Re:UK hotels adding service charge to room rate
by fredophile on Monday September 13, 2021 @08:14PM
(#28518570)
Has it really been tried? I know individual restaurants have tried it but I can understand customer confusion when one place includes the amount by default but most don't. I think you'd need to do this across a reasonably large geographic area, such as a complete city, to give it a proper test.
[ Parent
| on HN ]
Re:UK hotels adding service charge to room rate
by dboreham on Monday September 13, 2021 @08:47PM
(#28518830)
Seattle.
Re:UK hotels adding service charge to room rate
by fredophile on Monday September 13, 2021 @10:11PM
(#28519391)
I assume you're referring to the newish $15 minimum wage. A search for "Seattle restaurants no tipping" gets me a number of articles discussing the subject. From reading them it sounds like Seattle is now a mix of restaurants that discourage tips, restaurants that discourage tips but added a service charge, and restaurants that continue to accept tips. There also seem to be places that have raised prices along with these changes in tipping. I'd note that the places that raised prices seemed to raise them to also cover other increased costs besides just labor. It doesn't seem like Seattle has uniformly embrace no tipping in bars and restaurants.
Re:UK hotels adding service charge to room rate
by jandrewrogers on Tuesday September 14, 2021 @01:35AM
(#28520627)
I lived in Seattle through this grand experiment and know several restauranteurs personally.
The no tipping experiment became trendy several years back, with many restauranteurs converting their restaurants including at many of the restaurants I frequent. It was actually quite jarring because so many restaurants made the transition at around the same time. As a consumer, I simply adapted.
However it was quickly reversed because it produced poor results per the telling of both the restauranteurs and employees. At this point, it is experimentally "settled science" in Seattle; you'd be hard-pressed to convince people to try it again given how poorly it went last time.
Re:UK hotels adding service charge to room rate
by ahepp on Tuesday September 14, 2021 @01:38AM
(#28520654)
Every single place in Seattle with a square terminal will turn that thing around in your face and ask for $2 or %20, whichever is higher. Even if the place is takeout only... hell, even all kinds of places that aren't traditionally tipped.