Let's say hypothetical, you have a core of regular customers, they visit at least twice a week and spent a good amount of money in your restaurant. The kicker is they tip a flat $5 each time, your servers hate it and start to treat them to a lesser standard. What would you do if the customers told you they were not prepared to tip more and were going elsewhere if things didn't change? You stand to lose let's say $1500 per week revenue, and will receive a slurry of poor reviews.
Restaurant Owners, do you condone servers getting pissed about regulars who don't tip to their expectations?
I want to have a supper club at my house (B&B), with service only a couple of nights a week. If I do it, there is going to be a 15% autograt, with a note that for good service a small additional tip is appreciated. It's just not part of my business plan to serve people who don't tip.
How about just raising your prices (since it's not your main purpose), paying a decent rate to your servers, and asking your patrons not to tip? Be original.
sounds like they have with the 15% autograt no?
Unfortunately the two sides of this dilemma is that people also don't want to pay almost $20 for a burger which is what is happening. In Seattle, servers make 18.50 an hour and a burger is 15.00 or more.
There is a reason restaurants don't do this, as it makes one's prices look artificially high in comparison to other restaurants. And in fact, I hope my customers will be pleased enough with their servers to tip extra. As for being original, I will be, but I don't want to limit the earnings of my servers.
I'm never tipping on top of auto grat
At 15%, you'll be one of the few
There is a place near me that does this. I don’t go on principle.
I don’t obscure my fees for my clients and don’t care to do business with people who do. If your business can’t get sales while being fully transparent about pricing then it should fail. Just post your prices 15% higher rather than deceive.
I don't plan to "obscure" the fee. It will be printed on the menu, front and center. I've seen my daughter in tears over working her butt off and getting stiffed by two big tables in a single night. It's just not going to happen with anything I'm involved in.
Why not be completely transparent and just post the actual price? Would you shop at a store that said all prices were 15% higher than marked?
Here's the top of the circular from my local grocery store.
Well you can have a good time shopping there. I will stick to places that don’t play dumb games with pricing.
Why not just put the actual cost of the product if you don’t want be deceptive?
Because the majority of people don’t understand and don’t read. They assume they have to tip on top of it. You are the 1% who actually reads.
That would put OP at a competitive disadvantage against the rest of the industry.
Most of the industry does not have mandatory gratuity.
Exactly.. everything would look more expensive than all the competition under your proposal.
I did not propose that he charge a mandatory gratuity; he did. I proposed not posting inaccurate prices.
Which.. puts him at a competitive disadvantage.
Good. Posting false prices should result in failure.
Just charge the right amount 🤷🏻♀️
Why don't you just build the tip into the price then? Are you trying to hide this extra charge from customers by advertising a lower rate? If it is a gratuity they can have it removed, refuse to pay it, or take legal action against you to get it refunded. Also, you want to get a tip and have a note asking for more tips?? That's the kind of thing where I would have you remove the auto tip and you get a small or nothing tip from me. If you do run it this way, you better be sure to advertise it ahead of time because if you spring this auto tip at the end it will be easy for them to not pay it or take you to small claims court if they really want to.
You'll get a lot of people paying it and people adding an extra tip because they don't know better. You'll also get crushed in online reviews so your operation will have to shutter or restart with a new name because you are going to get low reviews just for this sneaky tip crap.
Like I posted elsewhere, the two sides of this dilemma is that people also don't want to pay almost $20 for a burger which is what is happening. In Seattle, servers make 18.50 an hour and a burger is 15.00 or more.
I'm not trying to "hide" it. It will be printed on the menu. I am not going to "spring" this on anyone. If I add it into the price, then the price will be higher, and I don't want to do that. I am not doing anything sneaky.
The price is the same either way. You are attempting to be deceptive. It's lame.
If it's printed on the menu in big, bold letters, it's not deceptive. Just out of curiosity, do you actually own a table-service restaurant?
If I add it into the price, then the price will be higher, and I don't want to do that.
Exactly!