To apply the surcharge or Not

Interesting comment from a guest this morning about being charged a surchrge at a local eatery for having a meal on boxing day and having to pay a 15% surcharge as well as his bill. He found it strange that there was not a price that was charged all year round. He was not saying don't cover you costs - he was merely saying include your one off holiday pricing in your everyday prices and then you would not have two sets of prices and having to tell contented patrons that they have to pay a surcharge (this put a little downer on the meal even though it was very good) - I think he has a valid point.

It's more than a little odd that some areas of business charge a surcharge and others don't/can't. Imagine what would happen if hotelliers/ motelliers had to tell guests that on certain days they would be paying a room rate plus a surcharge - it would not happen as guests would vote with their feet and either book somewhere where there was no surcharge or come on a different day

To me it is simpler to ammertize the additional costs across everyday pricing and have one price with everything included and it presents a more positive approach to clients.

Imagine if supermarkets, convenience stores, liquor stores etc all had the same policy of charging a surcharge on a certain day - no one shop in their stores on that day unless they were desparate as no one in their right mind wants to pay any more than they need to.

May be we should be looking at this from the customer's perception as untimately he has the final say.

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