Life is tough if you’re drinking on the roof of the Dream Hotel, where cocktails already have a monster price tag, plus an auto-gratuity. The Wall Street Journal reports that all receipts, even those with one drink only, read, “20% has been added to your check for your convenience.” Partiers will find the same tacked-on tip at the Mondrian’s Mister H and the Paramount Hotel in Times Square. This growing industry trend is helpful in the sense that mathematical skills are now completely unnecessary (yay!), but problematic because some tipsy patrons might not notice the auto-tip, leaving their own gratuity on top of everything else and walking away … screwed. The story also points to that so-called best resto in NYC ever, Per Se, which includes a flat 20 percent service fee for parties of all sizes. [WSJ]
