20% service charge for a counter service coffee shop... is this becoming normal?

Hotel Amenities

I travel often for both business and personal trips, and something happened today that genuinely caught me off guard.

I stopped at a hotel café and ordered a drink and a pastry at the counter. There was no table service. The cafe guy simply rang up my order and handed me the items.

When I looked at the receipt afterward, I noticed an automatic 20% service charge had already been added.

I've certainly seen the payment screens that ask if you'd like to leave a tip, but this was different. I wasn't given a choice. It was automatically included in the total.

I raised an eyebrow when I got to my room, when I noticed the extra charge, mostly because the guy wasn't particularly friendly or provided any service beyond taking my order and handing me the pastry and drink.

I'm not trying to debate whether people should tip. I'm genuinely curious whether this is becoming common. I travel a lot and don't recall seeing mandatory 20% service charges for counter service cafés before.

Has anyone else experienced this recently? Is this becoming standard practice at hotels, or was this just an isolated experience?

Posted Jul 25, 2026, 7:40 PM UTC

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