A disturbing new trend? UK hotels adding a service charge to your room rate

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• David says:

  13 Sep13 September 11:25

  This is a ghastly practice. Not welcome.

• Laura says:

  13 Sep13 September 11:46

  Paid a 5% accomodation service charge at The Ned last weekend.
  I knew about it in advance from reading reviews, but it’s a bit sneaky. They offered to charge final bill to the card on file and email the invoice to us, so some people are probably getting charged and not realising until much later.

  • Laura says:

    13 Sep13 September 11:57

    Also, we did request turndown service and the bags were brought up to the room for us, but we didn’t leave/give any cash tips on top of that

    • Richie says:

      13 Sep13 September 12:01

      What did they do for the turndown service?

      • Laura says:

        13 Sep13 September 12:19

        We got fresh towels (but not robes), unmade the bed, rolled down the annoying roller blind, bottles of water left on the bedside table and topped up the coffee pods and biscuits.
        Probably just about worth the 5%! 😂

• Pb says:

  13 Sep13 September 12:04

  My huge objection is to the service charge being applied to the wine , massive mark ups on bottles and here’s another 15 per cent please .

• NigelthePensioner says:

  13 Sep13 September 12:29

  Service charges on top of room rates have been the norm at the high end hotels in London for years and years. It has always been discretionary, but I have always paid it as an appreciation of good service by hard working staff who are not in the front line of tipping – bars and restaurants. I would expect that the gratuities on F and B signed to one’s room would go to those staff and the end of stay service charge added would go to the other staff. If not then you are paying a service charge on a service charge!
  Its certainly not new however………depending on where you stay and remember that London has more so called 5* hotels than any other city!!

• TimM says:

  13 Sep13 September 12:30

  This is a typically ‘mid- Atlantic’ discussion. Tipping habits vary throughout the World from the U.S. extreme of feeling obliged to tip at least 20%, more if the service is exceptional, to the far East where offering a tip is regarded as an insult and dishonour to the person. In Mediterranean countries, tipping is rare, other than rounding up to the next note to save the indignity of dealing with coins, but bribery, i.e. ‘pre-tips’ for a better table and service is common.

  The Brits believe in tipping for good service and are indignant about any amount automatically charged on-top without their say-so.

  Tipping is engrained in our respective cultures.

  Having lived in a fair few countries, I know when to bribe, when to tip and when to complain. I cannot think of a time or place when I did all three.

  In the UK, you are on your own. A tip of around 10% is expected if everything went well. If it didn’t then no tip. For exceptional service, then maybe return.

  There are well-documented tales of serving staff in the U.S. chasing after customers down the street if they left less than 15% tip. And in Japan and Thailand, my own experience of the sorrow shown by trying to tip an exceptional waiter or taxi driver – refused of course.

  I prefer bribery on arrival. It is so much simpler and everyone knows where they stand 🙂

  • Andrew says:

    13 Sep13 September 12:35

    Well, you do have the potential for “bribery on arrival” now though.

    Simply tell the check in staff to make sure they don’t bill any service charges if they aren’t prepared to give you an immediate upgrade.

  • Anna says:

    13 Sep13 September 12:43

    I noticed on our last trip to the US that the bill in a steakhouse we visited included calculations of what various levels of tipping would be! But it’s not too bad when you’re getting very good surf n turf for $30 to start with.

    • Bagoly says:

      13 Sep13 September 15:18

      Given the average level of mathematical learning in Anglo-Saxon world that is surely required!

  • John says:

    13 Sep13 September 13:31

    Japan I wouldn’t ever try to tip, but nobody has ever refused my tips in Thailand or looked sorrowful when being presented with one. Whether that’s a result of getting used to Americans tipping I can’t say.

    • Lady London says:

      13 Sep13 September 17:22

      Small presents go down very well in Japan if you’ve stayed a bit longer and had very good service. Just something small, obviously foreign, of some quality but does not have to be expensive at all, perhaps with a container that could be used on a desk or shelf.

• A says:

  13 Sep13 September 12:35

  Same as the ‘resort fee’ crap creeping in at places in the US. Too far.

