Successful Entertaining in Spain

Successful Entertaining in Spain

Lunch is the main meal of the day and business discussions and deals are often conducted during working lunches — although business is likely to be discussed during the later stages of any meal.

These lunches can often last more than two to three hours and often don’t start until 2:00 pm – 2:30 pm. The meals are often quite large with a number of courses and wine being served. Try not to see this as wasted time — it is an essential part of the relationship building process.

Dinner is often a lighter meal, and is usually not begun until around 10: 00 pm which people from many other cultures find extremely late. It is customary for the person who extends the invitation to pay the bill.

Do not be surprised to be taken outside the office to a coffee house during the day. These informal chats over a coffee are one of the best places to build relationships and many of these offline conversations are the most useful for information gathering, testing the water etc.

Almost all eating establishments include a service charge in the bill. However, it is still customary to leave a tip of about five to ten per cent in restaurants.

Author

This country-specific business culture profile was written by Keith Warburton who is the founder of the cultural awareness training consultancy Global Business Culture. 

Global Business culture is a leading training provider in the fields of cross-cultural communication and global virtual team working.  We provide training to global corporations in live classroom-based formats, through webinars and also through our cultural awareness digital learning hub, Global Business Compass.

This World Business Culture profile is designed as an introduction to business culture in Spain only and a more detailed understanding needs a more in-depth exploration which we can provide through our training and consultancy services.