Splitting hairs and bills
Trip Start
Jul 10, 2007
1
21
32
Trip End
Ongoing
Saint Petersburg,
Florida,
United States
Monday, September 17, 2007
Let me preface by saying that we are a small restaurant (no computer POS system in sight and due to cost, not one we will soon be implementing), so all our guest's checks are hand written and totalled. Even with a computer system in place, it can still be a daunting task to have to input all food and beverage separately for each person or couple.
In order that our customers are not surprised, we mention both on our website and on our menu that we are not able to split checks.
Our premise is to be customer-focused, but if a party of 8 came in demanding separate bills it truly would be an inconvenience all around.
A-For all the other guests, as the waitperson has less time to attend to their needs. If the roles were reversed and you were sitting at another table, you might get upset?!?
B-the table of 8 (as at the end of the night, she would be adding each individual's check, tax etc., as opposed to just totalling 1 check)- then also running 8 separate credit cards, keeping them all waiting
C-the kitchen- imagine bringing in 8 different paper orders for 1 table, as opposed to 1 order -(you might think -just transpose it all unto one check for the kitchen- again that takes time)
Larger parties we automatically add a gratuity, which we make very clear on our menus, so there is never a concern for the waitperson on whether they will be justly tipped.
We have had guests , wanting to treat the table to an expensive bottle of bubbly, so they came in earlier, had us run their card, add tax, tip and before their other friends arrived, that part of the bill was settled, as opposed to having it become a problem at the end of the meal.
Often, when going out to dinner with friends, the bill can appear a little askew, but if it is a matter of $10-$15 difference, we are not quibbling, and just split it down the middle.
On the other hand if our friends gorged themselves on the lobster, filet mignon and imbibed in a half dozen martinis, while my husband had the chicken, N/A beer and I only ate an appetizer (having had gastric bypass surgery I am often limited on my food intake), then we would feel free, to mentally calculate the difference and ask the waitperson to charge e.g. $142 on their credit card and $74 on ours.
(was it really $145 and $71, who cares? that would be utterly petty)
What we propose to a table, and this is still time-consuming, is, instead of trying to write all separate orders, at the end of the night we will accept their credit cards, and they can each tell us the amount they want processed. We recently had this happen and although we accommodated the party, half the people said, next time, just split it evenly, as invariably we have found, that the amounts are within a couple of dollars of one another- so what was all the brouhaha about anyway?
We have a group of customers who come in frequently and they have come up with a great solution themselves: At the end of the meal one couple pays the entire bill and then receives a detailed copy of the bill, getting reimbursement from their friends in the ensuing days.
Certainly each situation is unique, but sometimes we see guests calculating their share and nitpicking over pennies, hopefully the above will be a helpful resource for your next night out.
