Hi community,
I have been working with upsells and I would love to offer some really amazing wines from a local property. I am hesitant to do it though because in my state, Pennsylvania, my understanding is that you need a license to sell alcohol. Would upselling a bottle of wine that I leave for guests upon arrival be considered ¨selling alcohol¨?
Thanks for any help!
Jennifer
+3I live in PA too. You definitely can’t sell alcohol without a liquor license, and charging money for it is selling it. You can leave it as a free welcome gift, but it needs to be truly free, and you can’t advertise that you offer it, which defeats any purpose other than a genuine gift of hospitality.
Restaurants are allowed to be BYOB or offer you a free sangria with dinner, and some barbershops even let you crack a beer from their mini-fridge while you get a haircut. But in no way can you bring money into it. You can’t get around it by saying “buy a basket of fruit and we’ll throw in a bottle of wine” because the LCB is wise to the loopholes.
And even as a free gift, it’s a terrible idea, for lots of reasons that don’t need mentioning because you don’t seem to be contemplating that.
+5Additionally, it would be important to consider whether you have Liquor Liability Coverage. See, e.g. https://www.proper.insure/coverages/liquor-liability/
I live in PA too. You definitely can’t sell alcohol without a liquor license, and charging money for it is selling it. You can leave it as a free welcome gift, but it needs to be truly free, and you can’t advertise that you offer it, which defeats any purpose other than a genuine gift of hospitality.
Restaurants are allowed to be BYOB or offer you a free sangria with dinner, and some barbershops even let you crack a beer from their mini-fridge while you get a haircut. But in no way can you bring money into it. You can’t get around it by saying “buy a basket of fruit and we’ll throw in a bottle of wine” because the LCB is wise to the loopholes.
And even as a free gift, it’s a terrible idea, for lots of reasons that don’t need mentioning because you don’t seem to be contemplating that.
Thanks for confirming Tom, it didn’t seem kosher to me. Glad to have it confirmed by others!
+2I would be fearful of liability with underage drinking.
+3Hi community,
I have been working with upsells and I would love to offer some really amazing wines from a local property. I am hesitant to do it though because in my state, Pennsylvania, my understanding is that you need a license to sell alcohol. Would upselling a bottle of wine that I leave for guests upon arrival be considered ¨selling alcohol¨?
Thanks for any help!
Jennifer
Love the thinking! We haven’t found a great upsell (beyond the standard early checkin/late checkout) that seems to be operationally easy and well adopted by guests. Any other ones you like
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