Hospitality for a price

Events are an opportunity for hotels to make money, but some have a tough time distinguishing between profits and super-normal profits, as executives from a big Bangalore-based IT company discovered. Attending the Nasscom India Leadership Forum in Mumbai, they occupied a table for 15 minutes at a restaurant of the hotel where the event was being held — and were slapped with a bill of Rs 12,500 (Rs 15,500 including taxes). This, even though they had pre-booked a table for Rs 26,000 for the conference and had, in fact, used it for half an hour less than the allotted time. The officials, who had not placed, an order were not allowed to leave the premises till they paid, “We met some clients and decided to have a casual chat for 15 minutes. If the restaurant was full we could understand. But there were hardly any people at that time,” the official said.