HOTEL FOOD AND BEVERAGE SERVICE: THE QUESTION OF TIPPING ed al.

                        

Confused by the terminologies.. ‘tips’, ‘service charges’, ‘cover charge’ and ‘gratuities’? 

You are not alone.

To write a series of articles on hotel food and beverage service from the point of view of servers without touching on any of the above often-confused terminologies would be unpardonable on my part. 

It is therefore apt to use this last article of the series for this discussion; after all, how much a diner tips is usually the last impression the diner makes on the server!

By the way, a passing comments on the above pictures:currently bill folders/check holders have displaced the previous way of 'dishing out' tips in most hotel food and beverage outlets, making them more discrete. Bravo!

Now to establish a common understanding of the above terminologies:

A ‘tip’ is synonymous to ‘gratuity.’ It is a voluntary payment given over and above the amount of the bill as a “personal reward” from a diner to waiting/service personnel. As an example, the bill could be 130ghc and I, the diner, decide (based on several factors) to give a tip of 20ghc.

A service charge is an amount (determined by the hotel/establishment) added to a diner’s bill before the bill is presented to the diner. The amount is almost always based on a percentage of the bill. In Ghana, it seems to be mandatory. A bill amount of 130ghc with a service charge of 15% will bring the total amount to be presented to the diner, 149.50ghc. Since most hotel restaurants are silent about the tip, diners may feel obliged to tip the server in spite of the service charge and particularly if they wish to acknowledge and appreciate the service rendered by the server. assuming a diner decides on a tip of 20ghc,  a diner is likely to round up the 149.50 to 150ghc and add the tip of 20ghc.  Generally diners are generous. 

Thank you diners!

A ‘cover charge’ is less commonly used but it exists and it is a fixed charge per customer. This is also mandatory. It is expected to cover entertainment cost (of a live band) incurred at a restaurant or nightclub in addition to the charge for food and drink.

Several years ago when I entered the industry the concept of tips in the hotel arena was most confusing. Perhaps it still is. Many employers suggested 'tip pooling,' where all employees who received tips were required to ‘surrender’ all or a specified percentage (depending on the policy of the establishment) to the ‘pool’ (referred to as tronc pool). The total amount in the ‘pool’ was shared among the group of employees in the department (including the kitchen staff in the case of the food and beverage department) at specified periods; weekly or monthly. This practice did not go down well some personnel (you may guess who and why)! There were other issues though:

• the question of honesty of servers on the tips declared.

•  the issue of bar staff  not being considered as part of food and beverage service (since they hardly rely on kitchen in the production of their cocktails and the service of their drinks).

•  the question of who gets to keep the pool of tips until it is ready to be shared.

•  the question of where  to keep the pool of tips; at a bank? a manager’s office ? the house of a staff member in the pool?-each had its complications.

•  the question of when and how to share the tips (frequency and by seniority or degree of interaction with diner).

It got murky when employers suggested that a percentage of the pool should be used for items such as disposables since those items were being ‘wasted’ by personnel. It got murkier still when diners realized/found out that not all the tips went directly to the servers whom they were rewarding for good service.

Then service charge was introduced. It was mandatory.  Was this to replace tips? While some hotels insisted that ‘service charge’ was replacing tips, others were mute about it, entangling diners even the more in the confusion. 

This issue of where tips go and how much is kept by the restaurant has long confused diners not only in Ghana. But let’s stick to our boundaries since in the countries where the system of tipping is quite well established, there is usually a mutual understanding among the givers/diners and the recipients/servers.

Tips are considered as gestures of appreciation from diners for good service received. Our servers know this very well and apparently always look forward to be tipped particularly in the more upscale hotels. I am told servers are motivated to offer even better services next time, not only to the giver but to others as well. This is debatable. What I have observed of servers over the years is an 'abuse' of the tipping system with certain diners being labeled as ‘fat tippers.’ Servers seemingly give preferential treatment to their 'preferred diners' at the expense of others who tip little or do not tip all.

How Much Matter

Restaurant  tipping is a widespread form of social behavior. Psychologically  the size of the amount of tips matters to servers, whether the system is developed or not. Telling a server to keep the change when the change is perhaps 3ghc after a well enjoyed meal experience with a bill amount of 257ghc may be likened to 'stabbing the server at the back' if the server's 'eyes are on the tip' (literal translation from vernacular)! 

Although tips show a sign of gratitude, servers should not always expect to receive them; it takes maturity to develop this attitude. Being professionals as I expect them to be, servers must not allow the amount of tip or the frequency of tip from the same diner to distort the quality of service or become a factor to discriminate in rendering service. At the end of the day, in whatever capacity our servers find themselves, they must endeavor to give their all towards providing exceptional service consistently, irrespective of who the diner is. 

When I was playing the role of a server, I was the only one who knew how much effort went into each service I rendered. There were times I felt I was taken for granted but what kept me going was the thought to honor God in everything. I got some motivation from Nehemiah, a king's cup-bearer (sommelier in our current terminology) and in the Acts of Apostles, where wise and godly men were required to wait on tables (all in the Bible)!

While our industry needs to help in developing the system of tipping, servers must do their bit -you never know when that 'Golden Hand' will pick you up to you-know-not-what; far beyond your expectations and comprehension!

