Us-style tipping that adds 10p to a £5 pint proves hard to swallow for pub drinkers
Pub-goers in Britain are now being asked to pay American-style service charges for drinks ordered at the bar.
Bars and pubs in Scotland, owned by the Scotsman Group, have started to levy an automatic 2 per cent service charge on drinks.
It means a £5 pint of beer will come with an automatic 10p tip.
A pint of Camden Hells Lager at the Grosvenor Cafe in Glasgow is listed on the drinks menu as £5.95; however, customers ordering at the bar are charged £6.07 for the drink.
At the Golf Tavern in Edinburgh, a pint of Guinness costs £5.50 – according to the published menu. In reality, pub-goers are charged £5.61.
It’s not just pints which carry the charge.
At the Social, a Glasgow city centre bar, a pornstar martini is advertised at £10.50, but customers are charged £10.71 when they go to pay.
The extra costs, which can be removed upon request, add just a small amount to bar bills. However, consumer experts warned drinkers may be oblivious to the extra costs and said companies should not rely on “creaming off tips” to boost staff pay. Service charges have become common practice in the restaurant industry over the past decade with most diners now expecting to find a 12.5pc “discretionary service charge” added to their bill after a meal.
However, some fear Britain that is sleepwalking into adopting the US’S tipping culture, where tips average around 20 per cent.
Central London restaurants such as L’escargot, in Soho and Delaunay in Covent Garden have upped their service charge to 15 per cent with the latter also adding a £2 cover charge per guest. Last September, Britain’s biggest pub change, Stonegate Group, introduced dynamic pricing at 800 sites across the country, charging drinkers more for pints during “peak trading”. The company initially brought in additional charges during major sports tournaments but has since made the change permanent, meaning a pint of beer can be 20p more expensive at the weekend.
Diners have also complained about feeling “ambushed” with charity donations increasingly added to restaurant cheques. Streetsmart, a charity that claims to have invented the fundraising technique, says it has generated more than £12million through £1 donations on restaurant bills since 1998.
Meanwhile, missing your haircut could also cost you, with “no-show” penalties more commonly associated with restaurants now being charged at upmarket hairdressers and spas.
Huckle the Barber, a chain of men’s hairdressers in London, where a wash and a cut can cost as much as £56, “reserves the right” to charge the full amount to customers who cancel within 24 hours.
Toni & Guy, which has more than 450 salons nationwide, charge £30 for a last-minute cancellation.
Consumer expert Jane Hawkes said while many in the hospitality industry were “struggling to stay afloat”, it was important they remained “crystal clear about what they are charging”.
She said: “Companies should be paying their staff appropriately and not relying on creaming off tips or service charges to be able to subsidise that.”
The Scotsman Group was approached for comment.