A Vienna cafe, located at the historic Hundertwasser House, is now charging customers an extra Euro on their bills if they’ve plugged in a phone or tablet.
It drew some angry protests on Facebook when a customer complained, but it’s apparently legal, as long as the customer is notified.
The cafe manager told the newspaper Kurier that she usually waives the charge, but “if a guest uses our energy supply for longer than two hours, then I add a euro to their bill. Every day I get a crowd of tourists who are charging their phones, cameras and tablets.” The customer who complained had been there for 4 hours, and had ordered 4 wine spritzers.
It’s been estimated that the cost of keeping a phone charged for a year is about $1.25 and for a tablet about $4.35.
Another estimate puts the cost of 1000 litres of Vienna’s tap water at about $2, but the Chamber of Commerce estimates that about 20% of Vienna’s cafes are now charging for that, too, even when the customer has also ordered coffee or wine.
Nothing like a bad idea to make me go to a different business. Could you share the name of this one so that I can avoid it the next time I’m in Vienna?
Terrassencafe im Hundertwasserhaus. And to read her interview with the Kurier newspaper, the owner, Galina Pokorny, might not be a very genial host anyway, although she did agree that no other cafe was doing the same. Here’s some more of what she said:
“Tourists – always electricity, electricity, electricity. Sorry but who is going to pay me for it? …I run a cafe, not an internet cafe.”
“It’s getting more and more extreme. People come and think everything is accessible and free… You don’t even open your eyes in the morning for free.”
If you do visit Hundertwasserhaus (worth it!) there are several other cafes in the small mall across the street.