Tipping at hotels

I stay in hotels a lot for work and just pay when checking out for the room and any food/drink I’ve had. I’ve been staying at my current hotel for a year now and last time they added 10% to food which took me above my allowance. I asked why they added it and they just took if off saying it was a change in process but I don’t need to pay it.

So not seen this before but wondering if it’s becoming common – would you pay?

NO

The whole tipping thing is weird there are certain services we are meant to tip and certain ones we are never meant to tip – no one tips in supermarkets and that is an equally poorly paid service industry job.

It’s a weird one, isn’t it.

I’m happy to tip for above average service (which given the general standard of the UK service industry isn’t difficult). What I object to is when it’s a stealth tax and they’re not up front about it; if a 10% charge appeared on a bill without warning I’d have them take it off again. “Service charge not included” is just a way of making their prices look lower, I’d rather they included the service charge and billed accordingly. Doing it as a percentage of the bill is perverse – the waiting staff get paid more for bringing you a steak than a salad, how’s that work exactly?

It’s important I think not to lose sight of the fact that the UK and US use different systems. The tipping culture in the US expects people to tip and staff are paid accordingly; if you don’t tip you’re in essence stiffing them on their wages. The same is not true in the UK.

JY explains further….

🙂

I’d rather they included the service charge and billed accordingly

Yeah, I much prefer the French system: service included and I think they pay the waiting staff better, too.

dont get me started on splitting the bill Binners 😉

I hate the whole tipping culture – my Wife thinks I’m just a miserable old bugger but I just hate the pressure and judging that it brings.

I’m happy to pay 10% extra everywhere and let the restaurant/hotel/whatever just pay them 10% extra.

Tipping is very odd when you think about it.

Why tip in a hotel but not a hospital?

Why does a taxi driver get a tip but not a bus driver?

“Service charge not included”

“Tell me when it’s ready and I’ll go the kitchen and get it myself.” see what happens then

I much prefer the French system: service included and I think they pay the waiting staff better, too.

it’s a long time since I lived in France so this may no longer be the case but many waiters in small cafes didn’t actually get paid. Their employer gave them a wage slip stating they were paid the SMIC (minimum wage) and the employer paid the tax on that but the employee got no money – their tips were their wages, so “servis non compris” meant exactly that, you’re not paying a service charge. A not too bad living was made by the couple of people I knew who worked this way.

I used to tip hotels like a pissed up lottery winner, until they started to take them off the bill they sent the company and started asking me for it ha ha.

I used to tip waiters etc, mostly out of social anxiety, but now I’m careful to read the menu – ate at a lovely place at the weekend – helpful little note at the bottom “10% optional service charge added to the bill, all proceeds go directly to staff”. It’s still stupid, the 10% should be added to the menu cost, the staff paid fairly and everyone gets a fair day’s wage for a fair days work. I got the impression when I paid the bill to the exact amount the waitress was hoping for a bit of a bung too, but that might just be my slight paranoia again.

As for the “directly to the staff” I wonder if that means they get paid £x and then every week they get a bonus share of the service charge, it it’s used to pay their wages – I’m sure there was a court case once?

Anyway, silly system, “optional service charge” better than some vague set of rules the Americans dreamt up, but I’d rather just pay my bill and let the business pay the staff – all this snide cloak and dagger shit can do one.

The whole tipping thing is weird there are certain services we are meant to tip and certain ones we are never meant to tip

no, there aren’t. Tipping is discretionary, that’s the point. If you’ve had good service, and if you feel like it, and can afford to give a tip, if you don’t or can’t then don’t. Simple

I don’t return to restaurants that add a service charge regardless.

I don’t mind the service charge being added to the bill, as long as it’s flagged up and discretionary; it’s only fair that the chef, kitchen porter and sommelier get a tip, not just the waitress – as long as they actually get it, that is.

I hate it in the US why should I pay a tip for someone to wipe a table after a self service breakfast?!
Tipping should be something you do for exceptional service that is on top of the standard wages.

Boils my pee too.

It’s not a difficult job.

It’s not a job that requires any sort of qualifications.

All you have to do is be presentable*, turn up, be polite, write an order down and bring the food/drink to the table when it’s ready.

That pays minimum wage and quite rightly. If you want to earn more, do a job that’s actually difficult (or rubbish, or whatever gives it a reason for paying more).

If they do a good job I’d go back and eat/drink again, that should be motivation enough for the manager to be paying them a decent wage if they’re any good.

*The fact that when I used to work in restaurants the boys did the washing up and the girls did the front of house and got the tips was both a source of financial irritation and a creepy way of objectifying the hottest underage girls (because the not so hot ones did the washing up with us).

Shall we have a game of guess which one of the contributors to this thread has never worked a minimum wage job in a restaurant or bar? 😆

Thisisnotaspoon earlier today….,,

Exactly Binners.

Miserable bastards.

