brits. Take a €100 deposit, and only give it back when you have inspected the room. That'll quickly give a clear message!

Lastly - drinks with meals. Fortunately our guests are mainly very civilised. We've virtually never had people who drink too much. Just as we would do at any dinner party, we fill their glasses as and when they empty them, until it's time to serve after dinner coffee. End of story. I don't count or allocate, and on average I'd say that although the wines are excellent in quality (our guests usually say they're the best they've had in B&B), we use about 3/4 bottle of white and a bottle of red for 4 guests (plus us), rarely more. And if it does turn out that we have some thirsty guests we grin and bear it! Happened last night and we used a carafe and a half of red. Big deal at €2.50 a litre.

[Russethouse]

As a guest I am with Alan, we nearly always take wine up to our room for a pre dinner drink, no matter where we are - (we have our corkscrew, what else are Swiss Army knives for ? )Sometimes we might buy a wine from a local cave or supermarket, to 'test' it before buying more later.

In practice, how are you going to stop adults doing this ?

[Coco]

Oh, how did Gay and Ian get in before Alan, he posted last night.

Some very interesting replies here.  I don't know what's right or wrong, where to draw the line or not, my initial posting was jsut a selection of the experiences we have had and how we try to deal with things.

Interestingly, no one has commented (not even Ian) about how you would deal with an inspection where guests were drinking their own wine but the gendarmes were to point out that you don't have a licence.  Of course anyone who is surupticiously selling wine without a licence is going to say that the guest bought his own, so no one would ever get caught if you can use this as a get-out.

Why are you all so obsessed with taking a bottle of wine to your room to drink before dinner?   That in itself sounds to me as though you feel you shouldn't be doing it anyway.  If it's OK then why not blatanly drink it in the garden in front of your hosts?  Surely, if I let my guests know beforehand that I sell half a carafe of wine at 3€ or a carafe at 5€ why is there need for all this skulking about?  It's not exactly going to break the bank, and is probaby cheaper than the wine they're bringing in under their coat!

Charging deposits just to Brits in case they wreck the room?  How realistic is that Ian!!!  I would be MOST insulted if I were asked for a deposit in a B&B, to be refunded only after my room had been inspected  I think that as I have already asked them in my booking conditions NOT to drink in the rooms and have given my reasons I would expect them to respect this and if I were to find out that there was damage I would feel within my rights now to ask for recompense.

I like the honesty box idea and this is something I originally thought of doing.  It was only after the paranoia set in about visits from the douanes or gendarmes that I thought it would be easier just to tell guests that they can buy beer or wine from us and then add this to their final bill than have "hard evidence" lying around when I got that knock on the door!

Perhaps I should just pretend I never read any of the postings on here about licences and carry on with the honesty box idea.  After all, we've come across them in several B&Bs we've stayed in and I think they are far the best way of dealing with the situation.  If our guests in general are anything to go by, for every one person that pinches a beer, there will be two or three more that pay over the rate because they don't have any change  We frequently have guests who pay us 10€ more than we asked for because they feel they were given so many extras.

Why should I mind people drinking their own alcohol?  Well, I don't really.  It was just a way of trying to regulate things a little.  Last year on a couple of occassions we had two couples travelling together staying a couple of nights, getting their booze out in the garden, sitting there all night and making US feel uncomfortable and as though we were intruding if we walked into our own garden.  We also had people bringing back packs of beer and asking to have it chilled in the fridge.  They were then coming into the kitchen when they felt like it to get a beer.

These things only happened occasionally, but it wasn't the way I wanted my B&B to be heading and I felt that by saying that we sell alcohol was a polite way of saying, please don't bring your own, we will supply you with whatever you need (and not at inflated prices either).  And it would be a way of regulating (not rationing) the situation.  In fact we are saving them the effort of having to go and buy the stuff.  After all, as much as I don't want people wandering in and out of my private kitchen area, when I have put their beer in my fridge in a way I am witholding it from them if I don't allow this.  Can you see where I'm coming from?

 

[Coco]

Fortunately our guests are mainly very civilised. We've virtually never had people who drink too much. Just as we would do at any dinner party, we fill their glasses as and when they empty them, until it's time to serve after dinner coffee. End of story. I don't count or allocate, and on average I'd say that although the wines are excellent in quality (our guests usually say they're the best they've had in B&B), we use about 3/4 bottle of white and a bottle of red for 4 guests (plus us), rarely more. And if it does turn out that we have some thirsty guests we grin and bear it!

That's a strange comment to make Ian.  What do you mean by "civilised"?  At what point does one cease to be civilised?  I've only ever had one lady who got really drunk at dinner, but even then, I think she had been so stressed that at last the opportunity to relax had sent the wine straight to her head.

