Steaks could cost more expensive on weekends if dynamic pricing becomes normal practice, a top restauranteur has warned.
Jeremy King, whose establishments have included Le Caprice and The Wolseley, said that while he was personally ‘really uncomfortable’ with the practice, he admitted it was ‘fair’ for restaurants to sell tables to customers willing to spend a certain amount of money.
Dynamic pricing is the practice of changing the cost of a product or service depending on demand.
It came under fire after Oasis tickets were sold under the practice, leading to a slew of complaints from customers who felt they were overcharged.
King, 71, told the Go To Food podcast: ‘I don’t begrudge the restaurants, for instance, which are using the apps to sell tables in advance because they’ve got fed up with people who book months in advance and then spend the entire meal taking photographs of themselves and of the food, ordering the absolute minimum they can just so they can put it on social media.
‘So hold the tables back and those restaurants that say if you’re willing to pay £200 we have a table for you on a Saturday, I think that’s fair.
‘I don’t like the encroaching dynamic pricing whereby your steak is going to cost more on a Saturday night than it is on a Monday night, that makes me really uncomfortable but that’s coming through. We’ve already seen it in the theatre.’
Earlier this year, King gave diners who went to two of his restaurants, Arlington and The Park, a 25 per cent discount if they ate after 9pm in order to encourage later dining times.
In February, Disney came under fire after it said that tickets to its American theme parks would jump with demand under a new dynamic pricing plan.
Currently, entry to Walt Disney World in Orlando and Disneyland near LA is priced based on pre-set peak and off-peak dates.
Under the expected plan—already rolled out at Disneyland Paris—ticket prices at the US parks will fluctuate in real-time based on demand.
The new scheme —which would cause huge variations in price —could be introduced by the the end of March, Richard Greenfield of closely-watched Wall Street researchers Lightshed Partners said on Friday.
Disney fan Jasmin Guevara, who lives in LA and regularly visits Disneyland in nearby Anaheim, said: ‘Does Disney have no shame?
‘It has jacked up prices time and time again in the past few years. This will just be another way to squeeze even more money out of me and my family.’
Greenfield, respected investor and analyst, explained the timing. He wrote: ‘Given the early success of Disneyland Paris’ pricing strategy shift, we expect Disney to announce it is moving to a similar airline-style, dynamic pricing plan in the US later in Q1 2025.’
