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The owner of a new club and restaurant in Sydney says she is getting back to basics by axing common hospitality measures like tipping and surcharges.
Hayley Gooley opened the Velvet Glove in Darlinghurst last November, a higher-end restaurant serving food and cocktails in an elegant dining space.
While the restaurant may seem like any other fine dining experience in Sydney’s CBD — it’s quickly set itself apart from its competition.
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Unlike most hospitality venues, the Velvet Glove doesn’t accept tips or require a credit card authorisations for bookings.
Customers also don’t need to be in and out in a set amount of time.
Gooley said she was just trying to get back to the root of good hospitality.
“We aren’t doing anything differently,” she told the Daily Telegraph.
“We are bringing things back to basics and giving people genuine hospitality.”
While tipping does exist in Australia, the practice is much more ingrained in American culture where many hospitality workers rely on the extra money.
Americans earned about $US 40 billion ($AU 64 billion) in tips last year.
A recent study by US-based thinktank Pew Research Centre found that 21 per cent of US adults believe tipping is a choice, while 29 per cent see it as an obligation.
Nearly half — 49 per cent—say it depends on the situation.
“Overwhelmingly, for both whether to tip and how much to tip, it’s quality of service,” said Drew DeSilver, a senior writer at Pew Research Centre.
“None of the other factors even came close.”
Given the no tipping policy, Gooley said it initially had been hard to find staff.
Instead staff are paid fairly and share 10 per cent of the profits.
“What we have found, it’s worked in a roundabout way, that we’ve got [staff] aligned with us and what we do,” Gooley said.
“We aren’t doing this to change industry, although that would be nice.
“We are doing it because we want to create a venue we love and an experience we don’t feel like we can always get in other places.”
– With NBC
