An Italian holiday may be a priceless experience for those who have enjoyed all this country has to offer. But the summer of 2023 will go down as one of the priciest in history after a slew of price gouging scandals at cafes and restaurants that have affected foreign tourists and Italians alike.
“In August, high-end tourism continues to grow, unlike normal tourism,” Antonio Coviello, a researcher with Italy’s National Research Center wrote in a report on luxury travel issued this week, adding that the risk of over-tourism in the luxury sector is a concern because it could drive up prices in the mid-range travel sector to accommodate the bigger spenders.
Says a lot, doesn’t it? Specifically: The peasants can get fucked.
“Get back to work!”
I’ve travelled to Italy quite a bit. In every case yes, prices on the main tourist thoroughfares are high. Sometimes eye-wateringly high.
But invariably you do not need to go very far to get off the beaten track and find much better deals. Explore and profit.
But invariably you do not need to go very far to get off the beaten track and find much better deals. Explore and profit.
Pro tip: that’s true absolutely everywhere in the world. It’s crazy how much cheaper and better the food is a mere three blocks on foot from tourist attractions. Can’t read the menu? Look at what people are eating, and point at what looks good.
Never failed me.
On a micro level for Americans… Never pay for gas nearest to a highway exit. Drive a mile and immediately it’s .50-$1.00 less per gallon.
What region is this? Here in the South you’re just as likely to pay more by going further out.
Not sure where in the South you’re in.
But I verified that theory on East Coast, West coast, texas, Florida, California. The ones nearest out of the highway are typically catered towards Truckers or business travelers.
The ones away from the highway can charge less because of less visitors and conveniences.
That’s getting less and less true on the west coast. It’s pretty much $5.50 anywhere now that I can find
When I visited Florence last year, the food prices were insanely good (visiting as an American where food prices have gotten outrageous) when you get away from major tourist spots. And the food was better too.
When we visited Florence, it would have been maybe 10 years ago now though. We were staying right off the main square. I think the only thing we did in that square was breakfast. Otherwise, it was always places off the main roads. Great city, not sure I could climb the dome 10 years later though!
Lovely city to visit though, for anyone reading.
Admittedly a long time ago, but in the 90s most places, even near tourist attractions, were inexpensive in Italy. $1-2 for 0.5l wine, $3-8 for most pasta. The best pasta we had was $3 and was about 1 block from the main train station.
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Where have you seen restaurants charge for an empty plate in the USA?
Many restaurants charge a “split plate fee”. If you order something and want to share it with your partner they’ll bring you an extra plate but charge a fee. Have a link: https://frugalreality.com/split-plate-charge/
This is a minor quibble, but I’ve never been charged a fee for an extra plate. They usually only charge when you request to “split the order”, meaning the kitchen splits the entree onto two plates for you.
Neither have I and I live in Italy.
Let’s not forget these are isolated cases.
Might depends on the restaurant. My family frequents a German restaurant for family holiday meals. The extent of the service they provide is strictly bringing an extra plate and silverware. And it’s an $8 split plate fee.
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Another reason to prefer takeaway. Or cooking yourself I guess
At least you mustn’t give tips to have the waiter reach the minimum wage.
I took a date out the other night for a drink and some food. We split a turkey sandwich and each ordered one basic cocktail. $41 + $9 tip. Could’ve made all that at home for less than $10. The US restaurant system as a whole is mental. Not even 5 years ago I had dozens of options during lunch to get a lunch special which included a whole bunch of stuff for less than $10. None of those options exist anymore, they’re all gone.
* needn’t
If this is a jab at the US all servers make minimum wage. If they don’t make enough in tips, which is rare, they have to be paid at least minimum by their employer. If you’re gonna unnecessarily bring up the US and gripe about it randomly at least know your stuff. Or… Just take criticism instead of constantly allowing yourself to be distracted by another country. Just some food for thought but don’t worry it doesn’t cost extra
See how long you last as a server if you have to get paid up by the manager to make minimum wage.
