Pay Only What is Stated On the Menu!
If you have felt cheated when it comes time to pay your restaurant, as the final bill is different from the prices on the menu, mainly due that the sales tax and service charge added at the time of paying, you are in your right to pay only the price quoted on the menu.

Some restaurants do not indicate if the prices on the menu includes the sales tax and when it comes time to pay, the difference could can be as much as 23% - 13% for the sales tax and 10% for the service charge or gratuities.

However that practice is illegal, according to Cinthya Zapata, director of the Dirección de Apoyo al Consumidor (consumer protection agency), who defends the rights of a person not having to pay the tax if they were not first told of such.

Many restaurants indicate their prices before and after taxes, while others are not clear on that. Menu prices that have the taxes included are usually marked with IVI.

According to a study by the Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Comercio (MEIC), 77% of the restaurants do not comply with Ley 7472, which is clear that restaurants and "sodas" must include on their menus the final price that the consumer is to pay, said Zapata.

The same practice is found at hotels, where according to the MEIC, 92% of hotels do not publish the real price - the price plus the taxes - for a room.

The MEIC study included 40 hotels and 47 restaurants and sodas in the provinces of San José, Cartago, Puntarenas, Heredia and Alajuela.

In the case of hotels, 37 of the 40 inspected, do not comply with the regulation protecting the consumer. According to the MEIC report, 77% of the hotels visited did not clearly display their room rates. In addition, about half of the visited hotels do not explain all the different accommodation options and inform customers on the costs of additional services and what the final cost will be.

One of the items of interest to the MEIC inspectors was that, both in restaurants as in hotels, the final bill was in dollars, using the daily exchange rate, a practice that the MEIC found irregular in 37% of the cases.

Jorge Woodbridge, vice-minister of the MEIC, said that the offending operators have been warned and have been given a month to correct their practices before they get re-inspection.

Restaurants and hotels who continue with the irregular practice face sanctions of between ¢1.5 million and ¢5 million colones, depending on the severity of the offence.

The Comisión Nacional del Consumidor has a hotline - 800 266 7866 - for consumers to report any irregularities and to file complaints against establishments who overcharge or practice irregular billing practices.