Etiquette expert sparks debate by sharing who should pay the bill if a group of friends dine out

Going out to dine with friends is all fun and cheer until the restaurant bill arrives. Not every person in the group would've ordered the same dish and not everyone is blessed with good etiquette when it comes to sharing the bill. So, even equal splitting of the bill might turn out to be the worst idea. To make such situations less awkward, British etiquette coach William Hanson–who goes @williamhansonetiquette on TikTok–shared a simple idea. However, his idea of a "fair" splitting of the bill did not seem acceptable to many people.

Hanson started his video with a question, "When dining out with a group of friends, who should pay for what?" The etiquette coach also had an answer for that. Hanson pointed out that everyone in the group must order the same number of meal courses to make it a fair split. Though he did not elaborate on it, it was understood that he expected the group of friends to agree on ordering the same number of courses. Once they receive the bill, they need to divide it by the number of people present. Maybe it's possible to have the same number of courses but what if the dishes cost different? Hanson answers that too.

The etiquette coach points out that it is the responsibility of the person who orders an expensive dish to bear the extra costs. "If there is one friend who maybe has had a more expensive dish - when they order it - they should announce to the group that they're happy to pay a little extra," he explained. "At the end, fair's fair," Hanson concluded. "You can't get away with ordering the lobster and making your friends pay for it!" the etiquette coach wrote in the caption. The video garnered over 824K views in a couple of weeks and people don't completely agree with Hanson's advice. 

Many stood by the practice of getting separate checks. "Or, hear me out. I know this is a crazy concept, but you pay for what you ordered," said @kid_livingston. "As a server, I just divide the check during the order. Fair is fair when everyone pays for what they order. Anything else is complicating," pointed out @poop_meister. "If I invite my friends out for a meal, I pick up the bill, always have and always will," chimed in @dan.gleeballs6. "It's either you pay for yourself or the host pays for everyone," added @tiger_tamer2010. 

On a similar note, many Reddit users rushed to the support of a woman who fell victim to the unfair practice of splitting bills evenly. u/moonstone_magic on Reddit went out with her friends and when the food bill arrived, they all decided to split it evenly. The problem was that the lady ordered nothing but a soda and ate half an appetizer, but she was expected to pay $45 for these. "I'm fine splitting the bill evenly when everyone orders roughly the same thing. But also if I ever put my card down, I always ask everyone if they want to split it evenly or not, not just assume," she said. Many Reddit users shared the same opinion as the woman and said it was an unfair expectation from her friends.

You can follow William Hanson (@williamhansonetiquette) on TikTok for more etiquette tips.