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One thing I am nervous about is tips (?) in restaurant, hotel, taxi overseas. It seem so complex and everyone say different thing about it.

 

Do you give tip in your home country, and how much? Is it bad manner to not give etc?

 

Any advise is good! Thank you

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akibun - don't go crazy with tips. It's not that difficult and don't feel like you need to spend alot tipping.

 

Restaurant... Just tip double the amount of the tax on your bill.

 

Hotels... you should leave a few dollars ($2-4) each day for the cleaning people.

 

Taxis... If you are not going very far, 1 or 2 dollars is acceptable. If you go for a long way, like to or from an airport, 4 or 5 bucks is better.

 

tanoshinde... itterashai! wave.gif

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 Quote:
Originally posted by AET:
When is a tip deserved? Don't they get paid a salary?

I never tip and never have done.

It's a terrible concept I think.
At a normal restaurant, Waiters, waitresses, and bus boys get paid a very low base salary, often below minimum wage, and then rely on tips for their livelihood...

Never too late to start tipping...
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Never tip just because you are expected to. The whole concept revolts me. When in America I will do it as little as possible, enough to just avoid a situation, but no more. If I think I can get away with not paying it I will (taxi, for example). In the case of a café, I am pretty much forced to pay it as it comes already added to my bill (charming). So I have been known to pay and state “this is not a tip in gratitude for any service provided, it is a tax that I would otherwise rather not pay”. I have said this before, but I doubt at all that they cared. In fact they probably muttered "****er' as I walked off. Such is life.

 

As a tourist bringing tourist dollars to an economy, I do not feel obliged to tip at all. And as far as bar girls go, opening a beer and putting it on the bar in front of me does not deserve a tip.

 

Tipping is a sign of gratitude. I will show it if it is deserved. In the meantime, any tip expected of me by society standards is in fact a TAX not a tip.

 

If tipping is so widespread why don't service providers just increase their prices and distribute that increase as wages to their deserving employees. This would avoid the farce that is this so called gratitude and allow true gratitude to be expressed when the service provider has performed beyond the level of attention for which they are already paid to provide.

 

Also, if they are not happy with their wage…. their problem, not mine.

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That sort of attitude really makes me mad.gif

 

Tipping is really appreciated by A LOT of lower paid workers, I know having done my fare share of sh'tty jobs!

 

Tipping your waiter(ess) is always polite, I used to do my upmost to help people enjoy their night, but there are certain arrogant clients who you're "in and out" with.

 

Besides a lot of the time your forced to be quick handed and this seems rude, but your maitre'd or chef will take your head off!

 

It's too easy to hide behind the 'only if they deserve it' excuse. Sometimes the pricks that I had to endure derserved their food in their lap.

 

db I don't think many waiters, bar staff etc see the 'bigger picture' of communal sharing, maybe paying their rent and saving for a few beers....thats it.

 

 Quote:
Also, if they are not happy with their wage…. their problem, not mine.
Lovely, really nice work. :rolleyes:

 

BTW I was a great waiter, and got plenty of gratitude. Not always in the form of cash... :p

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Hi Mr Mathews,

 

my attitude to tipping has made many a person mad, you are not alone.

 

I will tip, and make a point of it whenever it has been deserved. I will also make a point of the fact that the gratitude is to be directed at the particular person that made the extra effort.

 

There is nothing more appreciatred (by myself at least) than a good waiter/tress. But putting food in front of me (that i have paid for) does not get your greedy or poor fingers on a tip. Effort = money. Noting is for free and I will not be mooched off by people (ie, the waiter at a cafe) waging guilt over me.

 

Further more, I pay A LOT of tax. Most waiters earn cash AND collect welfare. So they cheat the system and collect the dole which is funded by me and then complain because I didnt give them a couple of bucks for walking to my table and saying "hi, what will it be?".

 

As for poverty, I spent 4 years of my university life living off $120 per week, from which I paid $60 rent. I know what is meant by needing every dollar. I did not complain (much) and I did not ever claim that anyone owed me anything.

 

Besides, as I mentioned, why doesn't the eatery just increase prices by an amount representing the tip and pay that premium to the floor staff? This way we can dine in peace knowing that we are free to offer our gratitude when it has been deserved and that when it is not deserved, the watress will still get some extra dosh.

 

As for my saying "if they are not happy with their wage…. their problem, not mine". It is true. I am not a charity, I give value in exchange value, not guilt.

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Far better to pay the staff properly and expect them to be courteous (with dignity), rather than underpaying them and expecting them to go through some grotesque show of caring so they get paid for it.

 

I'm very uncomfortable with any form of service anyway, and I hate being told to 'Enjoy' my food in mediocre restaurants around the world.

 

If I'm forced to haggle, I generally don't buy, and I also avoid restaurants in tipping countries because it involves a shady form of haggling with the waiting staff.

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cheapskates! Tipping is case by case. I'm not in favor of taxi or barber tipping. But in the the restaurant industry, in countries which do tip, you are a loser if you don't tip for satisfactory service. And 15% at that! If the service sucks, no tip is justified. But adequate or better service in tip countries is expcected, even depended on for people to be able to make a living. It's taxable income and not just a gratuity. The losers that leave the change in their pockets are just losers.

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That was the pits when I lived in America, Tipping. Hate it. Nothing destroyed a superb dinner and evening out with friends in a restaurant than the conclusion when the bill came and we haggled over the bill and the tip. ( I remember one incident where myself and an Australian friend adamently wanted to tip the waiter who was a lazy prick with an attitude nothing or 5% and the Nth Americans we were with got upset with us because they refused to leave anything less than 15%. The waiter was crap, slow, sloppy, slovenly and sloth, he deserved an uppercut not a tip.

