I feel Hotel took advantage of Minimum spend agreement

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glendale

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I recently organised a social event in a well known city center hotel. I agreed a minimum spend with the hotel and if there was any shortfall I would pay this as room rental. We planned to serve wine, up to a certain limit of bottles, over the evening.

On the night I had assumed the wine limit had been reached after a few hours as we no longer saw it been served.

However when we got our bill I saw that we didn't reach our minimum spend as there was a significant shortfall in the amount of wine consumed and we were charged this shortfall as room rental.

I feel that the hotel didn't make a reasonable effort to serve the wine, maybe in the knowledge of the fact that we had a minimum spend agreement and would be paying one way or the other.

The hotel doesn't acknowledge any fault on there behalf. Any ideas how to proceed? Small claims court?
 
I don't really understand the nature of your contract with the hotel.

Small Claims Court is only for consumer to business issues and this sound like it may be a a commercial/business to business transaction?
 
ClubMan said:
I don't really understand the nature of your contract with the hotel.
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I was paying the hotel for a function for my family and friends in one of their rooms, we had ordered a certain amount of finger food and wine, along with bar facilities. The contract stated if we spent a specified amount we would not have to pay for the hire of the room itself.

ClubMan said:
Small Claims Court is only for consumer to business issues and this sound like it may be a a commercial/business to business transaction?
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It was a party for my family and friends. Doesn't this make me a consumer?
 


If you organised the event, I assume the hotel would believe that it is your responsibility to check on the wine consumption i.e if you noted that it wasn't being served you should have checked to see if you had reached your limit. You will say they didn't make an effort - they will say they did
 
I don't see how you can have a case in the SCC or elsewhere. You agreed a price, and you paid it. You made an incorrect assumption in relation to the amounts of wine that were being consumed and you relied on this assumption instead of checking it at the time.
 

The responsibility for serving the wine was on the hotel. I noticed wine was no longer been served and assumed it was all consumed. This assumption was incorrect but I don't see how that is at the core of the issue.
The central problem is that the hotel didn't continue to serve the wine til either it was all gone or the event was over.
 

There is no doubt I should of checked what was going on once I noticed wine was no longer been served, no doubt if I had the problem would of been avoided.

But I didn't have a contractual responsibility to make sure the wine was served till it was gone, surely this was the responsibility of the staff?
Basically I trusted the staff to serve the wine until it was gone, they didn't do this. This from my point of view is the core of the issue.
 
glendale said:
But I didn't have a contractual responsibility to make sure the wine was served till it was gone, surely this was the responsibility of the staff? .
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I'm not a legal expert and to an extent I'm merely playing devil's advocate here but I would be surprised if this responsibility is an absolute one. For example, if the hotel maintained that they stopped serving wine because some of the party were intoxicated (ridiculous and all as that may seem to you, given that you were there at the time) they probably would have a defence?
 

I appreciate the replys. The hotel don't maintain this. Their defence is that they served wine all night, but I don't think they made a reasonable effort to serve the wine for the course of the event. The reality is that it would be very difficult to prove absolutely either argument. So what would happen if a case like this went to the small claims court. Would the judge use common sense to come to a decision?
 
I think the issue is too subjective (ie "I don't think they made a reasonable effort") for them to make a ruling against the hotel.
 
ubiquitous said:
I think the issue is too subjective (ie "I don't think they made a reasonable effort") for them to make a ruling against the hotel.
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What if i had witnesses that said they didn't see any wine been served after X.XX in the evening?

By the way the shortfall was over a thousand euro, so its a decent sum of money just in case it seems I just been difficult.
 
Did you speak to the highest person possible?

As in, the very head of the hotel chain? If you didnt get satisfaction from the Manager or Duty Manager, ask for a meeting with the M.D. or someone higher in the business?
 
glendale said:
... We planned to serve wine, up to a certain limit of bottles, over the evening.

On the night I had assumed the wine limit had been reached after a few hours as we no longer saw it been served. ...
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I believe it was your responsibility to check with the staff on the night that all the wine up to the limit you requested was served.

Were your specific requirements or upper limits documented anywhere?
 
mathepac said:
I believe it was your responsibility to check with the staff on the night that all the wine up to the limit you requested was served.

Were your specific requirements or upper limits documented anywhere?
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I think it was reasonable to assume the hotel would carry out our instructions which was to serve the wine to our guests. And yes the limit was specified in an estimated costing.
 
Some of the replies on here are baffling.

It's not the OP's job to monitor the hotel serving the wine. It's the OP's job to try and enjoy the function they were paying for.

The bar manager should have continued to ensure that wine was served up to the limit set in the contract, assuming that there was no reason not to do so such as drunken behaviour. As and when the limit was reached the bar manager should ask the OP whether to stop serving or to continue as the limit has been reached. That is standard practice.

It should be fairly obvious that the hotel would gain significantly by stopping serving before the contracted amount had been reached.

OP - I would write to the MD of the hotel and set out your concerns. Keep going higher until you are satisified. I assume you're only asking for the shortfall to be returned.

SSE
 

Indeed, I agree, but on the other hand I find it hard to see how a court could rule in the OP's favour, given that the issue was not raised with the hotel on the night.
 
sse said:
OP - I assume you're only asking for the shortfall to be returned.
SSE
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We are asking for the wine that made up the shortfall to be returned to us as opposed to the cash value of that wine which I think is fair.
 
glendale - I thought you would be asking for the shortfall, i.e. the "room rental" rather than wine? Bit confused as to why you'd ask for the wine!

How long before the end of the evening did the wine stop?

SSE
 
sse said:
glendale - I thought you would be asking for the shortfall, i.e. the "room rental" rather than wine? Bit confused as to why you'd ask for the wine!

How long before the end of the evening did the wine stop?

SSE
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I didn't ask for the shortfall as we agreed to the minimum spend and feel we should honor that. I would like the bottles of wine that should of been consumed (and which we effectively paid for), this is a fairer solution for both sides.

The bar closed sometime after 1.30, the last people left at 3. I didn't see any wine served after 9.30!
 
Did the minimum spend include the bar takings?

Sorry I read this wrong and thought that the hotel hadn't served all the wine you ordered, but I assume after 9:30 I assume everybody was drinking something else from the bar which is why there were no complaints?

I don't think you'll get anything as you agreed a minimum spend which wasn't reached. I suppose even if the hotel had served all the wine the bar takings would have been lower?

SSE
 
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