Hotel booking site Super.com has begun soliciting tips from tourists, offering a discount in exchange for a $9 tip. Users of the Reddit forum criticized this practice and called it “corporate greed”.
The Newsweek portal drew attention to this situation. The situation in which a hotel booking site began asking for tips from tourists has sparked a storm of discussion and outrage in the online community. The outcry began when user Okonisfree shared a screenshot that suggested leaving a $9 tip to save $85.08 on a Super.com hotel reservation. The message caused outrage among tourists.
The service’s general manager of travel, Clem Bason, explained that the introduction of tipping was an experiment carried out amid the COVID-19 pandemic. He claimed the idea was to help the site maintain operations and staff by offering customers discounts on hotel stays. Bason also emphasized that tipping is optional, and users can complete a reservation without paying a tip. According to him, the proposed tip amount is calculated based on the savings provided to the user by the site.
The reaction of the Internet community was negative. Tourists on the forum expressed displeasure with this practice, calling it “corporate greed” and claiming that it is nothing more than an attempt to increase the company’s profits at the expense of customers. Many believe that asking for a tip on a hotel booking site is begging for money, going beyond the traditional understanding of tipping, and rather an attempt to gain additional income from customers.