A popular Montpellier pub is fearful for the future of the Cheltenham Festival and the towns economy as prices sky rocket to unsustainable levels during race week.
The Rotunda Tavern general manager Chris Shiel believes the hospitality prices are driving punters away.
“They don’t want to come over here and get ripped off and that’s all we’re doing ripping them off every year, buses, trains, taxis, beers, the buzz isn’t there like it used to be”.
The Cheltenham Festival has seen a decline in spectators over the last two years, a decline that Shiel feels no one is trying to change.
“I used to enjoy the buzz but things have changed a lot in the last few years with numbers declining and places prices going up stupid”.
Accommodation in Cheltenham went up by a staggering 250% in 2023 during the races as well as Trainline showing train prices from London to Cheltenham have increased by 30.5%.
The prices of accommodation are forcing people to stay over night further afield.
“People are instead going to Birmingham and Swindon so we’re missing out, that’s what’s putting people off, the numbers are down at the races, they’re down at the pubs.
“I think the organisers just think money and drink, nothing about the races, or the people and nothing about Cheltenham, so I’m not really happy with it”
“I’m just waiting on that one year when it’s something different and they lower the prices”
“The last five years all I’ve heard about is how bad the races are and how much of a rip off it is, my Irish customers are going to Tenerife.
“It’s nothing about the horses anymore, I don’t think anything will change until they actually get a grip with it, they make all the money and we don’t”.
The Rotunda Tavern was built on Montpellier Street in 1837 and has been a pub for 60 years, an old school and popular pub.
“We don’t put our prices up for just four days of the year, we keep all of our prices the same everyday of the year and to me that’s the big thing and that’s why we do really well and keep our regulars, we do the little things, we look after people, we’re happy, we’re smiling and we enjoy the job”.
According to the Daily Mail Cheltenham racegoers are set to drink 380,000 pints of Guinness and even 3,500 pints of alcohol-free Guinness during the 2025 festival.
“We make sure to get our stock in, get a bouncer on, get the staff. We do about two or three weeks taking in the week”.
250,000 people are set to descend the streets of Cheltenham this week, a week that Shiel describes as unpredictable, “We just get ourselves ready and go for it, you never know what’s going to happen”.
