Hotel service fees and tipping
When staying at local hotels, who are charging a mandatory service fee and also a resort charge, am I correct that the valet would be covered? We did a staycation and once you add all the tips, taxes and resort fees the nightly charge becomes surprisingly high. I felt overly pressured by the valet guys for additional tips, when I felt I had already paid for that service.
Auntie’s answer: Not surprisingly, each hotel offers different amenities under its resort fee, which often costs $60 per day. They will also add on a 10% service charge. The 13% accommodation tax for hotels is only charged to tourists, so your staycation fee should not have included that.
Unfortunately, I cannot tell you if the service fee you were charged included any gratuity for valets. I think the best course of action when planning another stay in a Cayman hotel would be to check ahead to find out what fee covers what.
Though I do think that the valets should have backed off. As far as I’m concerned, nothing guarantees me not tipping more than the service person pushing me to hand them said tip.
Category: Ask Auntie
Except that haven’t they waived that 13% government fee for all of Dart’s places?
Resort Fees is just one way the hotels screw government out of revenue. Government is supposed to get 13% of whatever the room rate is as a tax, so the hotels say the “room” is say $50 and collect 13% of that to give government. The rest of the hotel bill they call “resort fees” which they add 10 to 15 percent on top of as a service charge and keep all that for themselves.