Can a bar or restaurant charge for table service? This is the question that some consumers have asked themselves when they see the price of their ticket increased due to this charge that, for hoteliers, "is out of use" and that consumer organizations warn that it is illegal.
Although it is becoming less frequent, many bars and restaurants maintain the charge for table service when paying the total bill, a payment that sows doubt in many consumers about what it is and whether it should be charged.
The Organization of Consumers and Users (OCU) has explained in statements to EFE that, in its opinion, "charging for table service or for cover is illegal, because it is implicit in the hospitality service itself."
They detail that "any additional charge must correspond to an additional service, not to the main service that the user is contracting and in this case the table service, the cover or whatever they want to call it, is part of the main service of an establishment of hospitality".
For this reason, this service "must be part of the price" and, therefore, "charging it separately does not conform to consumer regulations", a fact for which the organization qualifies its charge as "illegal".
The opinion of the hoteliers, in the voice of the president of the Hospitality Association of Spain, José Luis Yzuel, is that this charge is "less and less common" and that its application is out of use, as he pointed out in statements to EFE. Yzuel advocates that, in case of charging for this service, the restaurant or bar notifies the consumer in advance through the letter so that he can have "total and transparent information" on his final ticket.
The question about what can and cannot be charged in the hospitality industry has also reached social networks, where the profile of a TikTok user dedicated to rights advice (@lawtips) has explained in a video that it is "totally illegal to charge for table service.
In the video, which has accumulated almost two million views, the young man explains that "it is possible to charge for the bread and olives that are put at the beginning of the meal, but as long as it is included in the menu and the consumer agrees to take it."
The OCU recalls, in turn, that "there are items that cannot be charged without clearly stating it, such as the terrace supplement" and that "others require the express consent of the client, such as appetizers or bread".
In addition, "no supplements can be charged for the service on the terrace, unless it is clearly indicated on the menu" and, he adds, "the establishment must provide a tupperware to the customer if he wishes to take the rest of the food, but can charge for him whenever he notices".
The same thing happens with water, since last year, with the entry into force of the Law on Waste and Contaminated Soils for a Circular Economy, bars and restaurants will have to offer consumers the possibility of consuming unpackaged water in a free.
In addition, the consumer organization points out that, as a result of inflation, the hotel service is leading to "bad habits" such as rejecting reservations for a single person or charging separately for milk or coffee ice, even when indicated in the letter.
The charge for table service or cutlery generates in the consumer, to a greater or lesser extent, an uncertainty that leads them to increasingly demand clarity when paying for services in the hospitality industry.
