Two hundred and forty-four people, and not one of them is talking about the drinks
Sunset Bar holds a 2.8 from two hundred and forty-four people and charges ten to forty pounds.
It is the second-lowest score in this district and the reviews are unanimous.
What they say
The entry charge.
Not the drinks. Not the music. Not the room, the staff, the queue or the temperature.
A charge, applied at the door, which the reviewers say was not advertised, was not applied consistently, and was not explained.
Being surprised by money
Which is the single most reliable destroyer of a rating in six postcodes and six hundred and twelve articles.
Everything else can be forgiven.
A slow bar can be forgiven. A bad cocktail can be forgiven – people are remarkably generous about a bad cocktail. A loud room, a broken lavatory, a member of staff having a difficult evening: all of it is survivable, and the reviews prove it.
Being asked for money you did not know about, in public, at a door, after queueing, cannot.
Because it does not feel like a price. It feels like a trick.
The three
The Lighthouse: 2.7 from four hundred and twenty-one people.
Sunset Bar: 2.8 from two hundred and forty-four.
Aura x: 3.4 from three hundred and forty-five.
Three venues, one district, all late-opening, all with a door, all with a charge – and a combined sample of over a thousand people who are, essentially, writing the same review.
The fix, which is free
Put the charge on the website.
That is the whole intervention. It costs nothing and it would move these numbers by a full star within a year.
A person who knew there was a fifteen-pound charge and chose to come is a customer.
A person who queued for forty minutes and was told at the door is an enemy – and they will be an enemy in writing, in public, permanently, and their review will still be there in six years and will be read by people who have not been born yet.
The mirror
Lounge Bohemia, in this district, has the most restrictive entry conditions in six postcodes. Appointment only. No groups over four. No suits.
It holds a 4.3.
Because it tells you before you leave the house.
A published policy costs half a star. An unpublished one costs two.
Verdict
Two hundred and forty-four people are not wrong.
Nobody is talking about the drinks.
Why the charge exists
To be fair to them, because there is a reason and it is not greed.
A late licence is expensive. Security is expensive, and a venue open until three needs more of it than a pub that closes at eleven. And the last two hours of the night are, in revenue terms, thin – because people who have been drinking for six hours do not buy much.
So the entry charge is doing real work. It covers the door staff, and it filters, and it converts a queue into cash before anybody has bought a drink.
The venue is not being unreasonable in wanting it.
It is being unreasonable in not saying so, on the website, in advance, where a person can read it and decide.
Megan Amram is a standup comedian based in Portland, OR. She is a native of North London.
