Hotel Charged Man $67,689 For a Beer

A beer ordered by Australian journalist Peter Lalor. (Courtesy of Peter Lalor)

Peter Lalor, an Australian journalist and beer aficionado, has been writing about beer for almost 25 years, and balks at paying more than $10 for a pint.

As Lalor told CNN in an email, “I like nice beer and nice wine, but I don’t pay silly prices.”

That statement might have held true prior to his visit at a hotel in Manchester, where after expecting to pay $6.76, he came to realize he had been charged over 10,000 times that amount.

In a tweet, Lalor showcased the purchase adding the the following caption, “See this beer? That is the most expensive beer in history. I paid $99,983.64 for it in the Malmaison Hotel, Manchester the other night. Seriously.”

Lalor’s ordeal began Sunday night after dropping a friend at a local train station and proceeding to the Malmaison Hotel, where, after asking for something British and being offered a Heineken by the bartender, decided to settle on a Scottish ale.

Although he wasn’t wearing glasses when the bartender passed him the check, he “just had a feeling she’d got (the price) wrong.” When he questioned her regarding the charge, she broke out into giggles.

Lalor, however, was not laughing, as he saw “She had increased the price 10,000-fold,” he said.

Awaiting a Refund

Management then allegedly issued him an immediate refund, assuring him the matter would be taken care of. A few days later however, his wife called telling him $67,000+ dollars were gone.

After alerting his bank to the issue, they informed him it takes around 10 days to complete a refund, leaving Lalor waiting anxiously.

“I am not a wealthy man,” he said. “I could buy my car 10 times over with that amount.”

Malmaison told CNN it had reached out to Lalor, to apologize and resolve the blunder.

“We always benchmark our bar prices and acknowledge this was a tad on the steep side,” the hotel chain said in a statement to CNN. “We hope we can invite Peter back for another drink soon. The next one is definitely on the house!”

American Tourists Charged $935 for Beers, Calamari, Tomato Juice

In a similar incident, an American soldier and his friends, while on holiday in Greece, were shocked when a restaurant they were dining at charged them $935 for six plates of calamari, six beers, three salads, water, and tomato juice.

DK Oyster restaurant in Mykonos refused to show them any menu or price list prior to ordering and left the group  shocked when they saw the staggering bill, reported the Daily Mail.

Francisco Tajeda, 38, from Brooklyn, told the media that he and his friends were on the beach when they were lured inside DK Oyster by a hostess promising special offers.

“Multiple times we asked for the menu, but she never brought one out,” Francisco told Daily Mail. “But we were very hungry so we ordered Caesar salads without seeing the prices.”

He said they were perplexed because the waitress told them she didn’t know the price and they were denied a menu even after asking for it multiple times.

“After asking again for a menu to order mains but still not getting one, we thought the place seemed shady, so we said ‘let’s get another appetizer, finish this beer, and get out of here,'” said Tajeda, a soldier with New York’s 69th Infantry Regiment.

Tajeda told the media that the waitress told them that the price depended on how much the chef prepares and that she would check, but they were only informed of the price when the final bill arrived.

“When the bill came I was like ‘this is ridiculous, why on earth are we being charged this much?’ The beer we couldn’t complain about too much, I’ve traveled a lot and sometimes beers can be expensive. But $600 for calamari we just couldn’t understand—it was unbelievable,'” he said.

“Avoid this place, this place is a trap,” he wrote on TripAdvisor. “They charged us 830 euros for calamari, 6 beers and 3 salads. The staff is not honest and refuse to provide a menu and prices.”

Tajeda then offered a warning: “Avoid this place at all costs! No pun intended.”

CNN and Venus Upadhayaya contributed to this article.