• Welcome to the FREE TUGBBS forums! The absolute best place for owners to get help and advice about their timeshares for more than 32 years!

    Join Tens of Thousands of other owners just like you here to get any and all Timeshare questions answered 24 hours a day!
  • TUG started 32 years ago in October 1993 as a group of regular Timeshare owners just like you!

    Read about our 32nd anniversary: Happy 32nd Birthday TUG!
  • TUG has a YouTube Channel to produce weekly short informative videos on popular Timeshare topics!

    All subscribers auto-entered to win all free TUG membership giveaways!

    Visit TUG on Youtube!
  • TUG has now saved timeshare owners more than $24,000,000 dollars just by finding us in time to rescind a new Timeshare purchase! A truly incredible milestone!

    Read more here: TUG saves owners more than $24 Million dollars
  • Wish you could meet up with other TUG members? Well look no further as this annual event has been going on for years in Orlando! How to Attend the TUG January Get-Together!
  • Now through the end of the year you can join or renew your TUG membership at the lowest price ever offered! Learn More!
  • Sign up to get the TUG Newsletter for free!

    Tens of thousands of subscribing owners! A weekly recap of the best Timeshare resort reviews and the most popular topics discussed by owners!
  • Our official "end my sales presentation early" T-shirts are available again! Also come with the option for a free membership extension with purchase to offset the cost!

    All T-shirt options here!
  • A few of the most common links here on the forums for newbies and guests!

tipping on tours

Snazzylass

Snazzylass

Guest
Joined
Dec 22, 2018
Messages
1,170
Reaction score
1,114
Location
Broad Ripple, IN
Resorts Owned
Sedona
@WinniWoman just came back from a US tour. I'm headed to one in Europe. The tour operator in the US explained that I should be prepared to tip my tour guide and bus driver $10 & $5/day respectively. I can be a sucker for tipping, but this seems like a lot...at the end of the tour the guide will have roughly $3000 in cash; $1500 for the driver...don't they get a paycheck too? Seems like a lot to me...

Would appreciate hearing about others experiences, please :)
 
Tipping in lieu of the employer paying employees a reasonable wage is out of control in the America IMHO. Of course the corollary would be employers charging higher prices to pay those higher wages.

I honestly don’t know the answer. I can say I nearly lost it when there was an area to tip the cashier at a CVS store in San Francisco last month. I drew the line years ago with tipping at fast food restaurants, including Starbucks. I couldn’t believe I was seeing an electronic tip jar at a CVS.

Supplementing servers at a restaurant I can live with as they’re not even paid minimum wage. To an extent they’re working for me at my table, taking my order, delivering my food, keeping my drink full and taking always the dishes. Everyone else is suspect at best IMHO. They should be paid what they’re worth by their employer. I shouldn’t be guilted into supplementing employees income so the CEO can make a little more money or get a bigger bonus.
 
As I was handed a charge slip at my dentist's office,
I said, "What? No line for a tip?" -- they thought it was funny.
.
 
Took a scenic boat tour a few weeks ago, and tipped after the trip. Then opened my email. “ How was your trip? Here is an opportunity to show your gratitude.”
 
Thanks to an air traffic controllers' strike in Athens a few years ago, DH and I were the only two of a tour group of 18 who actually arrived, so we had what amounted to a private tour of Greece. The standard tip for local tour guides was 2 Euros per person, and we increased it to 5 Euros for the two of us but couldn't do more. Most of the guides were pretty gracious about the reduced income, but DH still remembers one who barely went through the motions and finished up as quickly as she could.

I can't remember what we tipped our van driver and our tour manager, but it was well above the recommended amount. Because we were in a small van instead of a giant bus, they took us to some places the regular tour wouldn't have been able to visit. And whenever the tour itinerary said "lunch on your own," we just went with them and let them order for us!
 
Tipping in the USA has become tedious. It seems every type business has fallen into the 'tip for service' trap. And, of course I- and seemingly most others have taken them up on it. I draw the line at tipping proprietors in THEIR businesses. I tip employees for better-than-average service, but the boss can set whatever price they deem appropriate for their service.

