People Working In Luxury Industries Are Spilling The Biggest Rip-Offs They Sell Their Rich Clients, And It’s Mind-Boggling

Reddit user ArtThreadNomad recently asked, “People who work in ‘luxury’ industries (5-star hotels, fine dining, high-end brands), what is a complete rip-off that rich people happily pay for?” Here’s what they spilled:

1. “Private jet pilot here. Catering services. There are companies that, for lack of a better term, cater specifically to the corporate jet world, providing food for the aircraft that is delivered to the fixed-base operators for departure. This includes stuff like Asian salads for like $150 or a club sandwich for $80. These are rough estimates based on what our dispatch has told me. I’ve never personally ordered them. Many of our Part 91 (owner flights), the aircraft owners are watching their expenses closely, and as such, don’t order these because it’s a ridiculous waste of money to get Panera quality food for $150 when they could just ask us, pilots, to pick up Panera for them on the way to the aircraft. The people who don’t realize this or care and will often spend over $1,000 for a handful of salads and sandwiches are those who charter the aircraft and get shafted by these companies or their brokers.”

—JaxyKun

2. “Gold flakes on things. My ex worked in the hotel industry. The rich would buy anything that sounded or presented itself as expensive. Gold flakes are really cheap; they put them on/in anything, and they can up the price 3x or more.”

—BasenjiMaster

3. “You expect the alcohol to be a rip-off, but the water rip-off was the wildest. We had sparkling and mineral water, bottled in glass, in two sizes each. The larger size was around $15, and the smaller size was around $8. One of our upcharge tricks was to list them out, but half the time we didn’t even need to, since they’d ask for it. Mind you, tap water was an option the whole time.”

—Not_Campo2

4. “Property management here: pool heat. There are some people out there who ‘do not travel anywhere without a heated pool.’ I live in the panhandle of Florida, and for about 8 months out of the year, it feels like 100°+ here. Some of these people are paying thousands of dollars to ‘heat a pool’ where the heater almost never turns on. During the summer, it might turn on for an hour at around 3 a.m., but it would immediately heat back up before they used it.”

—Fucky0uthatswhy

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5. “If you make your product rare. We are a small olive oil producer; we have all the necessary machines to produce our own oils. We work clean and organic in a way that goes beyond any certificates, so we won’t fool anyone on this side. However, there are certain special oils, such as those from the very early harvest or oil from wild olive trees. We have some wealthy customers. If we tell them we only have 10L of wild olive oil left, they want to buy it all…only to find out that they have it and no one else does. So we found ourselves lying sometimes about the amount of oil left; it makes certain rich people buy everything available just to have it.”

—habilishn

6. “I worked at a fancy hotel. We charged $40 for a bowl of plain oatmeal and called it ‘artisanal steel-cut oat porridge with a whisper of sea salt.’ People would nod like they could taste the difference.”

—Short-Hawk6490

7. “I work for a high-end plumbing company. We do some truly enormous new residential builds. The difference between regular and high-end plumbing is purely aesthetic. All our pipes are meticulously organized and run with non-flexible materials. We essentially do satisfying cable management, but for pipes. It looks nice, and wealthy customers like nice-looking things.”

—Wild-Vast-2559

8. “The spas attached to 5-star hotels. $350 + tip, or more, for a 60-minute massage. $300+ for a basic facial. Yes, they have great robes and soft massage beds, but c’mon. Add on two Bellinis for $150?”

—denydenydenigh

9. “One of the more interesting ones is having expensive replicas made of priceless jewelry in case of theft. My surrogate dad in Nassau County, Long Island, knows of people who spend thousands and thousands of dollars on ‘costume’ dupes of their best jewelry, so they can wear them out and leave the real stuff at home, under lock and key. Imagine a set of costume jewelry worth more than your vehicle. That sort of thing.”

—transemacabre

10. “Bottle service at a nightclub. Imagine paying a 1,000% markup on a bottle of Grey Goose that typically costs $50.”

—jinsanity811

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11. “Private nurse to very wealthy people. Sounds like a necessity (medical support), but most of the clients aren’t sick. Just rich and able to do it. They like the attention. I’ve seen so much. Private jets and chauffeurs who sit outside in cars for days on end, going nowhere. I watched a 90-year-old woman slather LaMer on her arms last week. It broke me. The amount of waste is staggering.”

—Mundane_Balance2556

12. “I used to work for a golf course for a ‘prestigious’ country club back in 2021. The prices the rich were willing to pay for food and drinks were ridiculous IMHO. The majority of the sandwiches were pre-made items you can find at the grocery store. Also, the ‘expensive’ wine was all the cheap stuff from the liquor store. Also, the rented golf clubs are older than you would think and aren’t exactly well-maintained. Rich people don’t care as long as it looks ‘shiny.'”

—Cheetodude625

13. “Caskets and urns. I work in a fancier funeral home as support staff (not a director). We literally sell $80 urns imported from India for $600+. A $2,000 casket goes for $8,000. Remember that you are allowed, under federal law, to bring your own urn or casket. Sometimes I feel like there is more financial flexing at funerals than at weddings.”

—onyxS4int

14. “Honestly, the markup on wine at fine dining restaurants is unreal. I worked as a hostess and watched people drop $300 on bottles we got wholesale for $40 without even blinking.”

—Nathandg27

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15. “The ‘VIP Lounge access’ in nightclubs. It’s basically milking a person with low self-esteem.”

