LA Hotel Dupes Customers out of Extra Tips, Class Action Claims

A California hotel patron says the menu at the Mondrian Los Angeles hotel tricks customers into paying more gratuity than they mean to.

Plaintiff Alon Aliav is suing defendant SBE Entertainment Group LLC, the owner of the Mondrian Hotel in West Hollywood. Aliav takes issue with language on the menu used by the hotel’s restaurant, language that allegedly leads customers to leave an additional gratuity on top of a 20 percent service charge.

According to Aliav, the Mondrian Los Angeles tells patrons that a gratuity payment for food service is not included in the bill and that leaving a tip is within the patron’s discretion. The defendant hotel says as much in the food menus distributed at the restaurant and throughout the hotel’s rooms, he claims.

That representation is simply false, Aliav alleges. He says the Mondrian Los Angeles adds a 20 percent service charge to its food bills, and patrons are not given the opportunity to modify the amount of that charge.

The Mondrian Los Angeles’s solicitation for additional gratuity on top of the mandatory service charge is therefore misleading to customers, who end up paying more than they should have to, according to Aliav. Neither he nor any proposed Class Members would have paid additional gratuity were it not for these alleged misrepresentations by the hotel, he claims.

Aliav says he was misled by the menu language at issue when he stayed at the Mondrian Los Angeles in December 2016. In his room was a room service food menu, the same menu used in the hotel’s restaurant Ivory at Sunset.

According to Aliav, that menu stated in part: “Gratuity is not included and lies within the hotel guest’s discretion. A $3.50 Administrative Fee is added per delivery, and is kept by Ivory Sunset to cover administrative and discretionary costs and is not a Gratuity. 9% state and local taxes are applicable and will be added to your account.”

Aliav ordered a meal for room service delivery. When he got the bill, he saw that it had a line on which he could write in a tip, with suggested tip amounts of 18 to 22 percent. But after he paid that bill, Aliav claims, he found out the bill already included a 20 percent gratuity.

Aliav proposes to represent a plaintiff Class that would include all persons who, within the state of California and within the applicable statutory limitations period, purchased any items from the defendant’s menus that was advertised as not including a gratuity.

He is asking the court to order SBE Entertainment Group to conduct a corrective advertising campaign. He also seeks an award of actual, statutory and punitive damages, and reimbursement of attorneys’ fees and litigation costs.

Aliav is represented by attorney Todd M. Friedman and Adrian R. Bacon of Law Offices of Todd M. Friedman PC.

The Mondrian Los Angeles Class Action Lawsuit is Alon Aliav v. SBE Entertainment Group LLC, Case No. BC655401, in the Superior Court of California for the County of Los Angeles.