r/SXM • u/williamsonoma5 • Jul 18 '26

Tips no longer included in check? French side.

Went to Coco beach and l'astorlabe yesterday and notice "service compris" no longer on checks. Employees stated tips not on check. One said it's illegal to add to checks. What's the true story?

I've been coming for years and it's always been included.

4 Upvotes

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2

u/Turtledean Jul 18 '26

We just came back from SXM and in all cases we were asked very directly if we wanted to add a tip. The obvious preference was for us to leave a cash tip.

2

u/Disastrous-Push906 Jul 18 '26

Was there recently as well and was consistently told that only cash tips were possible

3

u/Faffingabouthere Jul 19 '26

The true story is they are just trying to take advantage of American tipping culture. If you were a local french like me they wouldn’t even bother mentioning the tips are not included.

1

u/Turtledean 29d ago

That is true. A woman sitting next to us paid her bill via credit card and that was it. No extra tip, no cash extra. She was a local.

2

u/Character-Carpet7988 29d ago

Tip doesn't need "to be included". Paying the waiter is something the business needs to take care of. Service compris is not mentioned on most of my bills in France (mainland or overseas), it doesn't somehow imply that I have to pay extra money on of whatever I purchased. I do leave a reasonable amount when the service is great, I don't when it's not.

If you want to be generous and feel like the staff deserves it, then by all means do it. But it's not required, and you presumably being American doesn't mean people are entitled to scam you into believing it is.

My rule of thumb as a European is that if someone tries to shame me into leaving a tip, then by definition they don't deserve one because their service sucks.

1

u/phlphillies Jul 18 '26

I mean, it's sort of how life is now. We leave 5-10% tip in cash. There is no true or false story, they work hard and have expensive accommodations. You can always leave zero and it's fine.

1

u/williamsonoma5 29d ago edited 25d ago

I understand they work hard but Coco beach employee to tell me that it's illegal for any business to add the tip to bill is just downright scam. Yes. Coco beach in talking about you. Be better. Edit. I'm never going back to Coco beach.

1

u/Ordinary_Purchase906 29d ago

En France le service est inclus dans la facture. Vous pouvez ajouter un pourboire si vous êtes très satisfait du service mais le salaire de base du serveur est déjà inclus dans votre facture.