‘Hidden charges’ at restaurants slammed
By Sarmad Qazi
Irked by having to pay what they call “hidden charges”, some customers have expressed their displeasure at the increasing practice in restaurants of adding “service charges” to their final tab.
Patrons say they do not mind paying the extra so long as any additional charge is written visibly on the menus and the money actually goes to who it is originally charged for - the staff.
“The fact that my bill had a 10% service charge came as a surprise. The font size used on the menu to announce the charge was smaller than a bank’s fine print,” a customer of a fine dining restaurant said.
Debate on the subject is raging across the region. Just last week, the UAE outlawed the practice and warned restaurants and cafés to do away with the practice by February 1 or face fines ranging between Dh5,000 to Dh100,000. Exempted from the rule are restaurants located in hotels.
Service charge, often added to the final bill at dine-in and table-service restaurants (not applies on take-outs, home delivery), usually ranges from 5% to 20% depending upon the quality of the outlet. The practice is allowed at restaurants inside hotels but has caught up outside too.
Restaurants, however, yesterday defended the service charge and maintained the money went towards staff waiting tables and inside the kitchen.
“Various establishments use it for different purposes. We use it as a motivational factor for our staff,” said a senior official at a food and beverage company which manages some of the leading franchised restaurants in Qatar.
But customers also accused restaurants of pocketing the extra money rather than giving 100% to employees.
“If all of the service charge is not passed down to staff then restaurant use the money to cover breakages (glass, cutlery etc) by employees rather than managements increasing the cost of products (on the menu),” a general manager of an American franchised chain of restaurant said.
The practice is not restricted to branded restaurants only as some local fine dining restaurants in Qatar also take service charges. Most officials Gulf Times spoke to were not sure whether a prior Baladiya or Ministry of Business & Trade permission was taken before the charge was introduced.
Industry officials also dismissed suggestions that instead of a separate service charge they should increase the price of products as “impossible”.
“This can’t be done. Increase in prices will make the customer move to a competitor,” a restaurant official said.
“We do however waive the service charge if a customer insists or if they do not feel like they received the level of service they expected,” he added.
In most places the company takes 100% of the service charge as they see it as part of their profit. It gives the appearance that the cost of their food is reasonable and you don't know the full cost of your meal until the very end.
It is very bad business practise as far as customers are concerned.
I find the service charge annoying in that you never know if you still have to add another tip for the server. Nowadays, I don't.
Agreed with robertothebrave, service charge should be at the customers' discretion as sometimes the services just not up to the standard and we were asked to pay 15%!
I kind of feel like the restaurants are making the customers to pay for their employees!
I went to chilis last day, and the service charges were a rip off..
The total service charges came to around 50 QR..i hope the poor girl serving us got atleast QR 10...
These charges should not apply to any restuarant be it in a hotel or not. Service charge should be at the customers discretion or if the restuarant needs to increase their margins the cost should be added to the food. Hidden charges should not be there and should be contested by everyone.