I was a server for 10 years lmao. Yeah, you can have trouble if you’re not making tips but you’d be screwed in that situation either way. The point is that no server legally makes less than min. Fighting tips is such a small battle when we should be fighting to raise min for everyone. Hell, servers often make more than min with their tips so except for some edge cases any other normal minimum wage worker is worse off
Yeah, the min wage fight is important no debate there.
The tip fight is important as well though and shouldn’t be ignored. It’s an attempt by capitalists to make customers pay employees wages for them. It’s spreading to all service industries and we might as well stop it everywhere all at once.
It’s not an attempt for anything. It’s a result of harder times that unfortunately stuck. While I feel like tipping should go away eventually I just don’t see it as a priority. If we take it away they’ll just raise their prices and still keep their employees at minimum. So many will be worse off than they were before unless we get min up first. Just my opinion but I’m telling you I’d never do that job for minimum wage. It’s a hard job and the extra pay in tips barely made it worth it.
The “they’ll just raise prices” narrative is just a scare tactic. In the end the customer is paying for it whether in tips or cost. The amount you’d have to increase price is TINY for most business cases.
Also the fact you’d never do the job for min wage is exactly the point. If enough people wouldn’t do the job for min wage, restaurants won’t be able to pay min wage. That’s what the current labour shortage is about. No company that pays their employees what they’re worth has a labour shortage. Tipping culture is spreading to many industries and this massively reduces wage pressure on employers. Wage pressure is the rising tide that lifts all boats!
What other industry is looking like it’s going to embrace tipping as a primary source for pay? Random businesses have always tried here and there with tip cups or a random line on their tablet software but I haven’t seen anyone even try to make a slippery slope argument for this.
What lifts all boats is raising minimum wage for everyone.
it doesn’t cost extra
They still have to tip you 20% otherwise you wouldn’t be able to afford rent
No, they don’t. If you don’t make min in tips at the end of the pay period your employer literally has to pay you up to min. There’s no arguing this because it’s a fact. If they can’t get by on that then the argument should be to raise minimum wage. Unless you’re pretending to care about servers because you hate tipping it doesn’t make sense to not fight for higher min wage first. That benefits everyone including servers at the end of the day. Once we’ve got a living wage we can start hammering restaurants to do better.
And since people can’t survive on a minimum wage, not even close, I have no idea what point you are trying to make. Instead of paying the stuff their salary, restaurants offload most of this cost to customers directly, which creates whole lot of problems for everyone involved. And that’s just a fact.
They can do it because the labour laws in US are abysmal, and low minimum wage is just a tip of the iceberg. But the thing is, restaurant owners don’t have to treat their stuff like trash, they chose to do it because nobody is stopping them. That part of the blame is squarely on them.Servers don’t receive a lower wage than anyone else regardless of how you feel about the way they get paid. That’s my point. Boosting minimum wage would help them AND everyone else. I don’t know how much clearer I can be. You guys keep bringing in random things like the staff being treated badly but that’s not relevant to the discussion or unique to restaurant work. I feel like you don’t want to admit that you hate it because you hate tipping but there’s nothing wrong with that. Just stop pretending to be protecting people that aren’t generally any worse off than anyone else making minimum wage.
I don’t think I you read any of the replies from people…
Did someone try to make the most annoying bot or something and that’s what going on?
I read them. What specifically do you take issue with and/or where was I giving incorrect information? I’ve responded to some other people but they’re acting like adults. Can you or should we just end it here?
Read this comment chain again, if you think your response I replied to makes sense…
Then I’m not going to be able to explain to you why it doesn’t.
Good, I didn’t ask you to. 👋
Minimum wage is $2.13/hour for a server in the US… You’re being disingenuous by implying they make federal minimum wage which is $7.25/hour.
Legally, you do. I’m not claiming that’s reality, but there is a legal requirement
That $2.13 is minimum wage if they make at least enough in tips to take it up to the state or federal min during the pay period. If they don’t, their min wage is boosted to state or federal min at the end of the pay period. Servers will always make the normal state or federal minimum wage unless their employer is pulling shady shit that’s illegal.
