Price gouging by the pub, restaurant & hotel industry

The problem isn't the price in a pub for a sambo and a bowl of soup. The cost of goods and services have cone up almost 50% in the past twenty years and wages have not followed suit at all.

Nobody is ever happy with price increases, no matter how they are "justified". But the difference now is the percentage of the increase. I'm old enough to recall the days when the price of a pint went up by a couple of pence on a pint that was about 3 quid or so. These days the increases are much more and much more frequent too. My local used to charge a fiver for a Guinness, pre covid (which wasn't that long ago). Now they charge 5.80. It'll be 6 soon enough. Christ knows what a lager is.

Nobody is "happy" about handing over that amount for a pint, even if they do, and there will come a point where such a thing becomes too much for many people.

Going to Paris for the Scotland game in 2 weeks, booked a very nice 4 star boutique hotel in the Latin quarter for 250 a night for 2 nights which I was pretty happy with. Out of curiosity I just checked Dublin for the same dates and every hotel of similar quality is at least 200-300 more total and even the 3 stars are generally coming in at least 100 more. Why would anyone come here?

no its not, its a combination of many factors, including state block booking for refugees, and other homeless citizens, inflation pressures, and clearly price gouging, all ultimately linked to the collapse of our property market....

This argument is all on the side of people putting up prices and the reason being costs have gone up and gouging both are at play. What is not being discussed is the fact wages have not come up any where near meeting the levels of inflation seen over the last 2/3 years and ergo a lot of companies pricing models is going to see them losing custom and hitting the wall. So there is a price gap some people can jump the gap who have high wages but the vast majority cant. Lets see how hotels do once the current war in Ukraine is done. Lets see how many bars and restaurants remain open with the high prices they are charging. Ireland in 10 years time will have a completely different look and feel with regards to what is open and what will be closing.

Ha you must be in business? My main argument is not about prices per se but about 'hiking' the prices up far higher than wages, pensions or social welfare are going up. I don't eat out very often but my breakfast last Saturday cost 13 euro whereas just before Covid struck it was 9 euro. That's around a 40% increase whereas my wages has risen about 5%. Many other cases of this too. Justify that please.

There are plenty of folks that dont even look at the price. People have different perceptions of what expensive is and there are clearly enough people that dont have an issue with 7 to 8 euro a pint.

Things wont change unless we hit a tipping point and we are not there yet. Not in Dublin anyway.

True but the fact still remains as prices go higher and as the gap between wage and prices extend people will not have the discretionary spend to go to bars and the forces that send a person into the direction of going to the pub or restaurants will be lessoned as discretionary spend dwindles and as cheaper options of cooking at home and getting a few cans from Aldi sway their spending habbits, since covid you can see even by this very thread that the gap is there, the general public do not think there is value for money in this country in a lot of areas and the gap between wage and the inflated prices is widening and people will spend less and less on a luxury and will be looking for value for money and Ireland is not a great place for value for money at the minute. So what does the company do when this happens? They have to increase prices for the current custom as their footfall decreases or hit the wall and as this spiral continues they will lose more custom. I am not saying all bars and restaurants will hit the wall but a lot of people will be put out of business due to lack of custom. I don't know what the answer is but I do believe that gouging should be pointed out and the people who engage in it should be named and shamed on the flip if someone has paid for something that was well worth the money they should be sharing with as many people as possible.

The price of sausages, eggs and bacon have risen and gas/electricity too but not anywhere near justifying the price increases. I asked the young lady if her wages went up like the prices and she said her's hadn't gone up at all.

You think €250 per night in Paris is ok.

Other people think €400 per night in Dublin is ok.

That's why you're going to Paris, and other people come to Dublin .

It wasn't me afaik. My main point is that the customer can only afford so much of an increase as his/her wage hasn't risen in accordance with the price rises in restaurants and hotels. He/she will go elsewhere and if everyone does that then the businesses will obviously suffer.

People have to stop making excuses for price gouging.

There won’t be a tipping point. We know the inflation and housing cost is going up faster than wages. Therefore, people have less disposable income. It means there are people making choices of what needs to drop (monthly savings, holidays, food, pub/restaurants, etc).

it will be a slow process where the pubs/restaurants that are at the bottom of the market will close (bad location, bad food, etc). I don’t think there is as much price gouging as claimed by some people here. This feeling of price gouging is mostly due to the lack of knowledge on the pub/restaurant business.