Minimum spend, bookings and tips: what you may require

House conditions: you can impose more than you think

The Catalan Consumer Agency is considerably more permissive than half the trade believes: restaurants may set the conditions of use of their premises, and it names three examples — limiting how long a table stays, imposing a minimum spend, and asking for an amount per person up front as a booking deposit.

So the two-hour sitting is legal, the minimum spend is legal and charging up front is legal. All of it with one condition, in the same sentence, and that is where it usually falls apart: it must be correctly and previously stated, clearly and accessibly, before any booking or order is made.

The rule is not arguing about what you charge. It is arguing about when you say it.

• Limiting how long a table stays: allowed.
• A minimum spend per person: allowed.
• An amount up front as a booking deposit: allowed.
• Any of it without saying so beforehand: not allowed.

Bookings: the three things you have to say first

For bookings the Agency spells out three things the customer must know before confirming. These are not suggestions — they are the basic points it lists.

1. Whether you will charge an amount up front
   and that it comes off the final bill

2. The exact amount you will charge them
   if they do not turn up

3. How far in advance they can cancel
   with no penalty at all

All three, before confirming. Afterwards they do not count.

No-shows: you can charge, but not any way you like

An empty table at nine on a Saturday is a real cost and the rule acknowledges it: venues may set compensation for cancellation or for failing to turn up, provided it is not disproportionate and provided it was properly stated before the booking was confirmed.

Both conditions carry equal weight. Not disproportionate — compensation is not a fine and not the full price of the meal — and stated beforehand. A charge that appears as a surprise afterwards meets neither.

And there is an overriding limit: the conditions you state can never be unfair terms or override any right consumers are granted.

Tips: voluntary, and your receipt gives you away

Here the rule is blunt and goes further than custom: tips are entirely voluntary, and venues must refrain from printing messages on receipts that might lead customers to believe they are obliged to leave one.

And it finishes the job: including a compulsory tip is treated as an unfair practice that customers can report.

Worth reading twice, because it is not only about charging it. It is about the messages on the receipt. A printed line suggesting a percentage, or a tip field pre-selected by default on a payment screen, falls squarely within what the rule asks you to avoid.

• A tip cannot be added to the bill as one more line.
• Receipt messages cannot suggest it is compulsory.
• A suggested percentage ticked by default works against that.
• In Spain, on top of that, prompting for tips is not the custom: pushing it costs you.

The receipt: items and price, with one exception

The obligation is short: you must hand over a receipt showing the separate items and the price, and for set menus the items do not have to be broken down.

The set-menu exception makes sense: what you sold was the whole menu at a single price, and splitting it by dish would show detail that matches no real price. For everything else, the customer has to be able to see what you are charging them, line by line.

When there is a dispute: the form and the thirty days

If the customer disagrees, they must be able to ask for the official complaint form, and there is an online route as well. From there a clock starts: if within thirty days they have had no answer, or an answer that does not satisfy them, they can go to their local consumer service.

Those thirty days are yours, not theirs: it is the time you have to sort it out before somebody else looks at it. Worth answering inside the window even when the answer is no.

Frequently asked questions