Pub Car Park charging.

[gillhalfpint]

Has anyone had experience of pubs charging in their car parks?

I have seen a form of Pay and Display that charges £1 and you get it off your drinks in the pub. Some people use that car park as a park and ride and leave the car there while they take normal service bus into Birmingham.

Fair enough I suppose.

We have just been ripped off. Driftwood Spa I believe is Cornwall CAMRA pub of the year, has lads sitting at the car park for the pub and charge £4.50 per day to park. This pub is quite a way off the bus route down a hill, and in the past we have walked down from the bus. A friend drove us down to have a drink today and we found we had to pay this £4.50.

We are given a ticket that says we get the £4.50 back if we spend £10 in the pub. It has to be one transaction, we cannot get a round then have another round later etc. We only wanted a half each and had already eaten elsewhere as it was after 3pm. To get our £4.50 back we had to buy 3.5 pints of beer between us. When we got back to the car it was once again a free car park as the attendants had gone. Doesn't encourage anyone wanting to drop in to visit a CAMRA pub of the year to try their beers.

[RogerB]

The George in Wanstead (a 'Spoons) charges for its car park but you get the money back when you spend (I think) a fiver in the pub. The pub and car park are opposite Wanstead tube so they are basically trying to deter commuters leaving their car there all day which is fair enough.

[ptg]

I'd like to charge for parking - we tried it but with no resources to enforce it (other than a scouse fiancée with a pitch fork), and when I've got the budget for it, I'll put up one-way roll-over thingies and an exit barrier.. the restaurant next door used to take the mick with parking and it seems silly that we can't generate revenue from them. The price will be set at the price of a pint to park, and your ticket will be redeemable in the pub. If you're parking here for a half. I don't think paying to park is fair for genuine customers, but a necessity to deal with piss takers.

[arwkrite]

Thanks for the memory Gill..it was called the Driftwood when my first wife and I visited St Agnes in the mid 70s. Back then the place was very pricey. I remember a camera crew were filming an advert involving crashing waves staying there on expenses.They were not in any rush to leave. It had a name for its fish menu which I can remember being very good. Parking in St Agnes was then at a premium and no doubt it has gotten worse. However paying £4.50 and having to spend £10 to get it back would appear steep. On the other hand I know of seaside towns that split the day into morning and afternoon parking, charge £5 per session with no way of redeeming your parking fee.The fee of £4.50 a day in a prime spot is not in my opinion outlandish.They probably charge more than £3 a pint in the bar.

[trainman]

spend £10 ... It has to be one transaction,.

Probably the worst element of a possibly necessary restriction, albeit one with too high a bar (for refund). If a couple arrives, one is (evidently) driving, the other hardly wants 2 or 3 drinks pulled on arrival, even if they were intending to stay that long. Being a non-driver I'd flippin well make sure I did, tho the disappearance of the parking 'guardians' later on makes it all rather randomly discriminatory. And no Gill, as you say, hardly a recommendation for any sort of poty.

[arwkrite]

Borrow a seven seat MPV and the noisiest kids you can find then sit in the bar with them nursing your pint.See who cracks first.

[ETA]

Easy answer here - either don't go by car, or find another pub that doesn't charge.

As long as they don't start charging me to chain my bike up outside...

[RogerB]

If Ryan Air did pubs they wouldn't just charge to park. They would make you pay to walk there, ensure the price of a pint is double unless it was booked in advance, rent out the glasses and have bouncers collecting pound coins at the toilet door!

[ETA]

If Ryan Air did pubs they wouldn't just charge to park. They would make you pay to walk there, ensure the price of a pint is double unless it was booked in advance, rent out the glasses and have bouncers collecting pound coins at the toilet door!

Not to mention opening late, losing your bags and ending up throwing your pint away before you actually have time to drink it.

Imagine the conversation:

"This beer's off. Can I have another please?"
"Sorry sir, it's not our fault the beer's off - it was OK when it lft the brewery. You should have been here to drink forty minutes ago"
"What? I was at work 40 minutes ago!"
"Well it's not RyanPub's fault you were late"
"I wasn't late - I've just left work."
"Well, we can give you another pint tomorrow at 2.15, but it'll be a different beer"
"I'm thirsty now - can't you just change it?"
"Sorry, the barrel's run out"
"No it hasn't - I can see your colleague pouring one now!"
"I'll put you on standby then in case there's any left over at last orders..."

etc etc

[Alesonly]

I Have Been in two Pubs over the past few years that charged 50p too use the Toilet and had turnstills both were in central London sorry cant remember what they were called as I left after a Pint.
As for Parking they should charge say £3 and just give customes money back off first Pint.

[Farway]

Never come across charging to park pubs, until this Sunday, went to photograph the Harbour Lights at Cosham, and noticed a pay & display, but seemed to be more based on honesty as there was no enforcement I could see, and note says free parking for customers. No idea why they want to discourage parking, not like it is near a busy area, and the huge Tesco, Premier Inn, KFC etc nearby all have massive car parks anyway

On the opposite side of the coin, the Spotted Cow, at Cowplain, always has people parking there, for the doctors' next door & chippy over the road. But they reckon it encourages folk to come in, as they think pub is busy & popular [it is both BTW]

[arwkrite]

I Have Been in two Pubs over the past few years that charged 50p too use the Toilet and had turnstills both were in central London sorry cant remember what they were called as I left after a Pint.
As for Parking they should charge say £3 and just give customes money back off first Pint.

I would probably spend as much in the turnstile as I would over the bar.:pray::eek::whistle:

[Conrad]

I would probably spend as much in the turnstile as I would over the bar.:pray::eek::whistle:
Not just me thinking that then.

I wonder if it they are the sort of pub where if you filled up a glass you could get trade in value by selling it back across the bar.