TIP OF THE ICEBERG

To tip or not to tip, that is the question for consumers. But restaurant staff who do not wait at tables would like a slice of the pie.

US based website www.tipping.org has devised a credit card sized guide for diners on tipping. South African diners accustomed to tipping about 10% will be horrified to see the figures of 15 to 20%.

Tipping the scales - Hotel & Restaurant recommends:

• The management of every restaurant should establish in consultation with all staff a clear policy covering pooling, sharing and distribution of tips and service charges received via credit cards, cheques and cash.
• A detailed policy drawn up by industry and tourism bodies should be offered to all restaurants and hotels and made known to consumers and tourists.
• A summary of the policy on gratuities should be communicated to customers via menus.
• A compulsory service charge should be levied on large parties (six or more people) and increase with the size of the party.
• Apart from applying employment laws, the restaurant industry needs to elevate the craft of waitering by offering better pay and working conditions and make it a career some may wish to follow full time.

Any person who has ever required any kind of service, particularly as a tourist, has been faced by the vexing quandary of paying a gratuity. It is a situation that industry players are duty bound to help resolve for the sake of loyal patrons, happy employees and better business in general.

The issue may seem basic at first. After all, who doesn't appreciate the importance of rewarding good service?

In SA and most European countries the standard gratuity is 10 15%. In the US it's apparently closer to 20%.

But if a recent interview held on a radio talk show is anything to go by, the topic is far more intricate. Beluga co owner Hugh von Zahn was invited to a 15 minute discussion on the subject and the resultant listener phone calls and debate had him in the studio for over 90 minutes.

Consider that apart from South Africans and its substrata of diners who are said to be notoriously unconventional tippers such as traditional Afrikaans speakers and the elderly, patrons that hospitality businesses have to deal with hail from countries with cultures as divergent as Japan, China and Australia where tipping is taboo. In France, the service charge is often already built into the hotel or restaurant bill. Visitors from these countries have little or no idea of local traditions and can hardly be considered rude if there is no information available.

Cape Metropolitan Tourism says on its website: "It is customary to tip waiters, waitresses, wine stewards, taxi drivers, porters and caddies. Depending on service, the amount should be around 10%. Petrol station attendants often anticipate a tip if they have gone beyond just filling your tank".

Fedhasa has no official policy on gratuity. It is, however, hoping to establish one within the next six to eight months, says executive director Willem Fick.

"This is one of the macro issues in the restaurant industry that needs to be addressed. An attempt was made some years ago at compulsory service charges, but was abandoned," he says.

Von Zahn says the issue of gratuity in his venue is left up to the patrons. If there is a table of 10 people or more, however, they are informed that a 10% service fee will be imposed.

"It's a fine line. In some countries, such as Germany, a gratuity is no big thing at all. Our staff have had to accept that you win some and you lose some - there have been waiters here who have received a R1 000 tip," he says.
Von Zahn disagrees with the idea of putting any kind of indication on a menu to inform patrons of the policy and believes the tourism authorities should handle the education process. He's also against a standard service charge being imposed on every bill.

The Famous Butcher's Grill in Buitengracht Street is one restaurant that has reverted back to a system of discretionary tipping after it found about 40% of its diners were against a compulsory charge on their bills.

Says manager Sally Scholtz: "We followed the European trend by automatically adding a service charge to the bill, but changed this about five months ago. While they were guaranteed a tip in the past, staff now work on a commission basis of around 3 to 5%". Service staff members keep their individual tips but staff at other restaurants pool gratuities and share them with employees not directly serving patrons.

Scholtz admits that with a compulsory service charge, staff needed to deliver good service consistently, something they were able to do. "Our staff are highly trained - they have training coming out of their ears - so whenever a dispute over the service charge arose, it was never because the service was poor. We were able to deal with it."

Like Beluga, the Mount Nelson Hotel also has no formal policy on tipping. They do advise visitors on the subject through their website, however.

"We leave [tipping] up to the discretion of the guest, but if approached, we suggest between 10 and 15%," says Mount Nelson PRO Carmen Gold. "For porterage we advise around R3 per item".

It's at the coalface, however that wisdom is often picked up - that and a few interesting experiences. Former waiter at Lady Phillips Restaurant on Vergelegen Wine Estate Katy Roberts notes that foreign tourists sometimes appear confused over the tipping issue by either not tipping at all or tipping almost too well. On one occasion a well meaning Swiss couple tipped her 58c on a bill of R58,50.

In addition, she found that at restaurants where she has worked and that do not offer patrons guidance on tipping policy, many believed that a service fee is paid to staff by the restaurant out of profits for the day.

Tips were forthcoming, however, in the venues that did inform patrons - a practice says Roberts she feels necessary and which can be applied with enough subtlety without being offensive through a small, concise note in the menu.

The conundrum is one that has been addressed in various ways around the world. In the US, a website dedicated to tipping, www.tipping.org, sells credit card size tipping tables - a card indicating varying costs of the services on one side and then providing the calculation of 15% and 20% beside it.