Oktoberfest Munich (Go to homepage)
Logo Landeshauptstadt München
Back to Home
Logo Landeshauptstadt München
Several thousand euros for a table in a beer tent?

City of Munich and Oktoberfest hosts take joint action against extortionate table prices

The City of Munich and the Oktoberfest hosts are taking decisive action against the gray market and profiteering in the trading of tables in the beer tents with a bundle of measures. Tables in the festival tents were recently traded on several online portals for several thousand euros.

Blick von der Galaerie ins voll besetzte Paulaner Festzelt
München Tourismus, Jan Saurer
A beer table in the festival tents at the Oktoberfest is highly coveted. However, you should only look for a table on the official reservation portals. This saves money and a lot of hassle.

Involvement of specialist law firms

ode
Illegal vendors damage the festival and ultimately also the customers. Wirtsprecher (Pub spokesman) Peter Inselkammer also warns against this.

The measures taken by the Wiesnwirte include the involvement of special law firms that search the internet for illegal offers, as well as their own spot checks on reservations. If the name of the person who made the reservation does not match the guest, the reservation is forfeited because it is not transferable. This is why Peter Inselkammer, Sprecher der Vereinigung der Münchner Wiesnwirte (spokesman for the Association of Munich Oktoberfest Innkeepers), warns against making such purchases on the Internet: “First you pay exorbitant prices and then you are left empty-handed, because this leads to the total loss of the reservation”. As far as illegal providers are concerned, Wirtesprecher (innkeeper spokesman) Christian Schottenhamel threatens: "Our law firm finds these providers with special web crawlers. Not only will they be warned, they will also have to reckon with hefty fees and penalties."

Such practices not only damage the reputation of the entire festival, but also undermine the joint efforts to make the annual cost increases as acceptable as possible for guests. We urge guests not to purchase tables via such portals. In addition to inflated prices, there is also a considerable risk that a reservation made in someone else's name will result in no access to the tent.

Der Referent für Arbeit und Wirtschaft, Christian Scharpf
Dr. Christian Scharpf Head of Departure of Labor and Economic Development and Wiesnboss

Fair and safe alternatives since 2023

oktoberfest-booking.com ist das offizielle Buchungs- und Wiederverkaufsportal vieler Festzelte für Tischreservierungen
https://www.oktoberfest-booking.com/de
oktoberfest-booking.com is the official booking and resale portal of many tents for table reservations.

To create a fair and secure alternative, an official online portal for Oktoberfest Wiesnwirte was introduced for the first time in 2023. Unused reservations can be offered and purchased there at the original price. Whether due to a scheduling conflict, changed plans or other reasons - the sales process is designed to be as simple and transparent as possible. Secure processing protects both sellers and buyers.

This step has successfully counteracted the non-transparent gray market practice, in which several thousand euros were sometimes demanded for a table. 21 medium-sized and large gastronomic establishments use the Oktoberfest-Booking.com portal for this purpose, where guests are also informed as soon as new reservation quotas are released.

The other Festwirte (festival hosts) have each created their own solutions to ensure that reservations that are not required are also returned safely and fairly.