On a recent group visit to a hotel in Cornwall, we ran into a political row over gratuities. We include gratuities in the price for a four-night stay, and everyone pays the same. With two coaches for around 90 people, the amount is substantial.

During our visit, I contacted the manager of the hotel and he said gratuities handed to him went into an account for all the staff and every two or three monthsit was divided as fairly as possible.

The restaurant manageress, on learning what we were doing (and all our members agreed) approached me to say the system was unfair and it was obvious she considered her team a cut above the rest and deserving of a greater share.

As a group, we were very pleased with all the services offered by the hotel staff – the receptionists were most helpful, as were the bar people and the porters; the housekeepers kept our rooms in tip top order and we enjoyed excellent meals and service in the restaurant. All of them, in my book, deserved a fair share.

Eventually, to save further argument, we gave half the gratuities to the restaurant staff and the other half to the manager to be divided out for the rest.

Did we do the right thing?

Ronald Johnson
GTO
RMJ Tours, Torquay