Originally Posted by
Bell_ringer
Shy, how can you quantify what is, ooh I'll risk saying it - reasonable - if you don't know what (if?) costs they incurred?
Looking at the planning application summary, they seem to have had a healthy number of consulting organisations (roads, environment, airspace, yada yada) to support the application.
I doubt it was a zero-cost/zero-effort process, and from the pics, they have at least spent a little bit of wedge on actual facilities.
I don't know market conditions in the area, but what is globally accepted, is anyone that calls themselves a consultant in a specialist area does not come cheap.
All this for what is quite an upmarket location where you're in for 35+ squid for a cocktail and a chicken skewer, so it comes with the territory, I suppose.
The way to quantify what is reasonable is subjective but if it were my problem I'd simply ask what one gets considering the price asked. Although the hotel in question certainly appears to have reserved a grass circle for a helicopter to be landed, next to a building of some sort and laid a few flagstones to the perimeter path of the grounds, I don't see a windsock, a fire extinguisher, or even an 'H' marking. The cost of providing those facilities would probably not have been very high. If I were footing the bill as per the OP's post, I would simply ask if I was prepared to pay a surcharge of £150 on my lunch, rather than paying nothing extra to arrive by Rolls Royce or Bentley. I doubt they will get a large number of takers at the price being asked. Other similar places, as already stated, charge nothing at all, or far less, to land a helicopter provided that the occupants are using the hotel facilities.