As to the above (OPs) example, the referenced tour was inside the USA, hence the expectation in our 'tipping culture', but in the case of the upcoming European tour, tipping is much more of a 'rounding up' of rewarding service. That said, being told to expect to pay $15/day for a guide & driver doesn't seem exorbitant, if the price is something like $150pp/pd. That's 10%. I think I'd have a discreet conversation with some of the co-travelers on the tour before the tour ends and tips are collected. I would strive to be neither the highest tipper, nor the cheapest skate on board.

Jim
 
Passepartout said:
I draw the line at tipping proprietors in THEIR businesses. I tip employees for better-than-average service, but the boss can set whatever price they deem appropriate for their service.
Click to expand...
This apparently doesn't apply to hairstylists who rent booth space and set their own prices.
 
dioxide45 said:
This apparently doesn't apply to hairstylists who rent booth space and set their own prices.
Click to expand...
Like restaurant wait staff, I do tip the people who cut my hair, but I use Great Clips, and that’s a unique situation. Great Clips tells them what they can charge, but makes them rent for their booth space as I understand it. That’s screwed up.

My wife’s hairdresser sets her own price, but she owns the salon. She rents booth space, but allows those hairdressers to set their own prices. They can factor costs into what they charge for their services.
 
dougp26364 said:
Like restaurant wait staff, I do tip the people who cut my hair, but I use Great Clips, and that’s a unique situation. Great Clips tells them what they can charge, but makes them rent for their booth space as I understand it. That’s screwed up.

My wife’s hairdresser sets her own price, but she owns the salon. She rents booth space, but allows those hairdressers to set their own prices. They can factor costs into what they charge for their services.
Click to expand...
Yes, I am referring the latter. I understnad Great Clips and I used to go there, but now I just go when my wife goes and her stylist cuts my hair when she is under "heat". I of course googled this situation and all sites say you should tip them, but they are mainly sites where you can tell the person writing it is in the industry. So of course they are going to say to tip.

One thing I don't understand about not tipping a proprietor. Say you go to a restaurant and the owner waits your table (and you know they are the owner), do you tip them? Yes they set the price but that price doesn't include service because other wait staff is being tipped...
 
It's unbelievably refreshing to visit countries where tipping is non-existent and the price you see is the price you pay, even in restaurants. I found I much prefer that, even if it ends up more expensive. I don't mind to pay more not to deal with this tipping nonsense.
 
I am very over the tipping for everything too. I saw an article about self checkouts in stores asking for tips now! over my dead body would I leave a tip there.

I also really dislike the constant "Would you like to round up for XYZ charity today?" I'm sure the company is taking all those donations as a tax write off for themselves. What a scam that is.
 
Snazzylass said:
Would appreciate hearing about others experiences, please
Click to expand...

For tours etc. I wouldn’t think twice about tipping. I don’t get I too worked up about how much they end up with. Thanks particularly true when the operator gives a guideline as they did in your case. It’s just part of the trip budget for me.
 
I have a friend that likes to boast how big a tipper she is.
she has an annoying habit of publicly demanding that everyone tip people I ordinarily wouldn’t tip. Such as a group of us went on a paid guided tour of a historic site with the docent,and she is standing there making everyone give a tip to her for the docent. The docent refused to take it.

anyhow, I took her out for lunch, and after lunch she asked the waiter for carry out for her husband. she got a separate bill and fiddled with the little contraption On the table. She asked me to check her receipt. She had given a 200% tip! The waiter was nice enough to cancel it and she left him cash.
 
That sounds quite high. Probably because it's in the US. DW and I are going on a European river cruise with Viking later in the summer. It's an expensive trip. They recommend $2 pp per day for tour guides and $1 pp per day for bus drivers. This is in addition to the standard tips for shipboard personnel, for which they recommend $20 pp per day.

I think the $2 and $1 pp are pretty reasonable. It's a standard that I'd be tempted to use even on US trips.
 
Last edited:
Blues said:
That sounds quite high. Probably because it's in the US. DW and I are going on a European river cruise with Viking later in the summer. It's an expensive trip. They recommend $2 pp per day for tour guides and $1 pp per day for bus drivers. This is in addition to the standard tips for shipboard personnel, for which they recommend $20 pp per day.

