How Much to Tip on a Liveaboard

[theduckguru]

The amount of the tip is your decision. On at $2000 seven day liveaboard with 30 dives, some would suggest $150 [$5 a tank] some one else would say at least $300 [15% of the charter cost].

That's a big spread.

 

[vondo]

The amount of the tip is your decision. On at $2000 seven day liveaboard with 30 dives, some would suggest $150 [$5 a tank] some one else would say at least $300 [15% of the charter cost].

That's a big spread.

The $5/tank doesn't make much sense on a liveaboard. You are tipping your DM, captain, waiter, bar tender, maid, concierge, etc.

Many liveaboards suggest a tip (either as an amount or percentage). It varies on where it is. Use that as a baseline if you can. I'm shocked that the suggested tip for my upcoming Red Sea trip is something like $50 for the week, I think. Maybe because the clientèle is mostly European, they can't get away with having the crew live off of tips.

 

[diver 85]

10% of cost of trip-----Max....Less than that if poor service is received....

 

[weidelk]

It really depends if you're American or not. If so you're expected to tip heavily (15%+), simply because all of the other American tourists who've preceded you have done so. If you're European or an Aussie then expectations are more modest - 10% at the most is fine.

 

[vondo]

It really depends if you're American or not. If so you're expected to tip heavily (15%+), simply because all of the other American tourists who've preceded you have done so. If you're European or an Aussie then expectations are more modest - 10% at the most is fine.

I refuse to buy into that. I tip (everywhere: dive boats, restaurants, etc) the way the usual clientele does. That may mean tipping on bills in restaurants frequented by tourists and not tipping in local restaurants in the same country. My nationality has nothing to do with it.

 

[scubamarketing]

It's a service industry, so just like in a restaurant, I tip 15-20%. If service is terrible (and I'm thinking less than 15%), it's MY job to speak up and let it be known that the service isn't up to my standards. Only after I've done that, if service is still bad, will I drop below 15%.

I worked for a liveaboard and our base pay was US$100 per week. We averaged about 17% and after splitting the tips amongst the crew, I was slightly above the poverty level. Granted, I had no living expenses, but I also didn't have any kind of benefits.

When I book a trip, I mentally add in a 20% tip when I'm calculating my budget.

 

[diversteve]

what is an average tip for a liveaboard crew (raggressor/dancer, blackbeard, etc?)

Guidelines from some liveaboards:

Aquacat/Cat PPalu/Blackbeards:

MONEY (Money for the night ashore, souvenirs and crew tip, 15% is recommended and can be given to the Captain at the end of the week)

Explorer Ventures:

CREW GRATUITIES
Crew gratuities are not included in your package. The
crew works very hard, 7 days a week and many weeks at a stretch,
providing the best possible service for our guests. The industry
standard for crew gratuities on dive trips (if of course you are happy
with the service which you have received) is between 10% and 15%
of the package price per passenger. Your generosity will be greatly
appreciated!

Aggressor Fleet:

15. Is it customary to offer a crew gratuity?
We believe gratuities should be voluntary and based upon the quality of the service the crew has provided. When setting your account, the Captain will have an envelope for gratuities to be divided equally among the crew. Gratuities may be left by cash, credit card, or travelers checks.

Dancer Fleet: Since Aggressor owns the Dancer Fleet, I'd guess it would be similar.

 

[annasea]

It's a service industry, so just like in a restaurant, I tip 15-20%. If service is terrible (and I'm thinking less than 15%), it's MY job to speak up and let it be known that the service isn't up to my standards. Only after I've done that, if service is still bad, will I drop below 15%.

<snip>

If the service is that bad, and you've already said something about it, why even bother tipping at all? Frankly, I don't care if something is a 'service industry' or not, a tip should be for above and beyond; certainly not for less than base level.

 

[highdesert]

First, throw out any idea of the "per tank" tip on a liveaboard. You're basing your tip on a total service package, which has nothing to do with just the DM. Actually, even if you're on a day boat, the DM isn't going to perform well without a good backup crew, who should all be in on the tip.