HOTEL FOOD AND BEVERAGE SERVICE; THE MOMENT OF TRUTH

Articles on ‘the moment of truth’ are usually written from the viewpoint of the recipient of the service. In the hospitality industry, a moment of truth is therefore ‘when an interaction occurs between a guest/customer and the service provider that can leave a lasting positive or negative impression on the one served.’

For some of us, ‘the moment of truth’ goes beyond the personal interaction; my moment of truth as a guest to a hotel could be when I drive to the parking lot and observe pools of water long after a rainfall. In discussing this moment of truth you could empathize with me. Nevertheless, ‘the moment of truth’ should also be considered from the viewpoint of the service provider, which is what this article intends to do; empathize with the server during the service.

Whether we represent management or guests/customers, our expectations of service providers are very high, especially in hotels. We expect servers/ waiters (in restaurants, lounges, hotel guest rooms, banquet rooms, and snack bars), restaurant hostesses, cashiers, bartenders and food runners, to put in a lot of effort towards preparing for service which I vehemently support (refer my previous articles, part I and II on preparation for service).  So let’s assume our servers are ‘on top of their game’ for this moment when a guest/customer walks through that door (in the case of a hotel’s restaurant/ café/lounge bar, or in the case of the hotel’s main bar, where the customer settles down at a choice spot or in the case of room dining service, the room service attendant ‘invades’ or preferably steps into the privacy of the guest -since it is upon a request).

In part I of preparing for exceptional service, I indicated that this whole food and beverage service work arena can be quite intimidating without the presence of guests and further hinted how their could be even more intimidating; using George the gardener and my own restaurant hostess experiences. In this article I am assuming that our servers have overcome their self consciousness and have developed eager attitudes toward service.

During the service encounter, anyone of the following scenarios is likely; our servers may never have met the guests/customers they are about to serve before; they may have had a good/ bad /normal encounter with the occasional guests/customers they are about to interact with or the guests/ customers they are about to encounter may be among the ‘regulars’ and therefore all formal barriers have been broken.  Bear in mind however, that our servers would actually encounter all of the above during the six to ten-hour shift they will be on the service floor.

The duties of servers can be tedious and challenging but are vital to the success of the hotel. Apart from preparatory tasks before guests arrival, when guests/customers arrive servers offer cocktails, specialty drinks, wine, beer or other beverages. In some high-end food service outlets, servers demonstrate a good knowledge of the wine list and are able to recommend food-wine pairings. They recommend food options and even request the chef to make changes in how food is prepared. Servers memorize the ingredient list for the dishes and the manner in which the food is prepared. Silver service staffs are specially trained to serve at banquets and by the way it is not all about technical and professional skills, there are the social skills to observe and I think that is where some guests/customers 'forget' themselves; you read right, yes, guests/customers.

To perform the above duties, emotional labor is often required. The nature of work of our servers is physically demanding, involving prolonged standing and static postures, carrying and lifting and repetitive movements, often combined with other unfavorable working conditions such as the poor design of the workplace.

Before I ever knew that the Japanese have a proverb that 'people have three faces' I had reasoned so, through various service encounters in my hotel career. Every guest/customer has three faces; the one you will ordinarily encounter, the second which shows up when an issue crops up and the third which you rarely see. Until you work in food and beverage service you cannot image the daily drama that plays out on the service floor. One plot leads to another and every twist and turn leads to a tale of interaction between servers and guests/customers, from the server point of view, of course. 

In the points high lighted below, I am not suggesting that a server’s experience is all doom and gloom. They encounter good guests/customers too, but as a guest told me once, 'good service is so news. It's the bad service that makes news interesting.' Apart from the negative human encounters, their working conditions also place a toll on them. Below are few encounters:

Hotel Restaurants

I am a hostess and I know that I must save four-top tables for parties of four. A couple walk in and the ‘she’ does not want a table for two. She insists on a four-top table. When I apologize and explain that I am expecting larger groups and I am expected to save the four-tops for parties of four, she looks down at me, makes fun of me and even gives a nasty remark suggesting I do not understand how important they are as guests/customers.

This other guest/customer is a perfect gentleman, it seems. When it is his turn to order, he does not look at me, the server; he looks straight ahead and sneers/mumbles some words.  I can hardly hear what he says and I get very embarrassed trying to get him to confirm what he ordered.

Room Dining Service

I love room dining service, making the guest feel special; but it can be disheartening when we, servers, find ourselves having to deal with:

• Guests not fully or even mostly dressed(particularly during breakfast delivery)

• Guests asking about other guests in the hotel

Hotel Bars/Night Clubs

Unless you have worked behind a bar, you will not realize how much stress and harassment we, bar staff have to suffer on a daily basis.

• Our legs tend to get sore standing the entire shift 

• We may be mentally alert but we get physically exhausted in busy bars

• We smell like a brewery after the shift 

• Some of us develop hate/disrespect towards drunk people

• It can be very hard to hear  

• Customers  think they are being helpful by shoving their rubbish into their glasses 

• Customers  do not understand what 'closing time' means 

• Female servers/barmaids are harassed perhaps just because they are serving  drinks?

• Customers ask uncomfortable questions-Are you straight/gay/married/single?
  
  
  
  And for all servers, when 'the customer is always right' is given a standing ovation despite the fact the guest/customer is CLEARLY NOT, in those moments we are guided by the ethics of the industry, if there is any(on the matter), or we just have to ‘grin and bear it’ taking those moments as exigencies of the job. 
  
   

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