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Hi

I am a Product Manager within the Finance team, I met with a customer yesterday who suggested that they would like to start adding a service charge to all Bills in Mews, similar to the way that a service charge is added to a bill in a restaurant. 

Their idea was to add the service charge as a % of the total bill value or as a % of the accommodation items to avoid F&B items being charged multiple service charge. They discussed that they would need to inform the customers of the charge in advance of the stay and they would likely do this via the confirmation email. They commented that are a lot of properties are doing this now.

The property is unsure how their guests might react to the charge and we were keen to start a conversation about this subject:

  • does anyone have any experience of adding a similar charge and has it been successful?
  • are their other properties interested or considering adding a similar charge?

 

Hello!

I don’t like the idea of “resort fees” and “service charges” for rather undefined services. The financial motivation is obvious though :-)

Legally, at least in the EU, I think that any mandatory extra fee must be clearly communicated at the time of placing the reservation (before contract closure). That would be just appropriate from the perspective of consumer protection, hospitality, and fair competition. If guests will appreciate that practice is written on another page - judging from the comments on reddit and other platforms recently, I doubt it ;-)

Let me point to another idea, that was just recently discussed right here in the community: voluntary gratuity / tips. At online CheckIn, Kiosk CheckIn, Online CheckOut find a clever way to legally and in a friendly way suggest to the guest to add some voluntary charge for rendered service or tip to the bill.

Just my 2 cents … :-/

JP.

Thanks @j.spiess for your thoughts, great insights.

 

Hi @laura.asplin!

We charge service charge to our guests, we’ve been doing so for a long time. We have created service charge as a Product and it's being added to the reservations through a Product Rule - in this way we can rule out certain (corporate) contracts. We confirm service charge (and city tax) everywhere in our communication, clearly. It has been succesful revenue-wise, but a good explanation for guests is necessary. I feel that the word “service” should not have been used, since it feels you’re paying extra for service even though you've booked a stay. That's feedback we're receiving from guests on a regular basis. 

Hope this helps! Have a great day 😀 Regards, Sanne 

Hi @laura.asplin!

We charge service charge to our guests, we’ve been doing so for a long time. We have created service charge as a Product and it's being added to the reservations through a Product Rule - in this way we can rule out certain (corporate) contracts. We confirm service charge (and city tax) everywhere in our communication, clearly. It has been succesful revenue-wise, but a good explanation for guests is necessary. I feel that the word “service” should not have been used, since it feels you’re paying extra for service even though you've booked a stay. That's feedback we're receiving from guests on a regular basis. 

Hope this helps! Have a great day 😀 Regards, Sanne 

Hi Sanne, this is really helpful, thank you for your detailed response!

Can I ask do you charge a relative or fixed service fee? Out of interest have your thought about what a better description would be?

Laura

Hi @laura.asplin! We have a fixed fee (charged per adult, children excepted), which we increase slightly on a yearly basis. We’ve thought about different descriptions some time ago, but nothing really fitted.  

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