I'm absolutely staggered at the amount of wine consumed during your four course dinners.  That's about a glass and a third per person throughout the meal!!  We work on half a bottle per person (3 glasses) and work in the same way as you, topping the glasses up when they are (almost) empty.  Usually with the French men this allocation is about right and with the ladies (especially those over 45) only one glass is consumed, although they will ALWAYS make sure they have at least half a glass of red to have with their cheese.  With just about every other nationality who have dined with us the full quota is used, and as you say, occasionally more is needed but we hate to spoil the moment by saying that we would have to charge for the rest, so we don't. 

Do you think I can ban suntan oil as I seem to get all sorts of things - wall, bedside rug, towels - messed up by that.

Good idea Maggi!  We don't really suffer from that problem in Normandy!  We did have a family of tea-totallers in recently.  The young mother not even going that far, nothing but water for her!  So I was a little surprised to find a large yellow stain on the bedspread.  Then I remembered, 9 month old baby, still in "diapers"   Ooops - can't ban that can you!!!

[Ian Hoare<br>All the best<br>Ian<br>La Souvigne Corrèze<br>http:www.souvigne.com]

Hi Coco,

I should have explained that Jacquie & I drink very little during the meal, say 1/4 of a bottle between us. So that makes round about 1½ bottles between 4, usually. My experience is that many French women drink less than a glass a head. So perhaps that puts the overall  consumption into better perspective. Remember also that probably 3/4 of our guests are French and that in general they don't regard drinking wine with a meal as some kind of competition.

My experience is that of all the visitors we have the Brits drink the most - especially when they don't have to pay extra for it, with the French (taking men AND women into consideration) the least. What I regard as civilised behaviour is consuming enough to give pleasure, without skimping, but not drinking enough to get drunk.

I use the standard INAO glasses with a total capacity of (hang on I'm going to do some measuring) 225 mls. When you pour a generous amount into such a glass (leaving decent headspace to be able to swirl and smell the wine, naturally) you pour in around 105 mls. That gives 7 good pours per bottle. After a good 100mls of an aperitive (white wine, kir or homemade vin de noix) and a glass of white with the first two courses, I rarely find people want more than two glasses of red. Perhaps it's _because_ we don't make a limit that people drink less. In any case, I've never limited anyone.

Oh... and our meals are 5 courses, not 4. Soup (Although I serve wine with soup, most people don't drink it as it rarely goes well). Entree -  that's when the white wine gets drunk. Main course - red, usually, or we may just switch to a good rosé if it's appropriate, or even, just occasionally stay with white for a fish dish, or a very light white meat - in that case, we'll usually change the white to one designed for meat. People usually finish the red with their cheese, for all that it goes horribly badly with blue cheese (bad habits die hard), or if we've had white, either finish that, or have a glass of red. Mostly, our guests finish their wine before we start on the desserts (I'm not about to start serving my E15 monbazillac dessert wine for a E17 meal!).

Yesterday, to give a concrete example. Hungarian Mushroom and dill soup, (actually the Bergerac Blanc was quite fair with it) Tarte aux Trompettes des Morts, made with loads of horn of plenty (craterellus cornucopioides) mushrooms etc, which was yummy with the white. One of our number (a Canadian lady) had asked for red wine as her aperitive, and stuck with that throughout the meal. Then for the main dish, Cassette d'Auvergne (roast leg of lamb on a bed of potatoes boulangères) and salad, we had a Bergerac red, which we finished with the cheese. We drank (a Canadian couple, an Australian couple and a frenchman on his own who only allows a one finger pour into the bottom of the glass (but four times!!)) a bottle and a half of white (aperitives and meal together (three vins de noix)), and about a carafe and a half of red.  I don't think I allowed ONE glass to get completely empty throughout the meal before topping up,  except at the changeover between white and red.

(B*ms... I've tried to edit this message three times, once failed, the second time I got a power cut and the third time I was just cut off!! GRR)

You said:-

Interestingly, no one has commented (not even Ian) about how you would deal with an inspection where guests were drinking their own wine but the gendarmes were to point out that you don't have a licence.

Well, Firstly I didn't comment because I don't think it would be the Gendarmes, but the Service des Douanes who police Licence fraud. Secondly because I think it highly unlikely they'd charge in for a surprise raid, they're much more likely to write to you informing them that due to information received, they believe you're illegally selling alcohol, would you like to explain yourself.

But can I say that generally, I think that being part of a society inplies taking the rough with the smooth. I so love living here, and running a B&B that I am perfectly willing to put up with the (odd) lunacies of the system. Surely you don't ONLY obey laws because you agree with them and/or are afraid of the penalties if you're caught.