I think the $2 and $1 pp are pretty reasonable. It's a standard that I'd be tempted to use even on US trips.
Click to expand...
The OP said they were going to Europe but the operator is in the US and perhaps they are applying US standards to a European based trip.
 
dioxide45 said:
The OP said they were going to Europe but the operator is in the US and perhaps they are applying US standards to a European based trip.
Click to expand...
Perhaps. Let me suggest another reason. The OP's suggestions come from the tour operator itself. Presumably, it's their own staff being tipped per the suggested guidelines. I believe that Viking uses contracted agencies for their tours. If true, Viking has less vested interest in inflating the tour guides' salaries.

Just the cynic in me talking...
 
jwalk03 said:
I am very over the tipping for everything too. I saw an article about self checkouts in stores asking for tips now! over my dead body would I leave a tip there.

I also really dislike the constant "Would you like to round up for XYZ charity today?" I'm sure the company is taking all those donations as a tax write off for themselves. What a scam that is.
Click to expand...
I dislike that practice as well, but the companies are not scamming you or the government. The extra amount they receive for the charity is added to their gross receipts, so when that amount is donated and is written off as a legal tax deduction, it is a zero-sum gain for the business. If they didn't handle those donations properly (i.e., fraud), it would be the easiest and fastest way to lose their business. I don't think many business owners take that risk.

Kurt
 
Last edited:
dioxide45 said:
Yes, I am referring the latter. I understnad Great Clips and I used to go there, but now I just go when my wife goes and her stylist cuts my hair when she is under "heat". I of course googled this situation and all sites say you should tip them, but they are mainly sites where you can tell the person writing it is in the industry. So of course they are going to say to tip.

One thing I don't understand about not tipping a proprietor. Say you go to a restaurant and the owner waits your table (and you know they are the owner), do you tip them? Yes they set the price but that price doesn't include service because other wait staff is being tipped...
Click to expand...
My (and wife's) hairdresser was a sole proprietor. We gave her nice gifts at the holidays, but didn't tip at each visit. I say these things in the past tense as the last time we were there, she informed us that she was retiring and closing the shop, so. . . Great Clips, here I come!

To you comment about tipping the proprietor at a restaurant, usually, tips are shared among the waitstaff, to include bussers, hosts & others, not just the person who takes the order & delivers the check. In this instance, I add the customary gratuity to the payment.,
 
I used my wifes hairdresser once.....after a lot of kerfuffle and what felt like hours in that chair I vowed never again. Now it is Great Clips all the way in and out in 15min tops and my tip shows my appreciation of fast efficient and excellent service.
 
Venter said:
I used my wifes hairdresser once.....after a lot of kerfuffle and what felt like hours in that chair I vowed never again. Now it is Great Clips all the way in and out in 15min tops and my tip shows my appreciation of fast efficient and excellent service.
Click to expand...
I used Great Clips almost exclusively for over a decade. My main issue was consistency of the cut. Sometimes it was great but other times not so much. Once, I thought I had found the best stylist and would ask for her each time I went in, then one time I went they told me she left. I asked where she went because I probably would have followed, but she went into brow shaping... Not my thing. So after some less than stellar cuts at Great Clips my wife asked her hairdresser if she could cut mine when she went. My wife goes to Orlando (we live in Jacksonville) to her stylist. So I am usually almost always with her and in the past I would just waste time walking through Aldi or Harbor Freight in the same plaza.

Also at Great Clips I never wanted to pay full price and was always coupon hunting. Kind of ironic through because now I pay three times as much as with a coupon to get it cut by my wife's stylist.
 
The cost of cut and color + tip at a nearby salon has led me to abandon my hairdresser. A friend recommended a former Marine, and I was pleased with my cut and the price (with tip half of what I'd paid at the salon) but he has very limited hours. I am hoping to get in a week from tomorrow, but if not, Great Clips, here I come. Question- has anyone had color done there?

Recently placed a to-go order at Chili's and the ubiquitous tip options were there for the marking before finalizing the order. There was a space for custom amount that did not work, so I went with the minimum- 18%!!!
 
All the machines I see list an option of "no tip."
 
I have run into this a few times...The suggested tip is computed after adding all items/fees and sales tax...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top