{"id":688167,"date":"2026-05-22T21:53:23","date_gmt":"2026-05-22T21:53:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/688167\/"},"modified":"2026-05-22T21:53:23","modified_gmt":"2026-05-22T21:53:23","slug":"digital-tipping-prompts-on-the-rise-but-not-all-venue-owners-are-fans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/688167\/","title":{"rendered":"Digital tipping prompts on the rise but not all venue owners are fans"},"content":{"rendered":"

The sounds of grinding coffee beans and frothing milk overlap with the ding of the register and chatting customers.<\/p>\n

Amid the noise inside this regional cafe is another, perhaps unexpected, sound: coins clattering into a tip jar.<\/p>\n

“It is surprising the amount of people that do tip,” said the owner of Bundaberg’s Ritual Espresso Willow McKenzie.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Willow McKenzie says digital tips count towards the cafe’s overall income.\u00a0 (ABC Wide Bay: Grace Whiteside)<\/p>\n

She said she emptied her tip jar about once a month and shared its contents, usually between $50 and $100, between her staff.<\/p>\n

“I nearly didn’t even put a tip jar out, but I’m glad I did.”<\/p>\n

There’s also a tip jar beside the till at the River Cruz Cafe a short stroll down the road, but manager Bec Reid said customers were more likely to give tips directly to staff.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Bec Reid and her son Ashden Whyte often work together at the cafe.\u00a0 (ABC Wide Bay: Grace Whiteside)<\/p>\n

“My head barista was given a tip of $50,” she said.<\/p>\n

But with the decline of cash, more Australians are confronted with an automatic tipping option.<\/p>\n

Tipping screens are increasingly integrated into the payment technology, popping up when a customer pays via card.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

More Australians are being confronted with a default tip prompt.\u00a0 (ABC News: Timothy Ailwood)<\/p>\n

While it can be skipped, some feel it contradicts typical Australian hospitality norms.<\/p>\n

And anecdotal evidence showed the automatic gratuity prompt made customers feel pressure to tip, according to University of Queensland professor of economics John Quiggin.<\/p>\n

“I certainly don’t find it appealing myself,” he said.<\/p>\n

\"John<\/p>\n

John Quiggin says it’s unclear what customers’ reactions are to the default tip.\u00a0 (ABC News: Michael Lloyd)<\/p>\n

“Restaurants have either accepted that they’re going to get less tips or have moved to these default tips.<\/p>\n

“So that’s almost certainly led to an increase in tipping, but what’s not clear is what people’s reactions to that process have been.”<\/p>\n

When faced with the option, owners of Bundaberg restaurant Water Street Kitchen, Jen and Alex Cameron, decided against adding the tipping prompt to their electronic sales systems.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Alex and Jen Cameron decided against adding a default tip to their electronic payment system.\u00a0 (ABC Wide Bay: Grace Whiteside)<\/p>\n

“I don’t ever want a guest to feel the pressure to tip,” Ms Cameron said.<\/p>\n

“It’s really lovely when people acknowledge the hard work of our team, but it’s certainly not expected.”<\/p>\n

Mr Cameron said he didn’t think tipping culture was prevalent in Australia, unlike in America where paying a gratuity was expected due to low wages.<\/p>\n

“Our staff are paid appropriately. They’re not heavily relying on tips for their income,” he said.<\/p>\n

“If guests want to do that [tip] with cash, they’ll do it with cash, and if they want it to be electronic, then they’ll prompt us to add that to their bill.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Jen Cameron says receiving a tip is lovely, but “certainly not expected”.\u00a0 (ABC Wide Bay: Grace Whiteside)<\/p>\n

Who benefits from the tips?\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Australian Restaurant and Cafe Association (ARCA) chief executive Wes Lambert said as electronic transactions became the norm, tipping had followed.<\/p>\n

“In the past, I would have said that Australia didn’t have a tipping culture,” Mr Lambert said.<\/p>\n

“But since tapping and paying on cards have made it much easier for patrons in restaurants and cafes to tip, tipping is actually up.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Wes Lambert says digital payments make it much easier for customers to tip.\u00a0 (ABC News: Greg Bigelow)<\/p>\n

“It is much easier to pick a certain percentage on a screen than it is to try to figure out what a tip would be when you’re using cash.”<\/p>\n

There are multiple electronic payment service companies available to business owners, many of which offer a default tip option.<\/p>\n

Most charge a percentage fee for each transaction, while others charge a monthly fee or offer plan subscriptions.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Back in Bundaberg’s hospitality scene, operators said they remained reluctant to adopt the electronic tipping technology.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Cash tipping remains the primary form of tips in many cafes.\u00a0 (ABC Wide Bay: Grace Whiteside)<\/p>\n

Ms Reid said she did not want any additional disincentives amid rising cost-of-living pressures.<\/p>\n

“I know times are hard, but I just think that’s a lot of pressure on the guests,” she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The sounds of grinding coffee beans and frothing milk overlap with the ding of the register and chatting…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":688168,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[64,63,336055,62897,99,51652,336054,336053,49090,701,18601,76948,196833],"class_list":["post-688167","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-restaurant-and-cafe-association","tag-bundaberg","tag-business","tag-cafes","tag-digital-tipping","tag-electronic-tipping","tag-hospitality","tag-queensland","tag-restaurants","tag-tipping","tag-tipping-culture"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/688167","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=688167"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/688167\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/688168"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=688167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=688167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=688167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}