Good Pub Guide to charge for inclusion
Pubs are set to be charged up to £200 for the privilege of appearing in the Good Pub Guide from next year.
Fiona Stapley, who has edited the book for 27 years, said the charges will be introduced for the 2012 edition. Fees will be either £99 or £199, depending on the size of the outlet.
Letters have been sent to licensees advising them of the change and informing them that they will need to pay the fee to be included in as main entry in the book. However, there will be 3,500 smaller 'lucky dip' entries that will remain free of charge.
Stapley said: "Putting together a guide like this is quite expensive and we are looking at the business model. More and more guides like this are charging."
She added that the judging criteria would remain the same and pubs would still have to reach the same standards to gain a listing.
"I understand that this is a huge disappointment for an awful lot of pubs and it has not been an easy decision for us to come to."
She added that she had yet to receive enough feedback on the plans to judge if many pubs would refuse to pay the fee.
"Obviously it is a difficult time for pubs and some people may find that they do not want to pay the fee."
Oliver Wolfe, licensee of North Devon freehouse the Coach and Horses, was sent a letter on Wednesday asking for payment.
Wolfe and his wife, Nicki, have run the pub - based in Buckland Brewer - for the past 21 years and have always been included.
He said: "If you say 'I don't really want to pay for it' and then they say 'sorry you're not going to be in it' - then it's not really a good pub guide and it becomes like any other guide. It's losing its integrity.
"It's probably something that we will end up paying for. We will probably stump up for it even though as there aren't many other pubs mentioned in it in our area and we have a lot of people come in with this."
More than 5,000 pubs featured in this year's edition of the book. However 400 pubs were blacklisted for poor service. The guide said four in 10 "disappointed" customers had reported poor customer service - meaning 381 pubs had been excluded.
