Why does water in Ibiza clubs cost €12 a bottle?

We've all been there: you've just handed over €70 to the snooty PR on the door, then you rush to the bar, your mouth dry, eagerly anticipating your first drink of the night. The girl behind the bar looks you up and down. She pouts, pours you a JD and Coke, then she slides you the €20 tab. Welcome to Ibiza!

Paying €19 for a mojito, €16 for a vodka limon, €12 for a beer and €10 for a bottle of water is now pretty much the norm across Ibiza's clubs. But why do Ibiza's coolest bars and hottest superclubs charge such extortionate prices? Let's start at the beginning.

Most of the goods you eat, wear, smoke and drink in Ibiza have to be imported from mainland Europe, and the cost of shipping these items is passed on to local businesses in Ibiza, who in turn pass the cost on to you. Ibiza is a seasonal business and everyone on the island is trying to accumulate 12 months-worth of revenue in just five months. All of which means you'll be charged that little bit extra at the bar.

Now, it's also important to note that club owners in Ibiza don't think the same way as they do in the UK. In the UK, a long queue at the bar suggests prosperity; in Ibiza, a long queue at the bar means drinks prices need to be raised immediately. It's all about economies of scale – in this case: employing the least number of people to make the most profit. After all, why employ three bartenders to prepare three drinks at €5 per head when you can employ one bartender to prepare one drink at €18? It all makes perfect sense in Ibiza!

While this list of reasons goes some way to explaining why drinking in Ibiza can be so pricey, it certainly doesn't excuse clubs for charging up to €12 for a 330ml bottle of water, a decision many clubbers consider to be fundamentally irresponsible given the high summer temperatures in Ibiza and the fact that, whether the clubs like it or not, a sizeable proportion of the crowd on any given night, in any given club, are likely to be on something a bit stronger than booze. Moreover, Ibiza's top clubs make so much money from their lucrative VIP areas that water prices could easily be offset to make sure clubbers can afford to keep hydrated on the dancefloor.

In San Antonio, Eden's drink prices have been slashed this summer: a vodka limon will cost you €11, a beer €7 and a bottle of water just €6. Factor in the current exchange rate and Eden's bar prices par with your average London nightclub. Nevertheless, don't expect Ibiza's other major venues to follow suit. At Pacha, which has a relatively small capacity of just over 3,000, lowering the drinks prices would likely impede their ability to host acts like David Guetta, who, according to a recent Diario de Ibiza interview with Pacha owner Ricardo Urgell, is currently being paid €160,000 per gig.

Ultimately, the sad truth of the matter is that Ibiza's nightclubs have a captive audience and they know they can charge extortionate prices at the bar. Unless you want to holiday in Ayia Napa with the rest of the five-shots-for-a-fiver crowd, it looks like we'll all just have to accept being ripped off if we want to drink on the world's principal party island. We just wish the clubs would put their patrons' safety first, rather than their profit margins, and offer reasonably priced drinking water for all.