  • Aston100 says:

    13 Sep13 September 12:38

    What is the definition of a resort in this case?
    I’ve seen this getting added to New York hotels.

    • TimM says:

      13 Sep13 September 12:46

      U.S. English makes a hotel with facilities, i.e. more than just a room, a “resort”. This definition is creeping across the globe.

      I wonder what U.S. English is for British English ‘resort’? I also wonder about vests, thongs and tuxedos – translation: waistcoats, flip flops and dinner jackets – among many other things.

      I am from Yorkshire and I call a hotel a hotel.

      • Bagoly says:

        13 Sep13 September 15:19

        Ah, I had been misinterpreting thongs…. 🙂

    • Rob says:

      13 Sep13 September 13:00

      Exactly … a resort is whatever a hotel decides it is. This came up in the comments last week where a Bonvoy hotel had recategorised itself as a resort to avoid having to give guaranteed 4pm check-out to Plats and above.

      • Nigel says:

        13 Sep13 September 20:21

        Same just happened to us at Marques de Riscal in Rioja this week! ‘We are a resort’ I was told and can only give you till 2pm! Don’t know what they do for Amex bookings with ‘guaranteed’ 4pm checkout?

• JC says:

  13 Sep13 September 12:41

  How would we petition this? Started off with 10% discretionary fee being applied to restaurant bills 15 years ago. Now it’s up to 17.5% in some London restaurants. Unchallenged, I can guarantee you this will follow suit in a couple of years and you’ll be facing 17.5% discretionary fees added to hotel stays as standard. Death by a thousand cuts.

  • the_real_a says:

    13 Sep13 September 12:47

    Refuse to pay it, have it removed from the bill and then give a factual 1 star rating on trip-adviser.

  • Lady London says:

    13 Sep13 September 15:03

    I refuse to pay any charge which is not notified as part of the booking process or at the very latest, on the original booking confirmation.

    It’s a money grab and where will it end?

    If the seller needs to achieve a certain level of pricw then let him notify it up front.

    I am actually a relatively generous tipper and contributor especially for “above and beyond” or special skill but I will decide that myself.

    • Bagoly says:

      13 Sep13 September 15:22

      This was no doubt “notified” but in the small print rather than included in the apparent price.
      I think it needs to be in the big font price.

• Anna says:

  13 Sep13 September 12:45

  Another creeping annoyance is charging separately for vegetables – what the actual heck is that about?! It’s usually at least £3 or £4 per portion as well, which is outrageous when a head of broccoli costs 60p.

  • Richie says:

    13 Sep13 September 13:04

    Which is why a plate of good Sundy Roast can be great value.

  • Andrew says:

    13 Sep13 September 13:08

    That’s been going on since the 80s. 😉

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FjE080TGEEk

  • Nick says:

    13 Sep13 September 14:53

    £9.20 for a side of spinach or asparagus or mashed potato at STK Westminster inc service – and that’s a restaurant that uses its service charge to fund the salaries of its managers, not just dining room staff.

  • Bagoly says:

    13 Sep13 September 15:34

    Your finding that a problem is very interesting – pre 1970s it was standard for one to order the main course (basically the flesh with sauce and perhaps a tiny garnish).
    In Silver Service restaurants one was given a blank (hot) porcelain plate, and the flesh put on it, usually from a metal platter.
    Then one had chosen the vegetables one wanted or did not at prices listed against each one; there was often “selection of vegetables of the day”.
    Each of the vegetables was placed on one’s plate by the waiter(ess) from separate metal serving dishes.
    In the 1970s and 1980s, responsibility for putting items on the plate moved from the waiter to the chef, so it looked prettier (and was more spread out over the plate for nouvelle cuisine?!)
    Personally I find it annoying that the chef wants to tell me what vegetables I should have with the flesh, so I prefer to choose, which is still standard at steak houses.

    Are you being charged for vegetables even when you don’t order that specific one (which I agree is naughty)
    Or are you raising the point that at E.g. steakhouses the price for the “Main” does not have the same meaning as at a chef-dictatorship? 🙂
    The latter per se should not matter, as there is transparency before ordering, but I do see an issue with Tripadvisor etc possibly deriving their $$$$ rating based on two different systems.

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