Bit off topic, but I don’t get tipping taxi drivers either – the ones round here turn up on time only if you’re lucky, and then charge £7 for the 3 mile trip in to town. Unless you make the guy hang around waiting for you, or they go above and beyond to get you to the airport on time, why tip?

It’s not a difficult job.

Tried it?

It’s not hard to serve 1 table correctly. Add in multiple tables, a busy shift, awkward customers, service standards targets from your boss, trying to keep a friendly face on and it suddenly becomes hard.

I’ll always tip for good service, especially at places I go to regularly. The hairdresser always gets a tip as they know I hate having sharp scissors near my head for any longer than 20-30 seconds so they cut my hair accordingly. I go to a pub for a quiet meal every 2-3 weeks and they get a tip as they treat me well, know what I usually order and don’t put any pressure on me to finish and leave.

I never tip huge amounts, a few quid or so but I know that it adds up. The pub’s waiting and kitchen staff get their tips shared out every 3 months between them and they regularly get £5-600 each. One of the young ladies there is using that extra cash to pay for her uni fees, another is saving up for a house deposit (has 2 jobs). For the sake of a few quid a year I’m happy to reward good service above the minimum.

binners – Member
Shall we have a game of guess which one of the contributors to this thread has never worked a minimum wage job in a restaurant or bar?

Right, but surely that is symptomatic of a bigger problem, one which I struggle to believe “Everyone tip 10%” is the answer.

4 of us went to an Italian restaurant, each had a pizza and 1 beer each and the restaurant added 12.5% to the bill as a “discretionary service charge”. The service was INCREDIBLY average, and if i’m really picking holes they didn’t check back to see if the meal was okay or if I wanted another beer.

Anyway, we decided to pay 10% tip. 12.5 for a pizza and beer? Get real. First the waiter came back to point out we hadn’t given him enough money, so I had to point out the “discretionary service charge” of 12.5% and mentioned we paid 10%. Then the manager came over and asked “if there was a problem with the meal”.

Call me an awkward white guy all day long, but that experience wasn’t cool and we vowed to never eat there again.

Pizza was okay, 6/10.

Shall we have a game of guess which one of the contributors to this thread has never worked a minimum wage job in a restaurant or bar?

Next time you’re in a bar, restaurant or hotel try spotting the customers who have never done any work in one. It’s so easy to spot it’s like shooting fish in a barrel 😀

I’ll never forget the bit of advice a well-travelled acquaintance told me: Be kind to anyone in charge of what you eat, drink or where you sleep.

and if i’m really picking holes they didn’t check back to see if the meal was okay or if I wanted another beer.

Bless. Did they not offer to have your sedan chair called round to the nearest convenient exit either buttercup? 😆

i have done a MW job in a bar and in other places as well …are you suggesting you tip everyone on the MW binners? Is this what you do then?

Its so random who we tip its neither everyone in the service industry nor everyone on low wages.

At least my approach is egalitarian 😉

I’ll never forget the bit of advice a well-travelled acquaintance told me: Be kind to anyone in charge of what you eat, drink or where you sleep.

Indeed. Just common sense. If you work behind a bar, you know who the tippers are (not just because they’re not the rude, snobbish, self-entitled twunts looking down their noses at you) and you’ll remember what they drink, and serve them before the miserable bastards other customers. 😉

Mrs Binners always says that the best way to judge someones character is by how they treat the lower orders waiting staff

I remember years ago in the US when an irate local was ranting at the front desk of a major hotel chain about paying his bill because they had added on a charge for tips to all his additions.
“Yes sir, there is a statement on all the receipts you signed explaining there would be a charge added automatically that you paid at checkout”.
After much grumbling he agreed to pay, then paused and asked what the tip % was. They told him 15%. After some muttering and calculating he said “But you have added on more than 15%!” The answer just about sent him into orbit:
“Yes sir, that’s because we add tax on to the 15%, otherwise our staff would have to pay tax out of the 15% themselves”

What about the pizza delivery people? They just hand over the pizza and run off. I always feel I should’ve tipped them, as that seems to be standard in the job they do. (“Dude! I got a arm!” etc.)

Tried it?

Tried reading a whole post?

(yes in case you can’t)

Mrs Binners always says that the best way to judge someones character is by how they treat the waiting staff

Judge that they’re Tory if they expect to be able to pay more and jump the queue?

binners – Member
Bless. Did they not offer to have your sedan chair called round to the nearest convenient exit either buttercup?

binners – Member
Shall we have a game of guess which one of the contributors to this thread has never worked a minimum wage job in a restaurant or bar?

If you had worked in a restaurant in the last, I don’t know – forever, you’d know that the checkback is a fundamental piece of customer service. So fundamental that mystery shopper will fail restaurants on a missed checkback.

It’s the number 1 opportunity to sell additional drinks. It’s in their interest to checkback. I wanted a beer. Wasn’t given the opportunity to buy.

But you know, forums, conclusions, jumping and that.

I wanted a beer. Wasn’t given the opportunity to buy.

Did you not just loudly click your fingers?

