Would £200 be reasonable for a cooked arrival meal for six?

[zael]

We recently stayed at a holiday cottage. We were arriving late and the owner said the housekeeper is a great cook, so could leave a prepared meal for us. Never done this before.

There were 6 adults. We got left 6 large home made cornish pasties, some vegetables, some potatoes, 6 beers, and a home made victoria sponge. It was yummy.

How much do you think the housekeeper charged us for this?

£200

How much would you expect to have paid?

It's probably a little more than I would expect to pay, but not unreasonably so. The meat for 6 large pasties won't have been cheap.

Let’s say a pub would have charged £7 for the beer. That leaves just over £26 for two courses. Even if you say the main was £18 (a lot for a pasty), that still means the pudding is £8.30 - admittedly, not unheard of, but usually for something a bit more interesting than school fete cake.

But the price is only half the story here. What about choice? In your gastropub, you’d have been able to choose from several different dishes and a whole range of drinks. With this deal, it’s pasty and sponge cake or go hungry - all washed down with one lonely little beer. I get you’re paying for preparation time and convenience as well as ingredients, but you’re also compromising on choice for the sake of this convenience. Shouldn’t that be reflected in the price too?

In the same way restaurants offer set menus for less, this is essentially a set menu designed for convenience (and maximum profit - the housekeeper doesn’t have to spend more time or money making an alternative dish). I wouldn’t consider two courses and a beer for £33 good value, especially when there’s zero choice involved.

@Barleyhot Are you a fan of the Famous Five, by any chance?

Who isn’t?!

Did you have to reheat the food yourself?

Exactly. For £33 I'd expect something a bit more interesting than that load of dull stodge.

If I wanted a pasty, I'd get obe for lunch for what, a fiver from somewhere like here:

www.annspasties.co.uk/contact/

Please tell me there was gravy to go with it.

One thing I’d missed initially is that OP says they arrived late. If it was very late - or at least past the time most pubs nearby would have closed their kitchens - I’m guessing a premium was applied to reflect this. If you’re the only game in town, you can charge more.

I also think location is important. A seaside resort or picturesque market town likely has takeaways nearby that can offer better value and choice, which makes this deal look a bit of a con. A small village or rural spot close to one? It might be an expensive option, but it could be the only option.

Sounds a lot, but if the pastry and cake were made from scratch it would have taken hours. If you’d all had 2 courses and a drink in a restaurant it would have cost more.

I think you’re paying more for a personal, private service though. A restaurant will likely have certain economies of scale, whereby they batch buy and make ingredients and sauces etc, which no doubt saves a of time. That’s different to having someone go out and personally shop and cook for you.

At an Airbnb in wales last year, they offered dinner on arrival for £15pp, a Malaysian chicken curry with rice and veg (generous portions), plus raspberry clafoutis with cream. It was delicious home cooking but I would have been put off if it was £20pp or more.

They saw you coming. What a rip off. Everything now about the tourist industry is geared to rip people off. They seem to think everyone is made of money

Sounds reasonable to me.

You expect someone to shop and cook for your party and leave it waiting for you in your holiday accommodation for less than the price of a takeaway? Of course a takeaway would have been cheaper!

I suppose by the time you’ve factored in the time it took to go to the shop, buy ingredients, travel home (assuming she drives and doesn’t have to mess around with buses), gas, electric, time taken to bake, wash up, time taken to transport the food to the property, return home and wash up all her Tupperware, plus I expect the owner has added a couple of quid of profit on the top for herself, I can easily see how it would add up to £200. Especially if it was some poncey craft beer with a ridiculous name that was brewed by someone who described themselves as an artisan.

Minimum wage is £12.71 an hour. If she’s a decent cook, and earning a reasonable wage as a housekeeper, would you be slaving over a meal for someone else for minimum wage? I bloody wouldn’t.

I make homemade pasties and they take bloody hours and need very good quality beef. They are not a cheap meal. Food of the gods done properly of course 😊

£200 seems steep. Did you know then price before hand? I’d pay £120.

I had no idea how long it takes to make a pasty, but if they take hours, then she has every right to charge for her time. Who would work for free?

Not the point of the thread but no need to serve potatoes and veg alongside a Cornish pasty :D

There is no dish on earth that isn’t improved by serving it with potatoes.

Already potatoes in the pasty though!

And more potatoes on the side improves it. This is my hill.

A lot more though? This was essentially posh pie and mash with a beer, followed by a slice of cake. Even if a pub charged £20 for a main, £10 for a pudding and £8 for a beer, that’s still only £5 more than the OP and her party paid. And like I said, in a pub you get w choice of food and drink.

But is there a benefit to this personal service? Unless OP is waiting to drip feed that she specifically requested Cornish pasties and Victoria sponge, it isn’t that personal at all.

Yes, a housekeeper going out to shop and then cooking for six people is different to a restaurant chef buying and cooking on a larger scale. But is that difference a benefit to the OP? Or does it just mean there’s less profit margin for the property owner?

It's like independent shops versus chains. “We had to charge more than chains or we can’t make a profit” may be factually correct - but does the customer care? Too many of these businesses think their independence in itself is a virtue, but realistically, it takes much more than that.

That’s why I asked where OP went and what time she arrived. If it was a cottage deep in the country, three miles from the nearest pub, which closed its kitchen 90 minutes before OP arrived anyway, then yes, the price of the prepared meal was worth it - because there’s no alternative, other than to go hungry. If it’s a holiday let in a popular destination with plenty of pubs and takeaways nearby, £33 for a posh pasty doesn’t seem so great.

I think it sounds about right. Maybe the expensive side of about right. Things like meat, beer, fuel, etc are expensive now and if you want them you have to pay for them so the person providing your dinner can pay for theirs, too. I doubt they would have made a massive profit once their labour, time, and expertise was paid for.