Tourist Trap: Some New York Hotel Bars Impose Mandatory Tips

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Visitors to the Big Apple are learning the hard way. Several of the metropolis’ hottest lodging spots are anything but the ho-tel, mo-tel, Hol-i-day Inn when it comes to their downstairs bars.

The New York Post reports that select locales are slapping visitors with ‘required’ 18-to-20% gratuities. The Standard Hotel and Lobby Bar at the Ace Hotel were among the names mentioned in the newspaper’s piece, which cites spotty European tippers as a purported impetus behind the new policy.

(See TIME.com’s 50 essential travel tips.)

Angered by the posh outlets’ cries for an extra $5 toward an already cliquy glass of Veuve Cliquot? A New York State Liquor Authority official told the Post that there is no law restricting a business’ ability to apply the mandatory-tipping mayhem. Yet, customers maintain the right to refuse the add-on payment over poor taste, poor service or generic anger.

(See photos of what booze looks like under a microscope.)