It was the summer of 2017 when a restaurateur in Ravenna posted on social media a message that went around Italy in three days: “From today, no more coperto in my place. It’s an old, opaque practice, unfair to the customer. If you want bread, you order it and pay for it. If you don’t, you save. End of story.”
The post was shared tens of thousands of times. Newspapers interviewed him. Consumer associations elevated him to icon status. For one month, “abolishing the coperto” became a small cultural movement.
Nine years later, that restaurant is still open — but coperti officially abolished across Italy are still very few. Why? Because the decision, seen from the outside, seems obvious. Seen from the P&L, it’s much more nuanced. In this article we’ll run the numbers, walk through three realistic case studies, and lay out a seven-question checklist to decide whether abolition is right for you.
If you want a refresher on the fundamentals, see what the coperto is and how much it costs and the coperto as a revenue line.
Why some restaurateurs abolish it
Three reasons drive the decision, in order of frequency.
1. Reducing friction with foreign tourists. For an American or a Dutch tourist reading “coperto: €3.00 × 2 = €6.00” on the bill, the gut reaction is one of being scammed. It’s not in their culture, it wasn’t on the menu (or it was, but they didn’t see it), and it ends up in reviews as “hidden charge, avoid this place”. For a venue living off tourism, the math of TripAdvisor reviews matters more than the €3 collected. The topic is explored in depth in coperto and foreign tourists: how to explain it without friction.
2. Premium positioning. A concept restaurant wanting to communicate “everything is included here, no surprises” finds a marketing angle in “no coperto, no service charge”. It’s the Will Guidara logic explored in unreasonable hospitality and memorable gestures: removing every small friction is part of the experience.
3. Consistency with “no extra costs” communication. If your website says “honest pricing, no surprises”, applying a coperto is a contradiction the guest notices. Removing it aligns communication and invoice.
The math of “coperto abolished”: where do the €2 go?
Crucial point many forget: the costs the coperto covers don’t disappear with abolition. Linens to wash, bread to buy, glassware that breaks, detergents — they stay. Those €2-3 per person have to be recovered somewhere. The three options:
Option A: roll them into menu prices. You bump menu prices by 5-8%, and the margin stays roughly the same. The customer pays the same total but doesn’t see the “coperto” line. Pro: clean perception. Con: menu prices look higher than competitors at first glance on Google Maps, which can hurt initial comparisons.
Option B: absorb the hit (eat the margin). If you don’t raise prices, every coperto you don’t charge is full margin walking out the door. With 100 covers a day at €2.50 each, that’s €250 a day in lost margin — €75,000 a year (300 open days). For many venues, that’s the difference between profit and loss.
Option C: recover elsewhere. You raise the price of bread (à la carte), water, side dishes. It’s the “American” approach: every item is a separate line. Works in some contexts, terribly in others (an Italian guest asked to order bread separately gets annoyed).
In the case studies below we’ll see how the three options translate into different operational realities.
Case study 1 — The provincial trattoria that abolished and lost margin
Profile. Family-run trattoria in a small Central Italy provincial capital. 45 covers, average ticket €28, 80% local, 20% passing tourism. Historical coperto: €2.00.
What happens. The owner abolishes the coperto in 2024 after reading an article. He doesn’t raise menu prices (Option B). His reasoning: “It’s €2 per person, on 45 covers it’s €90 a day, €27,000 a year. I’ll survive.”
What actually happens. Those €27,000 were almost all margin. The venue’s annual gross margin was around €65,000: he loses 41% in one stroke. By year-end, profit drops to €38,000, and he starts cutting: less marketing, less maintenance, lower-quality bread (cheaper supplier to “compensate”). Customers notice. Reviews start complaining about bad bread.
Lesson. For a popular trattoria with tight margins, abolishing the coperto without compensating in menu prices is a choice that gets paid back fast. The coperto, in these venues, is economic infrastructure.
Case study 2 — The Costa Smeralda tourist restaurant that abolished and gained in reviews
Profile. 70-cover restaurant in a Sardinian tourist town. Open only May to September. Clientele: 70% foreign tourists (British, German, French), 30% Italian on holiday. Average ticket €65, historical coperto €4.00.
What happens. The owner abolishes the coperto in 2025 and raises menu prices by 6% (Option A). Website and English menu add the line “All prices include service. No cover charge.”
What actually happens. Revenue per cover is identical (the €4 is in the prices). But three things happen:
- TripAdvisor reviews mentioning “scam” or “hidden fees” drop sharply. Rating rises from 4.1 to 4.4 in one season.
