a large building with a lot of cars and a parking lot
Photograph ©2023 by Brian Cohen.
Brian Cohen·
Thoughts
··3 min read

Gratuity For $653.18 For Pizza and Chicken Tenders?

This is Las Vegas, where the administrative fee is 23 percent.

As I was posting a link to an article of mine at my Twitter — er…X — account, I noticed that someone posted that a friend was in “a VIP box” for the football game of the University of Las Vegas. That prompted me to wonder how much of a gratuity should be paid for $653.18 for pizza and chicken tenders — but more details need to be revealed before that question is answered.

Gratuity For $653.18 For Pizza and Chicken Tenders?

This message was posted at X.com by Bill Krackomberger:

Friend of mine had a VIP box for yesterday’s UNLV game. Ordered a pizza and wings. Never realized what it was going to cost for this slop…. $653…. They treat the luxury suite guests like they are in a club with bottle service.

For $300.00, you get one cheese pizza and one pepperoni pizza from Pizza Rock. For $190.00, you get crispy chicken tenders served with house-made ranch dressing and BBQ sauce. Both items on this menu claim to feed ten people.

Trevor Hewitt — who is both a co-founder and co-owner of Pizza Rock Las Vegas — posted the following message:

I am one of the owners of Pizza Rock. The $300 charge is for a pizza package for 10 people and not just one pizza. Suite f&b pricing is set by the stadium and not Pizza Rock. Our pricing is lower at our stalls in the stadium. Thank you.

The bottom of each page of the menu clearly states:

Please note that all food and beverage items are subject to a 23% administrative fee plus applicable 8.375% sales tax.
This administrative fee is not a tip or gratuity and is not distributed to service employees.

In this case, the administrative fee was $112.70; and the sales tax was $50.48.

How much of a gratuity would you leave on this bill — if any?

Final Boarding Call

The friend of Bill Krackomberger should have asked about the cost of the food that was to be ordered. Not asking about the cost is the main mistake that was committed in this situation. Then again, someone once said that if you have to ask, you cannot afford it.

See also

To be fair, this incident occurred in a luxury suite at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas. Expect everything to be overpriced in a luxury suite at a sporting event — especially in Las Vegas. If people are willing to pay these prices, that is what a free market is all about.

I have been in several luxury suites at sporting events. Much of the food was passable at best. Some of the food was good…

…and in this case, $65.30 per person for food does not sound all that bad when considering that the pricing was in a luxury suite at a sporting event — but somehow, I cannot imagine two pizzas and a bowl of chicken tenders to be enough to feed ten people. Beverages were not included in the price.

However, an administrative fee of 23 percent sounds egregiously usurious. If it is not a tip or gratuity, for exactly what does that fee pay?!?

What I would leave as a gratuity would depend on what was involved in the overall service and the quality of the food. Although I thought that the food itself looked fairly decent based on the photographs that were provided, I could not see myself spending a grand total of $653.18 on it.

Then again, I believe that much of Las Vegas is overpriced in general, as evidenced by my dining experiences:

Photograph ©2023 by Brian Cohen.

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