You’re being disingenuous by doing (presumably) a quick google search and speaking on a subject you’re clearly unfamiliar with. I am telling you right now that the tips are the only thing that makes that shit tier job tolerable. If it was just for minimum wage I wouldn’t have lasted a month. Minimum wage isn’t enough money to put up with being a server.
You’re technically correct, but most people, including workers, don’t know this. The companies often don’t pay then for the missed wages. This is called wage theft, which is the most common kind of theft, by far, in the US. Yes, it’s technically illegal, but it won’t matter unless they’re held accountable, and what service worker has the time or money to sue them over a little missed money?
You think those employers are suddenly going to get better if they have to give people more money? I don’t think that’s an argument for or against tips. I think that’s an argument for greater worker protections which we desperately need regardless. I also think it’s absurd that we don’t teach people about their rights in highschool but that’s yet another whole other issue. We kinda have to stop the assholes in charge from destroying education even more before we can get back to fixing it 🫠
Oh, I agree. It absolutely was not defending tips. If anything, the opposite. It’s to never trust your employer and that workers need more protections and rights.
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I’m not a boot licker I just think we need to not worry about tips right now and raise the minimum wage for everyone. Servers are making min too it’ll benefit everyone more.
It’s too bad I would have hoped you angsty edgelords would stay on reddit tbh.
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I’m not even going to give you a proper response because I think you should probably just scoot back over to Reddit where you belong with this big baby energy. The fact that you still care about down votes is just the cherry on the top. Classic redditor.
Yea, you’ll be fired if you aren’t making tips. It’s right to work too, remember. Think a little bit before your condescending to others for having thoughts.
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I did it for 10 years. Have a conversation like an adult or go back to reddit good lord. My point is they always make min. We should raise min for everyone but people care less about that because they’re just pretending to care about servers to justify not tipping lol
Coming from a country where we at least give servers minimum wages* and then they can keep their tip tax-free** on top; this still doesn’t sound right.
I at least know that all** of my tips go to the server on top of what he would’ve get in the first place. Otherwise I’m essentially not gifting money for good service but paying part of the wage for normal service as well. And that’s something that should be priced into the products, not tips.
*unless they were unemployed for years, then minimum wages don’t apply for the first six months, and i guess there are some other loopholes; but in general minimum wage is the minimum
**unless its a “throw everything in a pot and then share it at the end of the month” arrangement; or if the tips is required; it must be a voluntary gift from the customer directly towards the server to not count as income
Incorrect. Minimum wage applies immediately. It’s illegal to pay less than minimum wage in the US. It is never less than minimum. I’m not sure where you got that but it’s wrong info. If someone pulled that shit it was illegal and should have been reported to the department of labor. They don’t play. Unfortunately plenty of bad actors rely on ignorance and get away with it but those assholes would be pulling other shady things with wages if they’ll do that to tipped employees anyway.
A fact that a lot of you like to ignore is that putting servers at minimum wage would be a pay cut for a loooot of people. It’s rare to not make over minimum and if you have a good weekend you can easily triple (or more) your pay for the week. I know I would have immediately quit being a server if they went to just straight minimum wage because that job is horrific and I would never put up with it for minimum wage. With all of that said I still firmly believe we need to work together to get a living wage first. Hell, the tip situation might just work itself out at that point because people will leave if they can make more elsewhere and not have to beg for tips
I think he’s primarily talking about states where tips can make up part lf the minimum wage instead of it just being the baseline with tips on top.
Also, I’m pretty sure his first * is him talking about his country, not America.
Realistically if we removed tipping in America restaurants would be forced to raise wages to get anyone to work there. It would be a rough transition though.
My prediction is restaurants would raise prices but still keep most of it by paying the bare minimum. Then, adults would be priced out of the industry and it would be another shitty job that nobody wants to do. Like fast food. I’m sure it’d be easy enough for our local govs to keep tweaking child labor laws so we’ll fill them up with teenagers that don’t know they shouldn’t have to take that abuse or work that hard for minimum wage.
