Tipping the Venue??

I've never heard of this. Seems very odd.

Ive only ever heard of the service fee. I cant imagine tipping that much so I would like to know as well

I've never heard of this. Sounds ridiculous.

Okay I'm glad I'm not the only one! Thanks KS & alforev, I thought it seemed strange but I wanted to check with the WW community to see your opinions.

That is ridiculous. I'd want a total explanation before I told them to take their suggestion elsewhere.

You really need to ask the venue what the tip covers. I had a xx% 'service charge'. I asked my event mgr & they explained that the 'gratuity is for the servers'. Our % will be about $700 :o Sounds like they are double-dipping for a tip?!?

We're tipping staff and our individual vendors but we put 0 on the venue tip because it seemed silly to us too. We did actually buy a nice gift card for our contact at the venue though, because she was AMAZING and wouldn't accept a tip!

I never heard of it before either. I think they are trying to get over.

We definitely didn't tip our venue! Especially after the 23% service fee and 8.50% tax on everything. Nope! We tipped all the vendors but that's it.

Service fee is NOT a tip! It's for operational costs for the venue during your event. If it was tip it would say gratuity.

Ours very clearly states an 18% gratuity, and I verified with our venue that it was indeed for the servers. A tip for the venue sounds really odd. You're giving them plenty of money already.

I tipped the venue because it was a semi-inclusive venue. The tip ($500) went to the maitre d' and was distributed by him to the bartenders and wait staff. We tipped the the two bridal attendants $100 each.

A service charge should be to cover the staffing salaries for your event. If they're great, yes, a tip is a good idea, but venue tip? I'd want that explained up,down and over.

@Erin, if your servers are good, they should get tipped. Not a percentage, but usually 30-50. each, more for the captain/maitre d's/bridal attendants.

Tipping the venue? Yes, I'd want a cogent argument as to why that's been suggested -- in the four figures....

@Sarah I should have added while I was googling that it's for servers and bartenders but not a tip for the venue itself. Your correct I pulled up my contract for the venue and it had no service fee but their was a separate gratuity for bartender and DOC.

I find it odd the venue would even "suggest" a tipping price.

My gratuity was included in my price you should check and see if yours is.

Gift grab at a corporate level. 2 thumbs down from me.

@Celia- We were told that gratuity was included in the price. That went for bartenders as well. That's what the 23% covered. I'm pretty sure the $6,000 that we paid in service fees was plenty to cover tips for the 8 servers. Once dinner was over (1 hour) most of them disappeared. There wasn't anything for them to do.

23%? You have got to be kidding.

We have a 20% tip + 8% tax for our venue staff, so that will be from $900 to $1000. They even charge the 20% + tax on the $2 cake cutting fee pp, even though we are bringing in cupcakes from the outside.

Its's crazy the stuff they put a tip onto.