[HN Gopher] UK hotels adding service charge to room rate
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UK hotels adding service charge to room rate
Author : edward
Score : 19 points
Date : 2021-09-13 22:15 UTC (45 minutes ago)
(HTM) web link (www.headforpoints.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.headforpoints.com)
| uberman wrote:
| I would actually rather pay an optional fee like this baked into
| my bill than have to leave 5 to 20 bucks cash a day on the night
| stand for maid service. I hate the USA tipping culture that allow
| businesses to get thier clients to directly pay their staff. In
| NYC my wife once made me pay the guy "helping me out of my taxi"
| $20 bucks
| eptcyka wrote:
| Hey, tips are tax-free. I think this is mostly the reason why
| businesses encourage tipping. I think it's a collective failure
| of the electorate and the government that you end up in such a
| situation.
| mikhailt wrote:
| > One US hotel CEO has publicly said that he wants guests to
| start tipping on room rates because otherwise he will have to
| increase wages.
|
| Of course he does, tipping cost them nothing.
|
| Tipping is not supposed to be the norm nor is it supposed to
| cover people's living wages.
|
| I would be happy to tip for people that go above the line of duty
| but I shouldn't be tipping every worker for doing their job nor
| should I be guilt-tripped into doing it, especially since I need
| the money as well.
| Ekaros wrote:
| Should I also go and personally give the CEO dollar? I mean
| that would allow company to lower his wage. I wonder if CEO
| would be up to this...
| Someone1234 wrote:
| The problem with allowing stuff like this is that it creates an
| arms race: If one company can reduce their room rate 5% and shift
| it to a hidden "charge" then all their competitors MUST do the
| same to remain _competitive_. The net result is that nobody is
| making more than they were before, but customers feel mislead.
|
| So while there a prevailing "regulation is bad" attitude about
| stuff like this, it really does benefit both the customer AND
| business if all pricing is listed equivalently up-front. Which is
| to say: I hope the UK bans this too, and room-rates are again
| flat (with or without VAT).
| adoxyz wrote:
| Optional service charge added by default. What a bizzaro world we
| live in.
| jonpurdy wrote:
| One of the things I loved about living in Asia (and traveling to
| Europe) was all-in prices posted everywhere. Made it so much
| simpler to add up, and was great paying cash due to the even
| numbers and lack of change.
|
| After moving back to Toronto (and now living in SF), my biggest
| beef at cafes and restaurants is with the Stripe/Square terminals
| that force the customer to decide whether to tip or not,
| requiring the user to interact with the screen. Just let me tap
| my phone/card and be done with it.
|
| Raise prices 20% or do whatever you have to do so workers can be
| paid fairly. Don't make the purchasing UX worse by introducing
| decision fatigue or guilt.
| sasaf5 wrote:
| Yes, I can't understand how making things unpleasant for the
| costumer will work in the long term.
| zwieback wrote:
| When I grew up in Germany you had to tell your server to
| their face when they brought the bill how much you want to
| tip them. Granted, base price includes reasonable service so
| tips are smaller but still always seemed unpleasant to me.
|
| Now, living in the US I got used to putting the tip on credit
| card bill or leaving as cash (rarely any more), which is a
| bit better since I have more control over the tip amount
| although I wish servers got better base pay and tips were
| smaller.
|
| The Square terminal approach actually seems pretty good to
| me, I feel totally fine leaving a smaller or no tip for
| counter service or larger for Covid times, etc. Once you get
| used to the UI it takes 5s to enter custom tip.
| ohazi wrote:
| For the moment, let's ignore the discussion about opt-out vs.
| opt-in... If the fee is truly discretionary, then you should be
| able to go to the front desk and ask them to remove the charge,
| and they should do so without a fuss.
|
| Has anyone tried this? My suspicion is that you either can't
| actually do this, or that the staff have been instructed to make
| this difficult. In that case, it would obvious that the fee isn't
| actually optional, and the regulators should be having a field
| day.
| [deleted]
| chrisseaton wrote:
| > My suspicion is that you either can't actually do this, or
| that the staff have been instructed to make this difficult.
|
| No I imagine they're extremely polite when you try to remove it
| - that way that get the charge from most people, and the few
| who actually care about 5% this way or that way will remove it
| and if you're polite to them you can try to avoid angering them
| while still getting it from the people who don't care.
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(page generated 2021-09-13 23:01 UTC)