DezB – Member

What about the pizza delivery people? They just hand over the pizza and run off. I always feel I should’ve tipped them, as that seems to be standard in the job they do. (“Dude! I got a arm!” etc.)

If we’re meant to tip everyone who brings us stuff I owe the Postie a lot of back-pay, I wonder if I’m due a rebate from the Rubbish Collectors?

No, you don’t have to offer everyone who does something for you for their job extra money, we’re not meant to be Tony Soprano.

I know it sounds like a nice thing to do, but if recent history has taught us anything, it’s not the people you tip who get the money, not in the long run – their employers stop paying them as much, if at all.

The whole idea is perverse, even the French, a nation well known for funny little unwritten rules, ESPECIALLY when it concerns food got fed up of it – In France you pay a service charge, it’s listed on the menu and the bill, it goes to the staff, it HAS to be on top of their wages. It’s *almost* perfect in my book, but only from the standpoint of where it’s evolved from.

I sort of get it, waiting staff are fixed costs and food is variable – so they might want to charge £10 a table for service on top of a variable cost for food depending on what you want to eat, but we’ve got to get past this whole tipping thing in the UK – it’s created these stupid stages “everything okay with your meal” “oh yeah Champ, let me interrupt the flow of our conversation to tell you it’s the bestest thing in the whole wide world ever, a real credit to you and indeed food itself, bravo” because no one ever says “yeah, it’s a bit sub-par actually” well, if per chance they haven’t pounced when you’ve got a mouth full of lamb and you’re caught between a trying to talk with a mouthful and giving a thumbs up like a chimp, and if anything it’s a shit service because they’ve got it all mapped out:

“Hello, would you like some drinks, ready to order?”

Return 20 mins later when you’ve had enough time to work out your Wife’s inner feelings about everything on the menu and reach the conclusion that she’d like the same thing she always has. “Ready to order?”

Wait till I’ve taken a slightly bigger fork-full than I planned “everything okay with your meal”

“Would you like to see the desert menu?”

Done, stick a fork in it, jobbed.

The problem for me is, I like to drink more than eat and they’re all too busy fulfilling their tick-box requirements for “good service” so you’ve got to flap your arms like a Seagull to get more than one over-priced drink out of them and I’m almost fairly impatient so when it’s time to leave, I want to leave – not wait an hour for them to bring the bill, hidden in a silly pleather book to shield the dirty numbers from everyone, and another week because they need to find the one and only card machine in the gaff.

I preferred it when they didn’t ambush you for a quick debrief mid-mastication and just sort of stood about keeping an eye on everyone waiting to get me another beer please.

We’re too reserved in the UK, we don’t need a US style tick-box guide to great service, it’s too impersonal – we want friendly and honest, not “have a nice day” bullshit.

Tips, sod ’em.

A “checkback” is great for making more money, but can be annoying. It needs to be judged right – I want to be offered drinks when I run out, but I don’t want every member of waiting staff to ask me if everything is OK after I’ve put each mouthful of food in.

I tip, and I generally include the tip in expense claims as it’s expected, and I’d do it if I was eating out. I prefer it when they add it by default when on expenses as it’s all on the receipt then. I don’t have a problem with witholding it though, and I think it’s a bit OTT the 12.5% for mediocre service mentioned above, then subsequent quizzing when this was reduced by the customer.

My only bad experience was working as a waiter at a wedding when the best man decided to tip us but it had to be kept a secret from the catering company boss as he didn’t think people should tip! It’s alright for him on a decent salary, those of us on minimum wage appreciated every penny of it! (though didn’t really expect/depend on it)

Also, I was at a petrol station a few weeks ago, just about to fill up and this young fella comes over and offers to do it for me “I’ve got no change” I says (was true, honest) and he said it doesn’t matter, he’ll do it anyway.
What was that about? Surely not a salaried job?!

Dear God! Serving some of you weird sociopaths lot must be a truly joyous experience! 😯

Also, I was at a petrol station a few weeks ago, just about to fill up and this young fella comes over and offers to do it for me “I’ve got no change” I says (was true, honest) and he said it doesn’t matter, he’ll do it anyway.
What was that about? Surely not a salaried job?!

A Shell near me has started doing it. They don’t seem to want tips, but always hand me a “how was your service” card with their name on it. Seems they’re doing it for the kudos. (At the same time, there was a marked upswing in cheery chattiness from the checkout staff.)

I like “full service” petrol stations.

Years ago used to go to one that didn’t even want paying, they just sent a bill every month 🙂

9

I am a pleasure to serve …..just dont expect a tip

I’m not sure that you have grasped the concept of averages

I’m not sure that you have grasped the concept of “difficult.”

An interesting topical read:

Chef’s get the tips

I’ll normally tip for alright service but not for poor service, I remember going out for wife’s birthday, big group out for a meal and waiting an hour for dessert despite asking repeatedly. Obviously didn’t leave a tip and they got stroppy about it, never went back.