Or, I guess, for checks over a certain amount? Are they worried that people can’t do math at the higher numbers?
Thanks!
Big parties take an inordinate amount of staff time to wait on.
The restaurant should expect extra money for that.
Try this out the next time you invited two friends over for dinner and then 10 friends for dinner.
See which dinner is easier to prepare and clean up.
No, I’d imagine they are more concerned about large groups not leaving a tip at all. Such policies protect the waiters’ and waitresses’ incomes.
Risk-reward I would guess. The only reason waitrons agree to the low base wage is tips. With a bunch of different people the chances of geting stiffed are low. If you devote your evening to one large group, and they stiff you, (and some would try if the total bill is large) you’ve busted your ass for a few hours for $ 10.00 or so. Not a happy scenario and too risky from a wait person’s perspective. Plus calcualting individual tips due for people in a large party would be time consuming and confusing.
Generally for large parties, less often for bills totaling large amounts, butit is generally done to protect their employees. Rare in this day, particularly in the service industry, but it is actually a pretty good practice.
In restaraunts with a large enough number of tables to require multiple servers, those tables are divided into “sections”, generally anywhere from 4 to a dozen or more tables with 6-8 being the most common. Problems do occur in the fast paced world of food service, and often those problems are not the fault of the server, but it is usually the server that suffers. (The last time you were brought the wrong, or an improperly prepared item you still paid for it, but shortened your tip a bit didn’t you? The server might have ordered wrong, but its just as likely the cook mis-prepared, or the runner brought the wrong plate, or perhaps you weren’t entirely clear with your order.)
If you are working a 8 table section and you receive a small tip from one table you are more likely to be able to make it up at the other, than if all 8 tables have been pushed together to form one large party. Another factor is that groups of 2’s or 4’s are much less likely to linger for hours than a group of 20, so you are more likely to “turn” your tables more over the course of your shift.
Considering (depending on the state - I’m assuming US, mainly since Europeans don’t much like to tip anyway) the server is probably making something like $2.12 per hour those tips are very important, particulalry on a friday or saturday night, where assuming a five shift week, 4 weekday and one weekend, a server is probably looking at at least a 50/50 split (i.e. half or more their money on friday, the other half on mon-thurs. combined).
Servers generally like the system, if gratuity is included and they do an exceptional job they may be rewarded with a larger tip, if something happens beyond theor control, or even if they make a mistake (they are human after all) they can still make rent. The fact is most servers want to do a good job, the ones that are treated well by their employers and thier customers at least, particularly the ones who do it as a career, or as a long term job through school. Yes we have all had bad service, many people do think its an easy job, and are often unaware how bad they are, but they really dont tend to last long, they just often get replaced by servers just as bad. In fact if a restaraunt you frequent has sported a parade of bad, rude, and/or poorly trained servers you should probably stop eating there. That’s a management problem, management or ownership that is doing a poor job of hireing/training their waitstaff, and are probably doing just as bad a job with the rest of the place. A regular instead of a diet Coke brought by your bad server is annoying, but e coli from food prepared in a kitchen not kept spotless is quite a but more than annoying.
I’ve been a server, and large tables practically never tip appropriately- everyone seems to assume that someone else is leaving the tip. I once waited on a group of 30 people and got a total in $5 in tips from them.
From the customer’s perspective, it drives me nuts when someone in my party looks at its $12 meal and $2 coke and figure $15 ought to cover tax and tip. I’ve covered tips for other people on too many occasions, but I’d rather take the hit myself than pass it on to the wait staff.
Thats another point, FisherQueen, I intended to get to but forgot about, its quite common that a large group of people have their own agendas when it comes to splitting the bill.
Particularly when they are: (and I’m going to take a shot at offending just about everyone here) senior citizens, teen-agers, lesbians, Christians, or Europeans. All notoriously bad tippers.
And even in groups that I haven’t generalized about above there is often someone who “forgot” their wallet, or has to stop to get cash, or whatever, and the rest all throw in their extra buck or so for the tip, but because of the free-loader it barely covers the bill. I can remeber at least one friend of a friend who was always around in college when the pitchers were being ordered but allways seemed to be in the men’s room at last call, and it generally fell to me and the 2-3 other guys waiting/bartending their way through school to make up more than our fair share.
Your a good man (or woman) stypticus.
