Liveaboard tipping, what is the local custom?

Please register or login

Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.

Benefits of registering include

  • Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
  • A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
  • You can make this box go away

Joining is quick and easy. Log in or Register now!

wildbill9

Contributor
Messages
652
Reaction score
511
Location
arkansas
# of dives
1000 - 2499
Ok, flame suit on cause here it comes. We will be on a liveaboard for our 30th anniversary, we are not rich and have scrimped and saved for years for this trip. For the 2 of us the boat will run about 12k. Sure it's easy to say 20% but that's almost $2500 which is a bit much imho. What is the local custom? We want to reward service but we are not rich Americans.
 
Don't...
I would check the liveaboard terms and check that everything is included as it should.. At that kind of price point it had better be all inclusive with bells and whistles, 12k..we could probably go on at least 5 liveaboard for that, must be awesome or like a few weeks I hope?
Anyway, if some of the crew really stand out perhaps a handful (50) euro end of cruise.. Don't try to bring the obnoxious American tipping culture abroad please
 
People prefer jobs to tips....and they have relatively good jobs. On both indonesia lobs we were given a guide by the cruise director....it was about 150 $ per person divided between the crew and guides. We felt that this was fair because they had been wonderful on both trips.
 
Ya, Americans make the Europeans look bad in terms of tipping. :D I tip about 10%. Then, again, I don't go on the $6K liveaboard. My 13-day liveaboard trip, crossing from Ambon to Sorong this coming November is only cost $3500. So, $350 tip is reasonable (assuming I'm happy with their services).
 
On the one Indonesian liveaboard my wife and I took, the liveaboard suggested 10%, which they said would be split among the crew, and we tipped 10%. At the end of the trip were given envelopes and a friendly lecture intended to persuade us to leave a tip.

It doesn't especially sit well with me that the American practice of tipping so much has infected places like Indonesia, but I reluctantly go with the flow. I would much prefer if they just added a 10% surcharge and didn't make us endure the lecture and be handed an envelope--I felt it was tacky. Maybe 10% is a reasonable compromise that both Americans and people who come from non-tipping countries can live with? My fellow divers were American, Canadian and, I believe a British couple living in Singapore, and I don't know what they put in their tip envelopes.
 
Some Indonesian liveaboards I have been in don't provide envelopes. They just left it up to us whether we want to tip them or not. I had to ask for an envelope & passed it around to everyone to chip in whatever they felt appropriate for the tip. We then presented the envelope to the captain with all the crew present at the end of the trip.

Another liveaboard has a lockbox with a slot to put money in.

Again, the tip to me is an appreciation for their services. Good services = good tips (10%). Bad services = No tip. So-so services = small tip (< 10%). I think that would create incentive for the crew to strive for providing you with good service.
 
. . . Again, the tip to me is an appreciation for their services. Good services = good tips (10%). Bad services = No tip. So-so services = small tip (< 10%). I think that would create incentive for the crew to strive for providing you with good service.

Not to turn this thread into a more general discussion of tipping, but if the purpose of the tip is to reward good service, how would the crew know whether someone who left a tip of a certain amount X is an American who thought the service was sub-par or a Belgian who thought it was the best he had ever received on a liveaboard? I think tipping is a relatively ineffective way to provide feedback. If one is going to leave a small tip for so-so services, at least follow up with the liveaboard management and explain what you thought they could have done better.

"Bad service" should result in a lot of negative reviews posted on review sites, and the liveaboard suffering from lack of bookings as a result. "Good service" should result in the crew being paid well relative to other liveaboards that get less stellar reviews and keeping their jobs. Liveaboards with really stellar service usually charge more in the first place, so one might reasonably believe that premium for good service is already baked into the price.
 
well, thats the thing..what is good service?
Lets say on a liveaboard I would expect good service by the crew as part of the package..
If an individual goes beyond the level of good service I might consider thanking them personally with a tip.
Examples:
- Find some rare or very special photo opportunity and notifying me of this/help me really get a great pic
- go out of the way to do something for me such as repairing gear
- extend a dive
....
I would be curious as to what others think about good service and for what kind of things they would consider a tip.
 
Recently, reading a number of webpages for liveaboards, I noted that occasionally there was a suggested tip of $100. That number fell well below anything I'd been leaving since I'd been using the 10% of trip price. Now, I'm torn. Yes, on the Dewi Nusantara 10% was around $600. Others since then have been less, than heavens. Regardless, 10% is still higher than $100-150 and I'm feeling a proper fool.
 
Not to turn this thread into a more general discussion of tipping, but if the purpose of the tip is to reward good service, how would the crew know whether someone who left a tip of a certain amount X is an American who thought the service was sub-par or a Belgian who thought it was the best he had ever received on a liveaboard? I think tipping is a relatively ineffective way to provide feedback. If one is going to leave a small tip for so-so services, at least follow up with the liveaboard management and explain what you thought they could have done better.

"Bad service" should result in a lot of negative reviews posted on review sites, and the liveaboard suffering from lack of bookings as a result. "Good service" should result in the crew being paid well relative to other liveaboards that get less stellar reviews and keeping their jobs. Liveaboards with really stellar service usually charge more in the first place, so one might reasonably believe that premium for good service is already baked into the price.

From how we did for tipping in the past (group tipping), the crew didn't know how much they get & from whom. I only know what I put in, not what the others put in, unless he or she personally told me so. It's an honor system. May be that may not be effective in your opinion, but they seem to accept it & please to receive it.

I do also put comments to their service evaluation form for any improvement needed or if they did a great job.
 

Back
Top Bottom