One love crawl $?

[murph]

I think the only reason it's discussed is that it's a deceptive business model.

It does do good for west end businesses and people have a great time going, that's not in question. But taking advantage of judgement impaired clientele and organizing ahead of time with bars to charge unsuspecting customers more than the next guy is why this is being discussed. Just like your hired shuttle/taxi driver/friend- wouldn't you want and trust that person to look out for your best interests?

Maybe a more honest business model would be to call it a "West End Pub Crawl Excursion" and just charge $20 per head. Let people enjoy happy hours and enjoy the normal prices.

[Accompong]

Maybe a more honest business model would be to call it a "West End Pub Crawl Excursion" and just charge $20 per head. Let people enjoy happy hours and enjoy the normal prices.

Perhaps you could start a business based on a model like this but, then again, you would just fail like most of the people who want to change the way Jamaicans do business.

People in this thread are just trying to recreate a train wreck so they can gawk at the carnage when they drive past. "Move along people, there is nothing to see here".

Choo

[Slightly Stoopid]

Yeah ..time to put a knife & a fork in this one ..
lock it up ...
no further need for any discussion

[gregandkelly63]

Some people won't get it no matter how well you explain it to them.

Don't like it.....don't go. Simple as that.

[Rob]

I think the only reason it's discussed is that it's a deceptive business model.

It does do good for west end businesses and people have a great time going, that's not in question. But taking advantage of judgement impaired clientele and organizing ahead of time with bars to charge unsuspecting customers more than the next guy is why this is being discussed. Just like your hired shuttle/taxi driver/friend- wouldn't you want and trust that person to look out for your best interests?

Maybe a more honest business model would be to call it a "West End Pub Crawl Excursion" and just charge $20 per head. Let people enjoy happy hours and enjoy the normal prices.

One final attempt...

I am glad you mentioned "happy hour". Lets have a simple example. As we all know, while they should, not all bars post a big sign stating their happy hour times and specials. They just have their "happy hour". Suppose I am not aware that Bar A has a happy hour and I arrive at the bar 5 minutes before their happy hour and am charged full price for a drink. You may or not be aware of the happy time but arrive 10 minutes later and pay the happy hour price for the same drink. I dont think that is deceptive even though Bar A did charge me, the unsuspecting customer more than you, the next guy.

Lets take a completely different example. I have been at bars both here and North America where a band is playing with no cover charge. The patrons coming in are getting free entertainment. Being a part of sound crews for bands in the late 70's and early 80's, I saw all kinds of ways the owners would handle this situation. Some of the bars would raise the charges for drinks while the entertainment was happening. This was done to pay the band. Is was not deceptive, but just a different business model than the bars that use the cover charge.

I saw it so often all over the USA that I didnt think anything of it other than common sense. The band has to be paid somehow, and charging a cover for a new band that no one has heard about often led to an empty bar, with the owner still having to pay the band. To me, raising the drink prices to cover their additional band expenses is no different than lowering prices for happy hour when the bar was usually empty in order to draw a crowd.

Without charging a cover, a few of the newer bands were able to create a following if they were good enough, being able to command a cover charge at any bar they played. Some of them even went on to become touring bands playing at 1000 to 5000 seat venues. Without those original bar owners who raised the price and gave the band exposure, their dream would have never come true. And of course most of them broke up due to ego differences... (grin)

And I enjoy the fact that you want your hired shuttle/taxi driver/friend to look out for your best interests. For the One Love Pub Crawl, the bus needs to be safely maintained, which costs a lot of time and money. Medical kits are on the bus in order to handle the mishaps that occur to the "judgement impaired clientele" as you called them. Lenbert tries to keep an eye on everyone, doing his best to keep them from wandering off into the roadway traffic, and even stops the traffic to allow his guests to cross the street safely. To me, this denotes a person who is looking out for your best interests.

Not all the businesses/bars raise their prices, but some do when the influx of pub crawlers descend on the property. All the stops are not equal. Some are small bars, others are larger resorts. But they are all equally Jamaican and are allowed to charge as they see fit. For the thousands of visitors who have taken the pub crawl over the years, the vast majority have loved it and thought it was such a bargain that they make it a "must do" on each visit to Negril.

It is hard to believe it has already been 5 years, from the very first crawl that consisted of me, Lisa, Lenbert, his baby-mother and their baby to the new, completely remodeled interior of the bus that transports full loads 4 to 5 times a week during busy season.

Over the years, Lenbert has thought many times about changing the business model and charge visitors instead of offering the free service. He asked our advice as he did others.

As we discussed with Lenbert, charging us$20 a head works out great during busy season but the fixed charge would decrease the number of people on each crawl. And then consider what would happen during the slow season when 10 or less people are on the crawl now, and that is when it is free? A $20 cover could kill the crawl during slow season. How do you pay for the routine maintenance that the bus requires during the slow times while trying to feed your family at the same time?

Keeping the tour free for the visitors was always the outcome and it has worked for 5 years. People do like things that are free, even though we all know their is "no free lunch". Allowing the businesses that benefit from their increased earnings to participate in supporting the free business model continually made the most sense. And it is up to each passenger whether they want to pay for a drink at any stop and how much to tip. No one is forcing anyone to buy a drink as has been pointed out. If each bar raised their beer price by US$1, which each bar does not, the maximum extra you would pay if you get a beer at each of the 7 bars would be a whopping total of us$7. A single light beer at Margaritaville costs almost that same amount.

Enjoy your vacation and dont get hung up on the small stuff.

[Accompong]

When I go to Thailand, I don't presume to tell the guy who is cooking my food that looks something like a squirrel how to cook it. I either eat it, pay for it and discretely toss it away or I don't buy it in the first place. I don't presume to know his particular economy and how "tings run" nor do I think I can cook that animal better than him.

Maybe (just maybe) that is how we should look at Jamaica and the way Jamaicans "run tings".

Just my opinion.