Image via Edward Heaton Twitter.
If you were looking for the most ridiculous story of the week, the one featuring a man who paid a whopping $127 for three bottles of water might be a strong candidate.
The Independent's Chris Green (h/t Fox News) reports Edward Heaton has the unenviable distinction of paying an exorbitant price for something you can still get for free at the water fountain.
The purchase that garnered quite the outrageous bill came at the Crystal Bar, located at London's Wellesley Hotel. The man in question is Edward Heaton, who was hoping to quench his and his client's thirst with three bottles of sparkling water.
Of course, a premium price on water at such a locale was expected, but even the most frivolous of spenders might get sticker shock when, "three 500ml bottles of San Pellegrino came to £75."
As of this writing we couldn't confirm whether this water contained special powers. As far as we can tell, this was just the regular kind, albeit sparkling, that you find out of the faucet.
According to the report, Heaton had no idea there were some added charges that come with slaking your thirst in the comforts of this posh locale. Green explains:
"The businessmen did not realise that the five-star Wellesley, which charges upwards of £300 a night for its most modest room, operates a minimum charge of £25 per person for customers using its bar after 4pm. The water came to £16.50, and a service charge of £8.33 was also levied on top of the £50.17 minimum spend."
Heaton chronicled the debacle with a picture of the receipt, leading to quite the snarky response from the hotel:
Something tells me the hotel didn't quite mean "all the best" in the way the phrase was intended.
Rather than apologize for the confusion, The Wellesley seems content to fully embrace their role as hotel heel from this day forward.
Heaton explains that he is hardly a novice in various hotel bars, "I spend a lot of time in central London and I have a lot of meetings in the top hotels. I am pretty well versed in how these places work but I have never had this before. I will never set foot in that hotel again."
To his credit, Heaton paid the bill as to not, "make a scene." And the hotel also issued a far more complete explanation when their tweet failed to garner the positive response it had hoped.
Green provides the hotel's complete statement, which includes the following:
"The Wellesley applies a minimum spend of £25 per person as standard after 4pm for guests occupying the hotel's cigar terraces where Mr Edward Heaton held his business meeting on 17 July 2014. Guests are made aware of this policy on arrival and the rates are printed on the menus distributed on the terraces.
[…]
"In response, The Wellesley's management team replied on the same day to offer its sincere apologies to Mr Heaton for an experience he deemed less than satisfactory and we would like to take this opportunity to apologise again."
That settles that. If you are thirsty, make sure to visit the hotel prior to four in the afternoon. After that, it's probably more efficient to buy a few bottles from the store and just give a $100 bill to someone on the street.
For the latest travel news, updates and deals, subscribe to the daily TravelPulse newsletter.
Topics From This Article to Explore