—triple_hoop

16. “Car leases. I had a rich boss who was in town maybe 60 days a year and was leasing a car for $110/day. Now it was a nice car… I think it retailed for $250k, but to pay $33,000+ a year for the days you didn’t drive?”

—CStogdill

17. “The high-end restaurants in 5-star resorts and hotels use a lot of pre-packaged frozen foods. They dress it up with sauce and fancy presentation, but just know that your Chicken Cordon Bleu came from a box. Same with your fancy dessert, UNLESS the 5-star has a designated pastry chef. Many don’t. It’s all in the name of lowering food costs. Disclosure: I’ve worked as an accountant in resort hospitality for over 20 years. We know what gets purchased and carried in inventory.”

—RoswellRedux

18. “I do high-end cocktail bartending. One of the rules I live by is that the difference between an $11 and a $30 drink is purely one of presentation. The glass needs to be immaculately polished, the ice needs to be in good condition, and the garnish needs to be skillfully prepared. Additionally, you need the right space to sell $30 drinks. You need clean surfaces and enough hands to ensure a consistently pre-bussed bar top. All of that has zilch to do with how good the drink actually tastes. It’s the real problem with most bartenders, I find. Making delicious drinks is important, but presentability is what sets the price tag and perceived value.”

—HemlockHex

19. “I just put up Christmas decorations in a fancy high-rise lobby. It took three hours, and I earned almost $2,000.”

—Handymantwo

20. “The luxury residence club/resort I work at charges over $100k per year for membership, and you only get to stay there for six weeks out of the year. You still have to pay for your own food in the restaurant, massages, etc., after the fact. They can also have their groceries delivered to their villa, but they still pay for the groceries on top of the membership fee, too. I’ve seen some people spend like $2,000 on groceries for one week. A large portion of it is fancy expensive alcohol though. As for me, I’m perfectly happy to go camping for a weekend and spend only $50-$100 on it.”

—Silver-Instruction73

21. “The mini bar. They’ll drink and eat everything in there without a second thought. $27 bottle of water? Well, they’re rich and thirsty.”

—CapnGrundlestamp

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22. “Priority baggage on planes. It’s a fuckin’ pat on the back. Half the time, my coworkers don’t care what order they come off the plane, won’t make any efforts to send them first, and it doesn’t make anything faster, nor would it even if we did what was advertised.”

—Puzzled_Sorbet_8676

23. “I used to book hotel rooms for Disney. The El Capitan Suite at the Grand Californian Hotel runs about $10,000 a night. Don’t get me wrong, it’s an extremely beautiful suite with top-tier everything, but it will never be anything but wasteful to spend $10,000 for the privilege of sleeping in a room.”

—RilohKeen

24. “One of the biggest rip-offs in the luxury world is anything that involves ‘exclusive convenience’ packaged as sophistication. Rich people don’t just pay for the product; they pay to feel separated from everyone else. That’s where the absurd margins hide. A few examples that insiders quietly laugh about: hotel laundry services. This is probably the ultimate rip-off. You can charge $50 to wash one T-shirt because wealthy travelers don’t want to bother figuring out where the local laundromat is. The hotel labels it as ‘express cleaning,’ but it’s literally the same washer and dryer the staff uses for bulk linens.”

“Fine-dining supplements. Truffle shavings and wagyu ‘upgrades’ are a goldmine. The cost to the restaurant is tiny compared to the add-on price. Half the time, the truffle doesn’t even taste that strong — it’s there because the guest wants to signal that they can afford it.

Caviar service. People pay absurd amounts for a tin that costs the restaurant a fraction of what they charge. The theatrics (silver spoons, presentation, a staff member standing there like it’s a sacred ritual) do all the heavy lifting.

Private transfers from luxury hotels. A hotel will charge hundreds for a car ride that a regular taxi or Uber could do for $20. The only difference is that someone opens the door for you and offers sparkling water.

High-end fashion ‘basic’ items. A plain white T-shirt stamped with a luxury logo is the most blatant one. The material isn’t special, and the craftsmanship is often mediocre, but the markup is astronomical because the logo itself is the product.

Spa products. Hotel spas sell creams and oils at margins that would make a drug dealer jealous. The same formula, minus branding, is often available online for a tenth of the price.

What all of these have in common is this: Wealthy clients aren’t paying for practicality or value. They’re paying to not think, to feel important, and to show they can afford not to care about the price. And luxury businesses know that very, very well.”

—peter-faith

25. “Expensive boutique fitness classes. I’m astounded by what some people pay per hour. Occasionally, I’ll attend one of those just to see what the fuss is, and I usually come away unimpressed. You can often get the same quality class for a lot less at your local Y or parks and rec.”

—Busy-Negotiation1078

26. “The turn-down service in ultra‑luxury hotels is one of the biggest ones. It’s basically someone folding the corner of your blanket, dimming a light, and leaving a chocolate, yet it gets bundled into rooms that cost hundreds more per night. People love it, I guess, because it feels exclusive, not because it actually does anything.”

—throwawayjaaay

27. And: “I used to work for a luxury handbag company. They literally took a sack, coated it, slapped the logo on it, and sold it for $400.”

—eviljim113ftw

Have you ever worked in a “luxury” industry? What are some other rip-offs wealthy people don’t bat an eye at? Tell us in the comments or share anonymously using this form.

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