Woman accidentally orders $4000 cocktail at London hotel bar

A woman was shocked and upset when she was hit with a hotel bar bill for thousands of dollars in London. Photo / 123rf

When visiting a fancy hotel, it pays to double-check the price of items, one traveller has revealed in a TikTok video.

During a visit to a five-star hotel in London, Lynsey Bennett said she ordered a cocktail from the hotel bar, thinking it cost £18.90 ($39). When the bill later arrived, the Belfast woman learned it actually cost £1890 ($3895).

Bennett and her husband were visiting London for a few days when they went to the theatre and got “a little bit tispy”. They then returned to the hotel and ordered a few more drinks, including the incredibly expensive cocktail.

Bennett didn’t usually drink cocktails, but decided to “order something a little bit different”; a decision that would cost her, literally.

“When I discovered the cocktail I had ordered was £2000, I showed my husband the receipt and he was furious at me,” she said in the video, adding that she hadn’t even enjoyed the drink, which contained Cristal Champagne, 30-year-old whisky and a sprinkle of gold leaf.

“So he left the bar. Left me on my own to deal with it.”

@lynsey_36

Replying to @Caroline💕

♬ original sound - Lynsey

Alone and upset, Bennett decided to be fully honest with the bartender and said she had no idea of the real cost and could not pay for it.

The young barman, who was new in his job, allegedly panicked and called over his manager.

“The manager was so discreet and wonderful,” Bennett said, but she still spent the rest of her stay feeling nervous about the bill and “avoided the bar like the plague”.

Eventually, on the final night of their visit, Bennett returned to the bar.

“We saw the manager, and he put his arms out to me and he was like, ‘Oh, this is the girl that made us open the Cristal‘,” she said.

After apologising again, she realised the bartender was gone and asked where he was.

Initially, the manager said he had sacked the young man, prompting Bennett to start crying, and she offered to pay the bill if it meant the man could keep his job.

The manager then told her to “calm down, drama queen”, and assured her he was joking.

Like Bennett, TikTok viewers appeared shocked by the cost of the drink, sharing their disbelief in the comments.

Many said it was an unreasonable price, but if that was how much it cost, the menu should have made it more clear.

“To be fair, it’s an absolutely absurd price. It should be made clear as day on the menu, I’d say!!!" one person wrote in the comments.

“I would never have assumed a cocktail would cost that much,” another added.

One person asked what they put in the cocktail to justify the price, while another said the issue wasn’t the contents of the drink but the menu design.

“If it’s not clear, then you could contest it,” one person suggested.