{"id":236297,"date":"2026-07-05T23:26:30","date_gmt":"2026-07-05T23:26:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/236297\/"},"modified":"2026-07-05T23:26:30","modified_gmt":"2026-07-05T23:26:30","slug":"philadelphians-embrace-an-automatic-20-service-charge-for-the-world-cup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/236297\/","title":{"rendered":"Philadelphians embrace an automatic 20% service charge for the World Cup"},"content":{"rendered":"

Love Philly? So do we. Let\u2019s be friends.\u00a0Sign up for the Billy Penn newsletter today<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Over the past month, World Cup<\/a> fans from all over the globe have descended upon Philadelphia to cheer on their teams<\/a> and turn pockets of the city into international celebrations<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In response, restaurants and bars all over the city have added a 20% automatic service charge to their bills in anticipation of tourists who are used to tipping less, if they tip anything at all.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Back in April, the Pennsylvania Restaurant and Lodging Association (PRLA), hosted a hospitality briefing advising restaurants to consider an auto-gratuity for the World Cup.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn Philadelphia, as you know, our service teams rely on tips as a core part of their earnings,\u201c Ben Fileccia, the PRLA\u2019s senior vice president of strategy and engagement said during the briefing<\/a>. \u201cOur employees should not be the ones forced to educate every table, every check, every night during the World Cup, while we\u2019re all in the weeds.\u201d<\/p>\n

But, how have diners actually embraced that change?<\/p>\n

Doug Hager, the owner of the Brauhaus Schmitz, said the response has been \u201coverwhelmingly positive.\u201d The bar has been a popular spot for World Cup watch parties and block parties.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs an international restaurant, we definitely have experienced the confusion on tipping culture,\u201d he said. \u201cLocals have physically come up to me and said, \u2018thank you so much for doing this for your staff.\u2019 You know literally, out of the 1,000s of customers we\u2019ve had in the past two weeks, I\u2019ve had one person complain about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite fears over confusion on the mandatory charge, Hager said that he hasn\u2019t faced too many issues. In one other instance, a customer accidentally left an extra tip on top of the new charge. However, when the patron pointed out the error later via email, the restaurant swiftly reimbursed that guest.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI guess it was nothing to really get too worried about,\u201d Hager said. \u201cA lot of people have actually said, \u2018I hope you keep it.\u2019\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Fad\u00f3 Irish Pub & Restaurant also decided to add a mandatory service charge for the World Cup.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cGenerally around the area that we are located, we\u2019ve noticed that pretty much all the bars around us had put an auto-grat,\u201d Justin Mansfield, kitchen manager at Fad\u00f3, said.\u00a0 \u201cSo it was pretty much just standard on every one of our checks \u2014 just making sure that it\u2019s all taken care of.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mansfield also noted that guests have not seemed too fazed by the policy change \u2014 especially once they understand the reasoning behind it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody has been fairly receptive to it,\u201d Mansfield said. \u201cThere\u2019s been some people who are regulars, they\u2019d come in and they\u2019d ask, \u2018Hey, what\u2019s this for?\u2019 We explain that it\u2019s the World Cup, and then everybody\u2019s just okay with it, because they understand the situation.\u201d<\/p>\n

What\u2019s more, Mansfield said that Philadelphia hosting World Cup games has been great for business.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been seeing a lot of great parties coming in,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen Brazil came to Philly, and everything, we had a massive import of all the fans. They\u2019ve all been wonderful. I mean, everybody\u2019s been coming in, having a great time, and then just really showing a positive spirit for the World Cup \u2014 enjoying the city. Can\u2019t ask for a better experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hager has also felt that World Cup boost. He feels incredibly grateful for the FIFA tournament and what it has meant for his restaurant and bar \u2014 citing a 300% increase over last year\u2019s numbers.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been absolutely insane,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019ve been here for 17 years, and in the last two weeks, we\u2019ve broken our sales record \u2014 like the busiest day we\u2019ve ever had at Brauhaus three times in the past two weeks.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Love Philly? So do we. Let\u2019s be friends.\u00a0Sign up for the Billy Penn newsletter today. Over the past…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":236298,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[101766,79576,60,101767,564,2233,1515,21743,69,71,70,12516,11868,726,101768,2236],"class_list":["post-236297","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-20-service-charge","tag-brauhaus-schmitz","tag-business","tag-fado-irish-pub-restaurant","tag-featured","tag-fifa","tag-food","tag-hospitality","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news","tag-small-businesses","tag-soccer","tag-sports","tag-tipping","tag-world-cup"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236297","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=236297"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236297\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/236298"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=236297"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=236297"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=236297"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}