Tax & Service Charges

When you make a direct booking with a hotel / villa through our site, most will include both tax and service in the rate (they should / will advise you). If the hotel / villa is ethical, it will pay the service charge element to their staff. If they include service in the rate, you are at liberty to ask them for a lower rate without the service charge included on the basis it is not mandatory and you will give any gratuities as and how you please separately.

When you make a booking through our preferred wholesale partner HotelClub, they generally quote a rate which includes the tax element only, so service which is not or should not be mandatory is extra and at your discretion; HotelClub are generally therefore quoting what is called the "Nett Rate" (the mandatory minimum).

Many other wholesalers and travel agents claim to include service charges when they do and can not of course, as an agent is hardly able to ensure the service charge element gets to the hotel / villa staff. Generally what wholesalers and other travel / reservation agents offer is the Nett Rate, including tax but not including anything for the staff. What they tend to mean is their rate includes any mandatory service charges, not service charges paid to the hotel staff.

Basically, if you book through an agent / wholesaler / tour company, you are likely to have paid the Nett Rate with nothing going to the hotel / villa staff. If you are in any doubt, you should ask your agent for a statement as to how much they give to the hotel staff and when / how it gets paid to them.

Most hotels / villas and their staff will not expect you to pay anything over and above what you have agreed to but we want to make people aware of the facts so they do not believe they are giving money to hotel / villa staff when they are not.