I had lunch at the Vail Marriott Mountain Resort and Spa yesterday. I had a philly and a Diet Coke. It was a pretty uneventful lunch. It was just me. I played on my I-Phone and relaxed.

The problem came when I got my bill. It was 12 dollars. I gave the waitress my credit card and when she returned I noticed the above. The tip, “gratuity” was included.

It was just me. It was a $12.00 dollar lunch. It wasn’t a party of 6, with a 150 dollar bill.

Tipping in the United States is optional. Automatically including the tip is foolish on Marriott’s part. It does nothing to improve the customers experience. It provides no additional value. It doesn’t improve service, (I’d actually suggest it makes it worse, because the staff isn’t incented to do a better job). This is simply a self-serving policy.

Sometimes companies can’t get out of their own way. They get too internally focused and compromise customer relationships for their own internal needs. I don’t like this. It’s deceitful.

Don’t force your customers to give you money, give them reasons to want to. Good reasons are sustainable, force is not.

I wonder if I would have had to pay it? Hmmm?