Just because a Telegraph journalist with limited understanding of the hospitality sector was naively fleeced in a five star central London hotel does not mean we’ve actually crossed that threshold.
Last time I checked, high end bars attached to London hotels routinely charge over the odds for beer and it should hardly be a surprise, but, hey let’s not let the facts stand in the way of a good headline, particularly one that’s now got all the opinion piece writers frothing at the mouth.
Media hysteria
And yes, the irony is not lost on me that I could be accused of doing the same, although I’d like to think that mine is through the sheer indignation though at the idiocy of my journalistic colleagues.
What I find particularly galling about The Telegraph story is the fact that this is a paper which claims to be campaigning to save the Great British Pub, yet at the same time publishing hysteria inducing inaccurate pieces which totally undermines that same sector.
The average price of a pint of beer across the UK is around £5.17, and yes, while London the average is a bit punchier and we are skating ever closer to that mythical £10 pint figure, we’re not there yet.
Escalating costs
Pubs are struggling enough, and are being constantly forced to make the difficult choice between passing on the constantly escalating costs of taxation (thanks for that Rachel Reeves) and all the other pressures of inflation, or sacrificing margin and their own ability to remain open and feed their own families.
The price of a pint is challenging - pubs are not profiteering, they’re struggling to keep their heads above water, and stories like The Telegraph’s, which then cues up opinion pieces attacking the sector as “greedy”, is not helpful.
I particularly enjoyed one London Standard piece in which the journalist lamented that going for a round of drinks with four mates was going to cost him £55 - maybe he needs to stop drinking in five star hotels and get back down to the pub, they might then actually learn a thing or two about how the real world works.
Pubs need support, not media induced hysteria.
