The Great ' Which companies class adults as younger than 18?' Hunt

2 of the largest and most popular attractions in somerset class children as adults.

Longleat: 3-14 child, 15+ adult.

Wookey hole: 14+ is an adult. They even charge for babies 0-2 years!


HP x

Tiddlywinks wrote: »

Businesses are there to make a profit - good on them for offering discounts to OAPs who may be on a limited income BUT why should they and rest of their customers subsidise children when that's the job of their parents?

The business and the rest of their customers don't subsidise children. They still make a profit on each and every ticket price (even the oap's!). They offer 'discounts' as an incentive, the same as any other profit making organisation.

HP x

HalfPint wrote: »

The business and the rest of their customers don't subsidise children. They still make a profit on each and every ticket price (even the oap's!). They offer 'discounts' as an incentive, the same as any other profit making organisation.

Yes they do.

Take an airline as an example... the seat is available for whomever books it. To maximise profits the airline will want to charge as much per seat as possible... so why should they charge less for children when they could get more for an adult occupant and still have the same overheads (less the small amount of extra fuel for the additional weight of adult vs child)?

A restaurant meal has the same overheads to prepare - why should children get a discount unless the meal is commensurately smaller? Labour for preparation, serving etc is the same as are the utilities etc.

A theme park runs the rides with the same costs whether the riders are adults or children so why should they give cheaper tickets to children who may be the size of adults?

Of course the business and adult customers (not all of them the parents of said children) are subsidising child reductions... the business needs to make money so prices for everything else will be raised accordingly. If they make less profit on a child's meal then they will increase other charges to compensate.

It's simple economics.

Businesses are not there to subsidise parents - the more kids you have, the more costly it is to take them out and about for meals, cinema etc... that should be one of the factors considered when having kids - they cost money!

Tiddlywinks wrote: »

It's simple economics.

Of course it's economics. A restaurant or a theme park or an airline want to get the families in so they provide an incentive by making the prices cheaper for the children. If they didn't do this then they might lose the business of the entire family. So it's worth taking a small hit on the child prices to get the business (and repeat business) of the parents. And then, when those children become adults, they might remember the good service they had as a child continue using the company.

fluffnutter wrote: »

I think restaurants should simply do small portions of some dishes and make them available to anyone who wants one. They don't have to do some silly children's menu (i.e. food shaped like animals), just give you less. I'd go for this. Restaurant portions can be huge, it's hardly helping with our obesity crisis, I don't like wastage plus why should I pay for more than I can eat?

Restricting smaller portions to a particular age group is penny-pinching and something you see more of in lower end chains, IME, where profits are more important than customer service.

I agree. There are often times when I've wanted the kids size meal somewhere. Can only really get away with if if it's fast food where you go up to order and they can't see you don't have kids with you. I used to order happy meals in McDonald's all the time!