I have also heard FisherQueen’s reason, large tables more often leave lousy tips. Arguments about who owes what, etc. contribute to individuals leaving less than normal amounts. When the dough is collected, you have just over the amount on the bill, and everyone thinks they’ve put in enough or that someone else should leave more.
It happens often enough that special rules are needed for large parties. Believe me, if big tables tipped better than small, no place would put the automatic gratuity on the bill.
Also I think the amount of tip ‘just seems too much’ At 15%/20% for $100 bill is 15/20 dollars, not too bad, but get that bill up to $300 (with more people) and that tip is now $45 to $60 - which seems like a very high tip, causing people to think/say- $30 should be more then enough, even $25 should be fine.
Except, kanicbird, you and your 19 friends leaving your $25-30 tip have just monopolized the seating space that would have been filled by 5 4 tops running up $100 bills and leaving $15 each for a total of $150.
That’s a loss to the server of $120, and exactly the reason there are manditory gratuities on large parties.
I just realized after typing this and re-reading your post, you were speculating on the thought process of bad tippers, not proposing it.
I think you may be right, people see $60 in tip sitting on the table, think, “My, that’s a lot of money.” and start grabbing fins and singles back so its down to $42.
My experiences in being part of a large group of customers is that many people seem to forget (?) how many drinks they had, the fact that there is tax, etc. They throw some money in and leave, without an accurate perception of what they owe. If they were part of a small group, it would be difficult or impossible to avoid the reality of the bill. As part of a large group, they’re gone before anyone has had a chance to add up how much has been paid yet. The last few at the table are ususally presented the alternatives of paying way more than their share or facing an understanably upset server.
I have no problem with the place establishing a minimum tip for larger groups. I especially appreciate it when the server can provide a separated bill to each person or couple (doesn’t have to be the official tab, just an adding up of their share). This seems to be more common with modern computerized ordering systems, and I think it helps a lot.
I have three brothers and two sisters and four in-law spouses so we’re a party of ten when we do a family get-together. The last time we went out I was surprised that there was no gratuity added. So we stiffed 'em!
(No, no. Just kidding) I and my two sisters all did substantial terms in food-service prison at various points in our lives. We usually have to twist two of my brothers’ arms just to tip 15%. The fun the three of us have after everyone has left the table is to each throw down an additional $5 or $10 bucks each. Nothing like a little empathy to make a better tipper of you.
In regards the OP: one of the restaurants I worked at had a section that consisted of a single gigantic table. Most times it was unseated but occasionally a party of twelve or fourteen would roll in. Only one server would handle it. It sucked. Kanicbird and pfbob have hit the nail on the head: People see that tab and just can’t make themselves throw down $60 or $70 bucks.
The tag line is all of the servers confronted the manager and pretty much demanded a mandatory 15% on big ass parties. The restaurant said OK.
Is this (adding the gratuity to the bill) legal? I would think there’s no way they can force you to pay the tip. I mean you read the menu and agree to pay the menu price of the items you order, not the menu price plus 15%.
Well, the menu usually says something like “A gratuity of 18% will be added for parties over 8.” So if you don’t like that, presumably you would go elsewhere. Also, if you really wanted to, you could talk to the person in charge and explain that you only want to leave 12% (or whatever) for this specific reason. If the place has any sense at all, they will apologize for the poor service and take what you give them. Or you could cross the amount out on the credit card slip and put in what you wanted as the appropriate amount. However, for all the very good reasons mentioned above, you should not do that without a very, very, good reason, and you should politely tell them why.
Yes, but I’m pretty sure that if there is an automatic gratuity for large parties then it is noted in the menu (I usually see it near the bottom). So yes, you agreed to the tip at the same time you agreed to the price of your meal.
I’ve asked many waitpersons the OP’s question, and the most common response is the one suggested by Q.E.D.
It’s a hijack, I know, but all this begs the question why not include the service in all bills, and indeed in the prices listed on the menu? This is the practice in most of the world, and I find it a vastly better system. I’ve never seen much to recommend an approach that says “Employer pays employee a pittance, hopes that customers will make up the difference.”
pfbob,
Just curious: how can you tell someone is a Christian just by looking at them?
What bothers me about the gratuity policy for large parties is there’s no recourse for bad service. I mean, sure, you can tell the manager but the waitperson is still going to get money he/she may not deserve.
I usally add to the gratuity, especially if it’s just 15%.