I DID write much more before, but will update this post before anything ELSE eats it up!

[CatherineS2]

Coco, I can understand your points,  but I can also see it from the other perspective, as a guest...

I rarely drink alcohol nowadays, but when I did, I would sometimes have a glass of something or other whilst I was putting on my makeup and getting ready to go out. So I don't think people are being unreasonable if they have a drink in their rooms.

Also, I understand your comment about why do people buy their own wine when they could buy it from you - but maybe your guests have bought a particular wine which you don't provide, after all there is a much larger choice in the supermarket. (Not for a moment am I suggesting that your wines are in any way inferior!).  If I am in a licenced hotel or restaurant I would never dream of bringing my own - but if I am eating or staying in an unlicenced premises, then I would have absolutely no qualms about doing so.

Finally, just a suggestion... If you are concerned about people putting their beers in your fridge then traipsing in and out of your kitchen, why not put mini-fridges in the rooms? They are much cheaper than they used to be (in fact they are de rigeur in many UK teenagers rooms nowadays). This would be useful for your guests, not just for alcohol, but for keeping soft drinks cool as well.

 

[Cerise]

Well Alan, I think you act with common sense.  We do more or less the same - i.e. provide fridge, but there are always drinks in it whether provided by us or by guests.  We have not had anyone taking advantage - interestingly we find that guests often buy more beer for example than they consume and then leave the remains behind, so we simply leave it there for the next lot.

I am all for by being law abiding, but since you mention it Ian I regularly broke the licensing laws in UK by going to pub long before I was 18 (I'm tall and always could get to buy the drinks!!) and had no problem with the lock-ins at my Cornish local.  Sometimes I think that the people who use these forums are all candidates for sainthood with the shocked remarks they make.  Am I the only person here who has ever met decidedly dodgy folk, both French and English.

Rules are made for good reasons, but I am happy to recall that when I collected my licence from the Douanes the very nice gentleman said to me with a big wink "Madame, this licence permits you to SELL wine and beer but in France most of us are very hospitable and GIVE our guests a nice aperitif!"

Maggi

[Cerise]

My reply should be after Alan's or it doesn't make sense - what is happening???

Maggi

 

[Owens88]

hic

A consumer's perspective:

Either I can buy the stuff on site, or its given to me or I can bring my own. The gendarmerie my have some public 'no alcohol' places but they don't apply privately.

A LF forum dweller's perspective:

I think this harks back to a debate about the difference between a CdH and a Hotel. Mini Fridges, Selling Wine.... whats next, mini-bars ?

An owners perspective:

I am not a B&B owner but I read this forum because it has good advice and friendly comments. I am a gite owner and I do get irritated by the things people will take into bedrooms and spill. e.g. My own kids don't drink coke/coffee/chocolate in bed so why am I faced with buying new duvets/mattresses because visiting kids are allowed to ? --------Because I am in the tourist trade.

[JohnM]

[quote]Well Alan, I think you act with common sense. We do more or less the same - i.e. provide fridge, but there are always drinks in it whether provided by us or by guests. We have not had anyone taking ...[/quote]

"Sometimes I think that the people who use these forums are all candidates for sainthood with the shocked remarks they make."

Conversely, I'm sometimes surprised at how some people on here are prepared to tell the world that they are breaking the law. I have this theory that if you keep quiet about the odd infringement, you are more likely to get away with it. So that is the theory I will use WHEN/IF I infringe the law.

 

[mascamps.com]

I'm with Ian in saying that you can't sell the drink separately from the meal without asking for trouble at some point. Argueably you might get away with it for people who had a meal with you that evening by arguing that the wine was associated with the meal (the drinks license might allow that but I suspect the CdH rules probably don't).

What's the situation if you're sitting with your petit license that lets you sell up to wine but the guests bring in whisky and start drinking that?

And on another front, are you actually OK legally even if they are drinking their own wine/whisky/whatever on your premises separately from the meal? Yes, I know that people do that all the time in hotels but as Ian rightly points out the legislation for CdH's is quite different and besides most hotels would have a license allowing them to sell the drink separately from the meals anyway.

 

Arnold

 

[Mops]

I think you must have been very unfortunate with the guests you have had stay (were they all Brits?).  We regularly stay in B&B's (we use the Alastair Sawday guide) and I have to say that never have we been faced with a notice not asking us to drink in the room.  We have frequently had an 'apero' in our room (usually wine or beer) and often a digestif (usually whiskey) but we always take the utmost care in doing so, as we do in our own home.