You make minimum wage over the course of a whole pay period. Because tips vary, some nights you may work nearly for free as long as later in the pay period you make enough tips to get you to minimum wage for that whole week/two weeks. People have the impression that you get minimum wage as a baseline that you can’t fall below on a given day. It does actually work that way on the West Coast of the US and a few other states, but not the majority.
Oh ok. So minimum wage over a full pay period… Like literally every other job ever? Yes, it is a baseline because at the end of the pay period you’ll never make less than min. What we should be fighting for is raising the minimum wage for everyone.
I normally go off the beaten path when I visit a country. Tourist attractions are always, always more expensive. Whether it’s Marrakech, Venise or Rome.
Mate, even the Italian prime minister, who has a farmhouse in Puglia, has gone abroad for her vacation.
The problem there is risk of crime, in my experience. However, it was always better food, but can get sketchy.
Hey, any quick recommendations you’d have for Marrakesh? Going there in a couple of weeks and I only managed to find out about the most popular spots so far.
Same.
How many fucking photos of the Mona Lisa or Eiffel Towers are these basic bitch tourists going to take?
Have to say this is typical anywhere tourists are. Some are more hidden than others. Ever been to a sporting event, concert, or ski mountain? Same shit.
I’m in Cancun and my hotel charges $35 for sunscreen. Extortion happens in tourist spots, everywhere, always.
@BrainisfineIthink @nothing well you’re in Cancun…go to the corner store or a supermarket. Too scary to leave the resort?
You seem like one of those people that talks just to hear themselves talk.
Overcharging at tourist traps is hardly a new phenomenon. I went to Italy in the late 90s and they were charging $4 for a 12oz can of Coke I could get for 25-50¢ at home.
I’m sure it was warm too
We just told them we aren’t paying the crazy prices. Shouted a bit and they let it go.
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they deserve it to be honest
Because you can’t afford to go to Italy?
Is it really gouging if people are willing to pay it to be fancy?
Yes. Gouging doesn’t stop being gouging if people are still willing to pay, it just means the gouging has successfully exploited people instead of driving them away entirely.
For luxury spending and no emergency conditions, that just sounds like normal supply and demand.
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You got downvoted but it is a fair question. I hope sustainability is started to be talked about more in the travel sector
They got downvoted because “tourism is cancer” is a dumb short sighted statement. No one is expected to stay in their little town and never visit anywhere else. It’s nice to travel and experience the culture of other nations and towns and to know that there are other people besides the ones you interact with in your little bubble.
We only have one life and we need to be allowed to live it well. It’s completely unfair to expect the lower and middle classes to stick to their small towns in the name of sustainability when the rich are doing as they want with absolutely zero regard for the environment.
At least tourism actually supports local economies and the people living in those destinations.
Billionaires are out here flying around to avoid traffic (ie Elon Musk) and people are out here shitting on me for my 1 trip a year to visit my family
If y’all wanna buy me a house out there and pay my moving costs so I don’t have to fly anymore to see them then I welcome the opportunity
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I’m with you. I know it’s unpopular but fuck. I know so many people that espouse a green philosophy but won’t bat an eyelash at multiple intercontinental flights a year. And especially with the rise of air bnb tourism is just wreaking these places. Where I king, you’d get one travel pass in you twenties and another in your sixties.
Im on the fence with this. If i were king i feel like 1 a year could be fine. But that would mean rich people would also have to follow that. If you cut down on those ridiculous daily 5 minute private jet flights it wouldnt be the massive problem it is now.
Airbnb is a different subject. Shouldnt exist imo
Short-term house/apartment rentals are great. AirBNB specifically is shit.
If your issue is that the housing could be used to house locals, that’s an issue with a shortage of housing, not AirBNB.
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More or less, yeah. But we can do the other things if we make sure to do them sustainably.
List?
A list of things idiots say?
Why not, you know, looked up a survey or something that tells you what it’s really like instead of what heavily downvotes people say on social media?
Do you think there’d be no difference?