 

Going to bar with a barman with an attitude who will ignore you and serve you last because you didnt tip him the mimimum of $1 to open a bottle of beer( they got insulted if you tipped coins)I mean that is your job! that is nothing above and beyond the description of your job.

There in lies the issues with tipping and I am with db 100% an this. Give a tip as a reward not a right and for chrissakes pay everyone a decent wage to begin with so tipping is not an issue in the first place.

 

I have had a million arguments with a million Americans about this issue, none more than with my ex girlfriend who was one and an ex- waitress to boot. I realise it a fruitless and futile argument because those in favour of tipping once had good hospitality jobs and could rake in$US100 dollars or more a night in tips and fail to declare most of it and get off rich and scottfree.

 

It certainly is a good wicket if you are on it but generally it sucks for everyone else.

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u either grew up with tipping or u didnt. or u had a mix - a little tipping or little not tipping. or u grew in an environment where it was favoured from a theoretical basis but less frquent in practice. or the opposite of that, or some combnination.

 

anyway, customs are different in different areas. tipping is the american way. pay the sad arse worker a sad arse amount of pay so they must survive off tips. (although if they always get to keep their tips it looks like a lotta moolah to me! - few bucks to the cleaning lady in a hotel...they could really clean up - but perhaps its more a bribe so they dont steal ya stuff) but thats the way. and if avg service gets a tip then thats the way. (but opening a bottle??)

 

here i nearly never tip, at home infrequently only in response to really good service.

 

i dont understand the tipping culture, i dont agree with it, but i'll do it when the occassion arises.

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I worked in a restuaranbt to put my self through Uni.

 

I did not work for a tip. I gave a service cause I apprecaited the people who were willing to spend a lot of money(more than they should've) to have a nice evening out and I was not about to ruin that. Besides if I was nice to them they would be nice back and all would be happy. Not to mention that they bring their dollars back to our restuarant again.

 

I earned NZ$13 per hour for my job as a waiter. I did not have to give crap ass fake smiles and make small chat to grease a tip out of a customer. I did not need it.

 

I do not like tipping. Tipping has a dangerous side to it when people come to expect it.

 

Why is it that you still pay the same amount of money for a feed in Fridays the world over and yet the US staff must have a 15% tip? If they are as underpaid as said, shouldn't the food be cheaper? Perhaps the staff need to revolt?

 

A tip is not a right it is a privildege. It is my priviledge to chose to give or not.

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A tip is a compliment for good service and having done more than my fair share of bar/restaurant work I think tips are a good thing. I agree that it's screwed up when people expect automatic tips or sneer at what they perceive to be a small tip.

I would have loved to have spent some of my time behind bars in the US, where any dolt or moron can get a buck for every drink served. All my service work was in Japan, NZ and the UK where I feel it's fair to say the customers were tightasses when it comes to tipping.

I believe that if you get good service it's a good idea to tip. Actually I enjoy tipping when it's justified though I generally don't bother in Japan.

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Let me just add that my argument for tipping is based on my experiences outside the US (seems to be a theme here) namely France and the UK.

 

I don't know a thing about lazy barman and sloth waiters from over the pond. 

 

As I said, getting on with clients always made my nite a) go quicker B) more fun.

 

I always tip, the size depends on the service.

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Jared,

 

yes! The guys or gals that get the jobs in the super expensive restraunts are the people at the top of their professions. They are the pro's in hospitality. It's not an easy job to get and is compensated accordingly (in tipping countries, of course).

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I had an annoying experience with a German barman in Dubai.

 

Into my 8th drink and triple figure bill at the bar and the bloody waiter had the gall to say to me as he plonked my 9th drink on the table "this is your last chance for tips."

 

Needless to say I left without tipping.

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IIIII,

 

NO TIPPING -"pathetic concept" period!????

You are pathetic you cheap bastard.!

 

L-O-S-E-R!!!!

 

Take my advice and avoid restraunt's and restraunt workers when you enter a country that adheres to tipping ways. YOU are the enemy (not to mention a cheap bastard). I would love to valet your car!! After crashing it into a wall and stealing your breath mints, I wouldn't expect your cheap ass to tip me. We will be even. :p

 

lol.gif Ketchi-san!

 

When in Rome......less ketchi people. Please tip when tipping is appropriate. It is sometimes the right thing to do. Thank you.

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 Quote:
Originally posted by Chauncey:
I would love to valet your car!! After crashing it into a wall and stealing your breath mints, I won't expect your cheap ass to tip me. We will be even.
although this just seems to emphasise that tipping is a bribe to service personel so they dont inflict some form of abuse (to which u r vulnerale) upon u. when as a paying customer u are not really deserving of any abuse.

the obligatory nature of the concept seems to defeat its intended purpose in my eyes. like others have said. if u gotta pay for it, why not just include it in the cost, and tip extra for extra service?

the same with countries with a GST/VAT. why not include it in the price like australia or the UK?

seems everything is just designed to befuddle u.

i just wanted to use the word befuddle.
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Just got back from Hawaii where I tipped 15% each time we went out to dinner. Service was always good so not a problem. However, you can't escape the logic of the arguement that places should just up the price and pay their staff a better basic wage! Save the guilt trip! In Australia there is no obligation to tip, but if service is excellent and added to my enjoyment of a good meal then I will tip, and only then! As for tipping the barman that's just horseshit (unless they are a hot lassie with great clevage and did all sort uneccassary bending over etc clap.gif then tip city!) I also did not tip the cleaning lady at our hotel cause I didn't know you "had" to and now I feel bad about it. Damn tipping!

 

Dims

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