by mnp13 » December 8th, 2011, 12:58 pm
I was looking at restaurant.com and though they seem like a good idea, the fine print makes them rather awkward to give as gifts, at least at the restaurants that I looked at.
For example, at one of our favorite restaurants in Rochester:
$25 gift certificate for $10. Great deal! But... there is a minimum purchase of $50 required, they add 18% gratuity no matter what size your group is. So if you give that as a gift, they can't just go and use the $25 for dinner, they have to spend another $25. That's not hard for two people for dinner, but if you get a $50, they have to spend $100 for dinner.
Some other places have different gratuity amounts but the the same spending rules, but also add on "cash only", "excludes alcohol", "Dinner only" and other restrictions.
Basically, you must spend the equal amount of the gift certificate to use the gift certificate. That's fine for me to buy for myself, but I don't really want to give that as a gift. Just my opinion of course, and the rules may be different for different places, but it's something to keep in mind.
Michelle
Inside me is a thin woman trying to get out. I usually shut the bitch up with a martini.