Hotel service fees and tipping

| 28/11/2017

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.

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Comments (2)

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  1. Anonymous says:

    Except that haven’t they waived that 13% government fee for all of Dart’s places?

  2. Anonymous says:

    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.