{"id":355453,"date":"2025-08-19T00:24:17","date_gmt":"2025-08-19T00:24:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/355453\/"},"modified":"2025-08-19T00:24:17","modified_gmt":"2025-08-19T00:24:17","slug":"now-london-pub-adds-4pc-optional-charge-to-drinks-customers-order-at-the-bar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/355453\/","title":{"rendered":"Now London pub adds 4pc ‘optional charge’ to drinks customers order at the bar"},"content":{"rendered":"

A London<\/a> pub has now added a four per cent ‘optional charge’ to any drinks customers order at the bar.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Punters at The Well and Boot in Waterloo station have been slapped with the automatic tariff, which applies to any food and drink, The Telegraph reports.<\/p>\n

The boozer, which is owned by hospitality firm Glendola Leisure, has a small sign on the bar informing customers of the service charge.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It notes, ‘100 per cent of all tips go to our staff’ – and, in another blow, that the venue is cashless, accepting card and contactless only.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Cash acceptance campaigner Martin Quinn said: ‘You can understand it if you’re sitting down and it’s table service, but you’re ordering it from the bar.\u00a0<\/p>\n

‘Where’s the service in that?’<\/p>\n

Mr Quinn visited the pub, buying a half pint of cider for \u00a33.90 – around 15p more than the price listed on the menu due to the additional charge, which he paid.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It could be a real money-making measure for the pub in the busy London station, which sees more than 60million people pass through its doors every year.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"A <\/p>\n

A London pub has now added a four per cent ‘optional charge’ to any drinks customers order at the bar. Pictured: Sign advertising the bar service charge in the pub\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Punters <\/p>\n

Punters at The Well and Boot in Waterloo station (pictured, file photo) have been slapped with the automatic tariff, which applies to any food and drink<\/p>\n

\"It <\/p>\n

It notes, ‘100 per cent of all tips go to our staff’ – and, in another blow, that the venue is cashless, accepting card and contactless only. Pictured: File photo\u00a0<\/p>\n

Pubs and restaurants normally add a service charge of roughly 12.5 per cent to the bill for customers seated at a table and attended to by a waiter.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It means extra tipping on top of this is not usually expected in the UK – in contrast with the US and some other European countries.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But sadly, conventions are changing, consumer expert Martyn James said, as he is seeing more and more a service charge on drinks bought at the bar in pubs.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He called it ‘insidious’, adding there are few regulations to stop it, with the only real definitive rule on tipping being that the house is not supposed to keep tips.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And signs advertising a bar service charge can sometimes be hard to spot, with news of the levy often written in small print.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n

Mr James reminded punters it is optional, recognising they might feel too awkward to say no to it as it goes against ‘our British sensibilities’.\u00a0<\/p>\n

At The Well and Boot, an Aspall cider or Guinness sets you back \u00a37.45 – while customers have to cough up \u00a37.65 for a pint of Camden IPA.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A glass of sauvignon blanc costs \u00a38.50 while cocktails come in at \u00a312.50 apiece.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Pubs <\/p>\n

Pubs and restaurants normally add a service charge of roughly 12.5 per cent to the bill for customers seated at a table and attended to by a waiter. Pictured: File photo<\/p>\n

Prices look only set to rise further, with ballooning overheads for licenced venues expected to see the cost of the average pint in the UK rise to \u00a35.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Things look even worse in London, where the standard price of a pint is set to bed in at \u00a37.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It is a marked increase even on March this year, when the average pint cost \u00a34.80 across the country and \u00a36.75 in the capital.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Struggling venues have taken increasingly extreme measures to stay afloat, with one major pub chain increasing the pint of 15p after Chancellor Rachel Reeves’s tax raid<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Fuller’s said in June the rise in national insurance contributions (NICs) from last October’s Budget and the higher minimum wage from April has left the firm badly hit.<\/p>\n

The Chiswick-based company – which has 5,500 staff members – warned back in November last year the financial measures would cause the price of its pints to rise.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It came after hospitality bosses warned in April the industry faces a \u00a33.4billion hit over the next year<\/a> from the measures in the autumn Budget.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Rises in the national minimum wage and employer NICs, and cuts to business rate relief announced last October all kicked in during the first week of April.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Struggling <\/p>\n

Struggling venues have taken increasingly extreme measures to stay afloat, with one major pub chain increasing the pint of 15p after Chancellor Rachel Reeves’s tax raid. Pictured: Ms Reeves displaying the red budget briefcase last October\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The triple-whammy means individual businesses face tens of thousands of pounds in extra costs \u2013 and prices have already soared in pubs, restaurants and hotels.\u00a0<\/p>\n

UK Hospitality \u2013 representing 130,000 venues \u2013 has said across the sector, the minimum wage rise will add a \u00a31.9billion burden.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It added an extra \u00a31billion will have to be paid in NICs after the tax was expanded to take in more part-time workers.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, a further \u00a3500million of costs will come from business rate relief being lowered from 75 per cent to 40 per cent.<\/p>\n

The Institute of Directors also revealed business leaders are ‘highly concerned’ about the extra costs \u2013 with a monthly study of bosses’ confidence showing levels as low as during the pandemic.<\/p>\n

Glendola Leisure was approached for comment.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A London pub has now added a four per cent ‘optional charge’ to any drinks customers order at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":355454,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7757],"tags":[748,92,393,4884,257,12,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-355453","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-london","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-dailymail","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-london","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115052587840636147","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355453","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=355453"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355453\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/355454"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=355453"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=355453"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=355453"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}