Having been brought up over here and my husband having worked here when younger we have adopted the French attitude to drinking:  enjoy it and savour it without getting legless, I wish I could say the same thing about some of our British friends who believe the only way to enjoy yourself is to drink until you drop!

 

Angela

 

[Russethouse]

>>>And on another front, are you actually OK legally even if they are drinking their own wine/whisky/whatever on your premises separately from the meal? Yes, I know that people do that all the time in hotels but as Ian rightly points out the legislation for CdH's is quite different and besides most hotels would have a license allowing them to sell the drink separately from the meals anyway.<<<

Crikey Arnold - guests are wanting to relax on holiday, if they are faced with a list of don'ts and cannots, are they likely to return ? I can tell you what my other half would say if you told him he could only have whatever the host decided to give as drink with his meal, (which varies widely) and couldn't even enjoy his own drink on the premises.

Now I know why we stay in hotels!!!

Hi de Hi

[Coco]

Having been brought up over here and my husband having worked here when younger we have adopted the French attitude to drinking:  enjoy it and savour it without getting legless, I wish I could say the same thing about some of our British friends who believe the only way to enjoy yourself is to drink until you drop!

I love the line that a sommelier at one of the Vive La France exhibitions gave us .... "thinking drinking".  It was a wine tasting on the wines of the Loire and this guy was amazingly interesting.  We couldn't work out whether he was a Frenchman who had probably been brought up in the UK, or an Englishman who had lived in France for many years.  It turned out he was half and half, both in nationality and period of time in each country.  However, he definitely took the French philosophy on drinking and suggested that even if not actually "tasting" wine, rather than just glugging it down one should think about the wine as you drink it, and it really works!!  You drink it slower and you enjoy it more.  However, it does mean that you can no longer bear to drink any of that really cheap stuff just for the purposes of getting drunk!!

I'm so smug these days if we go out for a mid-week lunch and order a bottle of wine and leave about an inch in the bottom!  I feel that France must be rubbing off on me.  It's just NOT something you see many British people doing; feeling they've had sufficient and therefore leaving the rest.  We even sometimes put the cork back in the bottle and finish it the next evening when at home, not something we ever did in the UK, and not something that many of our British friends understand!

[mascamps.com]

John: funnily enough I don't think that the hotel vs CdH debate never even touched on the issue of mini-bars like Alan has!

Alan: do you sell a lot through the mini-bars in the rooms? Well, more to the point, I suppose that I'm asking how much the baby fridge is vs the income coming in from it. Now that you've raised the possibility of having one I was thinking over our recent guests and reckon that several would have been interested in having one.

And how come your entry is always the last in the thread?

 

Arnold

 

[Cerise]

Hi Arnold

I know you asked the question of Alan - and what we do may not work for you as we have less rooms, but we have a large communal fridge for the guests.  Drinks are in there, ditto ice packs for the picnic bags (we supply a few bags which people can borrow) and customers can also use for their picnic things, cheese and pate they want to take home etc.  We have a cupboard beside with glasses, picnic cutlery etc and works very well.  I collect anything dirty and put in dishwasher, but keeps guests away from our own fridge.

Maggi

 

[Mops]

[quote]Having been brought up over here and my husband having worked here when younger we have adopted the French attitude to drinking: enjoy it and savour it without getting legless, I wish I could say the...[/quote]

Coco, I couldn't agree more.  We frequently put a cork in the bottle and save it until the next day (it often tastes better!).  That doesn't mean to say that occasionally we have a little more than we need either but I like to think that we have a reasonably sensible approach to drinking most of the time.  After all the supply is hardly likely to dry up and there is always another day.  I also agree with you comment about savouring the wine and it putting you off plonk.  Life is far too short and precious to drink bad wine!

 

Mops

[Alan]

Alan: do you sell a lot through the mini-bars in the rooms? Well, more to the point, I suppose that I'm asking how much the baby fridge is vs the income coming in from it.

 

No Arnold we don’t, we offer the fridge as a service. As I have said we don’t have a price tariff. Some guests even take out any cans or bottles that are in there and put their own items in the fridge, some don’t even bother to run the fridge. We only have 3 rooms and have the mini fridge in 2 of the rooms, one was bought in France price I think was 90 euros and the other from the uk which  was about 40 pounds , this one is very loud and I really don’t know how people sleep with it on during the night.

 

Alan

[mascamps.com]

Must have a look at fridges next time they're on sale then.

Is is just those one foot high ones that you use? I was sort-of toying with getting one of those for our wine shop a while back. I think they're about 30€ or so when on sale but more to the point don't take up a heap of floor space yet look big enough for a bottle/can or two.

From our perspective it also adds a tick in the "mini-bar" box which I gather is something of a plus point for business travellers.

 

Arnold