- German and Dutch guests, used to “final price = final price”, leave more generous tips. Total tip pool for floor staff grows 30%.
- Staff is happier and less stressed by end-of-meal disputes.
End of season, margin unchanged. Perceived value up. For anyone evaluating a similar strategy, see also the Sardinia Tourism Summer 2026 Study for the market context.
Lesson. For a heavily tourist-driven venue, abolition-with-price-incorporation is almost always a win. The foreign customer pays the same amount but perceives fewer “tricks”. Online ratings improve. It’s the most no-brainer scenario in the set.
Case study 3 — The Milan fine dining that never applied it
Profile. Michelin-starred restaurant, central Milan, 30 covers, tasting menu €150-220, clientele 60% business, 40% gourmet. Coperto: never applied.
What happens (historically). The owner, when opening in 2018, made the deliberate choice not to apply coperto and not to add service. Everything in the prices. “If someone pays €200 for dinner, I don’t want them to find a €3 coperto at the bottom. It’s incoherent.”
What happened. The venue went from no stars to one Michelin star in three years. Reviews — including from foreign business travellers — consistently praise the transparency. The tasting menu price is explicitly “all inclusive”, and the customer appreciates it.
Lesson. For fine dining, not applying the coperto is almost a positioning requirement. Margins don’t suffer because the average ticket is high and menu prices easily cover the infrastructure quota. It’s the category where abolition is less a choice and more a cultural default.
Checklist: 7 questions to decide
Before making the call, answer these seven questions honestly:
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How much does the coperto weigh on my annual revenue? If you don’t know, derive it first from the calculator in the coperto revenue piece. Without this number you can’t decide.
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How many of my customers are foreign? Below 20%, the “tourist friction” argument is weak. Above 50%, it’s almost always decisive.
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How high is my average ticket? Under €25, every euro of lost margin hurts. Above €50, the coperto is a small fraction of the take and abolishing it is less painful.
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Can my menu prices absorb a 5-8% bump without scaring guests? If your clientele is price-sensitive (popular trattoria, lunch formulas), no. If premium, yes.
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How many negative reviews mention “coperto” or “hidden charge”? Go to Google Maps and TripAdvisor and search those exact words. If you find more than 3-5 in the last year, the reputational issue is already concrete.
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Does my floor staff rely on tips? If yes, abolishing the coperto and going “all inclusive” can lift foreign guest generosity — a direct benefit to the team. See also staff retention strategies.
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Am I ready to redesign the menu coherently? Abolishing the coperto without redesigning the menu in a professional way (font, layout, “all included” wording) signals improvisation. Worth doing only if you commit to doing it well.
If you answered “yes” / “favourable” to at least 5 of the 7 questions, abolition probably makes sense. If 2 or fewer, keeping the coperto and improving communication is almost always the better move.
The alternative: redesign it instead of abolishing it
There’s a third path that often works better than full abolition: redesigning the coperto line so it irritates less.
Rename it. From “coperto” to “bread and service” or “table infrastructure”. Transparency goes up, the historically negative connotation goes down. See coperto vs service charge: how to read the bill.
Exempt some categories. Children under 6, partner groups, private events. Costs almost nothing and improves perception. On how easy this is to configure in a modern system, see digital coperto with a modern restaurant system.
Communicate it upfront. On the menu, on the website, on booking confirmation. An informed customer doesn’t feel scammed.
Calibrate it. If you’re at €2 on a €50 average ticket, you’re underpriced. If you’re at €5 on a €25 ticket, you’re out of scale. The healthy ratio is 5-8% of the average ticket.
In short
Abolishing the coperto is a move that works beautifully in some contexts — fine dining, premium tourist restaurants — and poorly in others — tight-margin trattorias, provincial venues. It’s not a universal answer, and it’s not in itself “modern” or “old-fashioned”. It’s a strategic decision tied to your positioning, your clientele, your margins.
The three case studies tell the same truth from different angles: those who abolish without compensating pay dearly; those who abolish with smart price incorporation gain in reputation; fine dining venues skip it by default. The question to ask is not “is the coperto fair?” but “is the coperto fair for my venue?”.
Coperti is the reservation and floor-management system born from the experience of university students who worked as waiters while studying. Among its features is configurable coperto management, with category exemptions, tracking of its impact on revenue, and scenario simulations. To see it in action, write to us from the contact page — the trial is free and lasts 30 days.