Secondly, this whole equation changes from country to country. On some Indo liveaboards we've been on, even when the captain or dive director is asked directly what is a reasonable tip for an 11-day trip, he will answer about 50 Euros ($70.00 in 2009) per diver ... again, for an 11-day trip of 4 dives a day. Now that might not fly in the USA, but the point is you can't just pull a tip amount out of the air. Learn what is appropriate locally first.

And in the end, I strongly support "blind tipping." Everyone's tip goes into one pot/envelope/jar, whatever, and it's distributed equally to the crew after the guests are off the boat. They all made the operation work. If there is someone really special in the crew, take them aside and give them a little cash bump in private, and let them know how much you appreciated their efforts.

 

[Quero]

I'm also one of those people that would like to see the operators just up the price to include tips but I don't think it will ever happen.

When an operator calculates a higher rate in order to pay dive staff and boat crew higher salaries, a whole range of effects can be tripped, and the chances of this kind of strategy backfiring or creating unintended consequences is huge:

• Potentially pricing themselves out of a market (boat X is offering the same itinerary and creature comforts as boat Y, but is 10% more expensive--let's save that 10% and stay at a nicer hotel before and after).
• Declaring the additional revenue as taxable income (with all the accounting costs and tax burdens this entails) and therefore having the amount available that will "trickle down" to the staff/crew be more in the range of 5%.
• Adding to the taxable income of the employees' earned income, again possibly diluting the effect of the "forced tip" that has been folded into the base price.
• Alienating customers who may balk at paying a 10% service charge regardless of whether the "service" they have received is indifferent or caring.
• Removing the additional incentive to strive to do a great job since being uncaring in the job will NOT result in lost tips.

[It] changes from country to country. Learn what is appropriate locally first.

This actually cuts two ways. Most often I see this kind of advice from people who are not necessarily opposed to tipping, but who are actively trying to justify saving some money on their tip budget--they learn that tips average less in places like Southeast Asia and adjust the amount they tip accordingly. What people often don't take into account is the actual reason that the average tip is low, which is cultural for sure, but not as you would expect due to the culture of the place the services are performed--it's because of tourists from nationality groups who come from countries where tipping is not the norm and who therefore refuse to tip when elsewhere. Because these non-tippers drag the averages down, the tippers put a smaller amount in the pot. Doesn't seem fair to the workers who appreciate the tips. People from non-tipping cultures need to heed highdesert's advice even more than those from tipping cultures. Sometimes I read opinions from people who have what they claim is a "philosophical" issue with tipping and "won't support a system that doesn't pay workers a living wage which would make reliance on tips unnecessary." That's nearly always nothing more than a rationalization on the part of somebody who's too cheap to tip but won't face up to it.

And in the end, I strongly support "blind tipping." Everyone's tip goes into one pot/envelope/jar, whatever, and it's distributed equally to the crew after the guests are off the boat. They all made the operation work. If there is someone really special in the crew, take them aside and give them a little cash bump in private, and let them know how much you appreciated their efforts.

Here in Thailand we have a tip pot for the boat crew--captain, mate, deckhands, cook--since much of their work is "invisible" in that you can't really know who is doing what when. But for dive staff, we always recommend taking care of them individually. Usually on a liveaboard you will work with just one or two dive staff and you will easily be able to gauge the amount of time and attention that you receive. If your DM sits with you for hours showing you fish books and helping you ID the critters in your photos or spends 10 minutes every dive helping you get down to 7 meters because you've got ear clearing issues, or takes special care of you in some other way, that is the person who deserves the tip, not to be divided up amongst the entire dive staff, some of whom will just disappear to sleep or read when not physically in the water with you. Liveaboards depend on two distinctly different sorts of work to be successful--the logistical aspect, which the boat crew deal with, and the customer service aspect, which the dive staff deal with. Putting all the tips for both sorts of work in one pot fails to distinguish between work a crew member does to benefit all passengers equally (like cooking) as opposed to work a staff member does to benefit just one customer (like one-on-one attention a DM gives you).