Please can you advise on “discretionary service charges” on hotel bills? Recently two bills had an additional 10 per cent added. Although discretionary, it feels mean not to include this amount, already typed in and added to the total. But since they were both luxury country house hotels, the rooms did not come cheap: £420 (including dinner) and £220 for one night's double B&B, respectively. At the second hotel, we attended a wedding, so spent very little time there and did not eat in the restaurant. My feeling is that profit margins should be adequate to pay staff a decent wage - Lesley Davis, via e-mail

Times travel expert Julia Brookes responds: Discretionary service charges are common in US hotels and the practice is catching on in Britain. It's an easy way to boost revenue and some hotels try to justify it on the ground that it saves embarrassment about who and how much to tip - but it is enormously annoying for guests and generally counter-productive.

Adam Raphael, editorial director of the Good Hotel Guide, campaigns on the issue: “In particular, we dislike the practice of those hotels which shove a credit card terminal in front of the departing guest asking them to key in a tip before they complete the transaction.”

Many of the hotels selected for the guide reject tipping altogether, because service is an essential component of the experience the guest is paying for.

The Good Hotel Guide 2009 Britain & Ireland will be published on October 6 and Times readers can buy a priority copy in advance of publication for £17.50, a discount of £2.50 off the £20 retail price (020-7602 4182, www.goodhotelguide.com).

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