They actually make their killing on ice tea and soda. Wine is a big expense. Inventory, printing, refrigeration, counting (and recounting), breakage, theft and glassware all add up to a big cost with little reward. The problem is that you go to a restaurant and you order a brand name product. You have an idea how much that wine costs because you saw it in the store. Did you also pay attention in the meat department? That steak you ordered was $5.99 at the store, why are you okay to pay $20 for the steak? Thinking of it this way might help make sense of the wine list pricing paradox.
That being said, hotels have it the worst because old fashion hotel pricing says that wine cost should be about 20-25%. Ouch! Paying the corkage is a good idea at a hotel and they like it too. It goes straight to the bottom line, with zero costs attached. Restaurant etiquette says that you should not bring in a bottle that is on the list, which would be like bringing a steak from home and asking the restaurant to cook it for you. Expect corkage to be somewhere around $20 a bottle. That is the margin that they lose when you bring it from home instead of ordering off the list.
