Complaints about the price of a pint are nothing new but an Australian journalist has more reason than most to be raging, after being charged more than €61,000 for a beer in a Manchester hotel.
Peter Lalor, who is the cricket writer and editor, was charged the large sum for a bottle of Deuchars IPA at the Malmaison hotel, after a day watching the Ashes at Old Trafford.
“I decided I wanted one beer on the way home and dropped in because I have mates staying there,” he said.
“When I paid, I didn’t have my glasses on and there was some issue with the machine so I had to put my details in twice.
“I just had this weird feeling and I said, ‘How much did I just pay for that beer?’ The girl at the bar looked at the receipt and said, ‘Oh my God!’ and was a bit reluctant to show me the bill.”
See this beer? That is the most expensive beer in history.
I paid $99,983.64 for it in the Malmaison Hotel, Manchester the other night.
Seriously.Contd. pic.twitter.com/Q54SoBB7wu
— Peter Lalor (@plalor) September 5, 2019
After seeing he had been charged €61741.40, Lalor said a hotel manager immediately admitted the mistake and assured Lalor that he would return the money to his bank. He left, assuming the bank would never authorise such a large payment.
“I woke up to an alarmed phone call from my wife, who had found a massive hole in my mortgage account,” said Lalor.
“They can take the money out in a second but apparently it takes them up to 10 working days to put it back. I’m losing a fair whack of interest and as of this moment, I’m $99,000 out of pocket."
