Should a hotel worker ask for a gratuity?

[jamesglewisf]

Via email:

I work in a limited service hotel which provides room service from an outside source. Our hotel and the restaurant have included gratuity, which the hotel staff (we run the food to the room) does not see a penny of. Is it customary to ask for a tip, and if so, what is the proper way to let the guest know this? I do not ask for a tip (of course), but when a guest asks me if the bill is charged to the room, is there a proper way to tell them I do not see a penny of the gratuity?

[jamesglewisf]

Answer:

I'm afraid that I don't have good news for you. There is no proper way to tell the guests. Even if there were a proper way, it is not fair to the guests. I travel a lot. It is highly improper for me to overpay for the food, oftentimes have a $3 service charge, plus 18% gratuity, and then have the food deliverer expect an additional tip.

If gratuity is already included, the guests shouldn't have to tip even more. I think you just have to live without it. The best thing to do would be to get management to change the way it works. One way would be for the cost of the food to include the current gratuity that is split between the hotel and the restaurant without saying so; and then when the people tip, the deliverer gets the tip.

In other words, if the food is normally $10 and the gratuity makes it $11.80, make the cost of the food $11.80. Then have a line on the bill for gratuity. The hotel and restaurant get the $11.80 however they divide it up, and the person delivering the food gets what is written by the guest on the gratuity line. Just make sure the menu and the bill don't say, "Gratuity included."

If the hotel won't change it, then you'll have to just consider it part of your job. If the wages are not high enough without gratuities, then I think you should look for another job elsewhere with better pay.

[oSuperDuke]

This in my opinion is a 'Horrible Practice'. When a Hotel or a Restaurant includes gratuity on a bill most if not all patrons are lead to believe that this is going to the person performing the service. In my opinion the hotel this person is working for is cheating its employees and its customers and unethically using the gratuity for there own purposes. This is a shameful practice that must stop. The only way to stop it is to tell that Hotel how you feel and leave if you have to.

Please post the name of this Hotel so that I can give them a piece of my mind.

oSuperDuke

[oSuperDuke]

29 CFR 531.52 - General characteristics of ``tips.''

A tip is a sum presented by a customer as a gift or gratuity in
recognition of some service performed for him. It is to be distinguished
from payment of a charge, if any, made for the service. Whether a tip is
to be given, and its amount, are matters determined solely by the
customer, and generally he has the right to determine who shall be the
recipient of his gratuity. In the absence of an agreement to the
contrary between the recipient and a third party, a tip becomes the
property of the person in recognition of whose service it is presented
by the customer. Only tips actually received by an employee as money
belonging to him which he may use as he chooses free of any control by
the employer, may be counted in determining whether he is a ``tipped
employee'' within the meaning of the Act and in applying the provisions
of section 3(m) which govern wage credits for tips.

29 CFR 531.53 - Payments which constitute tips.

In addition to cash sums presented by customers which an employee
keeps as his own, tips received by an employee include, within the
meaning of the Act, amounts paid by bank check or other negotiable
instrument payble at par and amounts transferred by the employer to the
employee pursuant to
directions from credit customers who designate amounts to be added to
their bills as tips. Special gifts in forms other than money or its
equivalent as above described such as theater tickets, passes, or
merchandise, are not counted as tips received by the employee for
purposes of the Act.

29 CFR 531.54 - Tip pooling.

Where employees practice tip splitting, as where waiters give a
portion of their tips to the busboys, both the amounts retained by the
waiters and those given the busboys are considered tips of the
individuals who retain them, in applying the provisions of section 3(m)
and 3(t). Similarly, where an accounting is made to an employer for his
information only or in furtherance of a pooling arrangement whereby the
employer redistributes the tips to the employees upon some basis to
which they have mutually agreed among themselves, the amounts received
and retained by each individual as his own are counted as his tips for
purposes of the Act.

[Noseypoo]

Wow ... they have laws for anything, don't they? {toothy}