Only suckers pay the menu price

Rewards and discounts are everywhere. Credit rewards are well-known in the West and especially the USA where 3-5% cash back on certain spending is not unheard of. Here in Hong Kong where credit cards are less generous, 1.5% cash back is generally the highest unlimited option. If you're paying cash, you're paying for the rest of us to get these sweet cash kickbacks.

But that's not the only place where one group of consumers subsidized another, better-informed group. The same thing happens in restaurants where the price on the menu is really just there to anchor expectations. Savvy diners often pay much less or get much more.

For example, this evening I went out to dinner with some friends and the total bill, calculated on the menu price plus the standard 10% service charge (there's no tipping in Hong Kong) was HK$835. As savvy diners, we always check Chinese apps like Meituan for discounts and specials. It had a HK$800 cash coupon for sale for 548 CNY (roughly HK$640), so in the end we paid 548 CNY + HK$35 or roughly a total of HK$675 for our HK$835 meal. That was an easy US$20 off a US$106 bill for 30 seconds of checking an app.

On top of that, we got mall points (good for cash discounts, EV charging and free hours of parking) on the entire HK$835 and the 1.5% cash back from purchasing the Meituan coupon. And we also got 2 hours of free parking which we'd otherwise have had to pay HK$52 for. So all-in-all we got what would have cost someone paying cash and oblivious to the incentive structure HK$900 for only HK$640. Let's call it a 30% suckers tax.

This price structure is very common in Asia and not limited to Chinese apps. International hotel chains often have discount programs in their restaurants. A month or so ago I was at a business dinner (that I was not hosting) in a restaurant at the St Regis in Hong Kong, which is a Marriott Bonvoy property. When the host went to pay, I asked the waiter if he'd given him the Bonvoy discount which he had not. The host was very excited to learn about the discount and immediately took advantage of it.

Marriott offers 10% off F&B spend even if you're not staying the hotel in Greater China if you're a member of their rewards program, which costs nothing, and 20% if you have elite status. Plus you get points on the purchase which can be redeemed for hotel stays. This is in addition to whatever you earn from paying with a credit card. 20% off a US$3000 dinner bill is US$600...serious money that you get from just knowing to ask for the discount.

This isn't just a Marriott thing, Hilton offers even more generous discounts at F&B outlets across Asia-Pacific, not only limited to Greater China. 25% off the entire makes cocktails and steaks at the Waldorf-Astoria Bangkok's Bull & Bear Steakhouse (Bangkok's highest steakhouse!) very reasonable!

So next time you walk into a restaurant, look at the menu and think "hmmm...these prices look pretty expensive," that might be because they are. They've been inflated to leave room to give discounts for those of us in the know. Don't be a sucker, get the discount.