Restaurants miss out when they deny split checks to groups

The San Luis Obispo County community has many social groups, and dining out is a pleasure they all enjoy. Yet, many of the area restaurants are now refusing to accept separate checks (a real deal-breaker for a group enjoying a social evening out).

The reasons given are: The computer won’t accept separate checks, too many mistakes are made, it’s up to the waiter, it’s too difficult, it takes too much time, we only accept two credit cards in a group, and the list goes on. It is not unusual for a group of 20, 16, 10 or even eight to be denied reservations because of this no-separate-checks policy.

Is business so good that they can afford losing customers to another restaurant? If a group is willing to have an automatic 20 percent tip added to each card, what’s the big deal? Sure it may be a little extra work, but waiters end up with a nice hefty tip for their efforts, and the customers will return.

Local social groups are really frustrated with this policy, and restaurants are losing out on their patronage. Please reconsider this business practice.

This story was originally published February 23, 2016 at 9:21 AM with the headline "Restaurants miss out when they deny split checks to groups."