Liveaboard Tipping

[wayne007]

Any recommendations for leaving a reasonable tip on a liveaboad? The liveaboard costs $5,000 a passenger, and they recommend 10%. $500 for a tip seems a bit large. Anyone know whats customary?

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

That sounds pretty reasonable to me, actually. I just left a $750 tip for the crew of the liveaboard I was on last month ... that was for two passengers, paying about $3600 apiece. Those guys earned it ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[covediver]

Any recommendations for leaving a reasonable tip on a liveaboad? The liveaboard costs $5,000 a passenger, and they recommend 10%. $500 for a tip seems a bit large. Anyone know whats customary?

Ten percent seems about right and would be about what I and divers I travel with have done; sometimes people leave more if they received particularly great and personal service, sometimes people leave less. It is really very private and an individual matter. Boats I have been on encourage group tips placed into a jar at the end of the trip that is then divided among the crew. Seems to be the most fair.

I have been on six liveaboards. The service I received on most of them was phenomenal. I have only shortened the tip on one because of what I considered to be less that great service; (like being called a fat pig after losing my footing coming off the tender by one of the crew members who did not know at the time that I spoke the language, poorly, but I knew enough to get by). I left it with a note of explanation, lest people thought I was "cheap" rather than "disatisfied with the service".

 

[vladimir]

I have tipped as much as $600 for a $4,000 charter. I think 10 to 15% is appropriate for a crew that has devoted itself to making your trip great, and I have always tipped in that range, because I've never had a bad crew. I also think it's at least a bit above the norm, even among Americans, and well above the norm for non-Americans. I don't think it's reasonable to include things like airfare or hotel lodging that might be lumped into your charter cost; just count the price of the boat.

One of the many things I have learned on ScubaBoard is to tip your crew in cash, individually—otherwise you can't be sure they'll get it, sadly.

 

[Darnold9999]

Sounds about right. Divide it up, you are not tipping for anything else for the time you are aboard. Tipping for 3 meals a day, a guide showing you the reef, someone cleaning your room, setting up your gear, driving you to the dive site. All in all over a 12 day trip $500 does not seem like an excessive amount.

 

[chinacat46]

I usually do between $40-$50/day.

 

[tajkd]

Think about a dive boat day trip. Typically you'll tip $5 a tank. Thats $25 a day for live-aboards. Then take meal service. Typically around $5-10 a meal. Then room service at $5-10 a day. Add it all up and you can get up to $45/day on live- aboard. For 7 days, that's $315. I'm going the cheap route of course but you can see how you can get to 10% easily enough. I will normally go to that 10% or cap it around $550.

 

[Shasta_man]

Agreed with others that it's about right. You're also tipping more than the few guys you directly interact with. It's not $500, it's just another expense in the trip bucket.

 

[RJP]

Any recommendations for leaving a reasonable tip on a liveaboad? The liveaboard costs $5,000 a passenger, and they recommend 10%. $500 for a tip seems a bit large. Anyone know whats customary?

I can only provide my American perspective. But first, if you're reading this and you a.) are not American, b.) disagree in principle with the societal convention of tipping in certain cultures, or c.) are otherwise too cheap to tip --- don't bother reading on if you're simply going to dog-pile this thread with general "I don't believe in tipping...crew should be paid...not my fault...I don't need their help...I already paid enough for the trip...no one tips me when I do my job" type of responses. There's plenty of threads elsewhere for that. When it comes to liveaboard diving: "If you can afford the trip, you can afford to tip."

To put liveaboard tipping in context, break it down this way (As my friend David -tajkd - did above): Imagine the same dive trip but not living aboard. You're dining out three meals a day for 6 days, having a drink or two at a bar every day for 6 days, you're doing a 2-tank morning charter, a 2-tank afternoon charter, and a night dive charter every day for 6 days. With even conservative tipping on boat dives and budget-minded meals, you'd be looking at handing out more than $300 in gratuities over the course of the week. Well, the crew on the liveaboard are "the servers" for all the things listed above. Some have proposed a figure of "10% of trip cost" which is a good start; perhaps going to 15% to avoid being chintzy on lower priced charters.

Now further consider that the crew also works 16hrs a day doing everything else that needs to get done on a boat. Including tidying your cabin daily, making your bed daily, cleaning your toilet daily, etc. Good crews on good boats - luckily have never experienced a bad one - will wait on you hand and foot above water and below while you're awake. When you fall asleep they're working a few more hours to make sure tomorrow is even better. Then, when they go to bed, it's four of them in a cabin smaller than yours, under/behind/adjacent to the engine room and generators, that they live in for several months at a stretch, with effectively everything they own during that time. (Seriously, it would be illegal to house convicted felons in the same fashion. They deserve a good tip merely for mustering a smile once during any given day.) From what I understand, on the typical liveaboard the base salary they receive for that week's work is on the order of US$100-$150 a week. To be very clear...they work for tips.

For a week-long trip I budget for $300+ for a typical $3000 trip. The + usually takes the form of a couple of extra $20's slipped into the hands of a few individuals who's efforts made my trip particularly enjoyable. I also tend to leave for home shy a backup light, maybe a guide with a rusted out illegible SPG finds my backup in his bin after I've headed to the airport, and there's one fabulous guide who has an Atomic Frameless mask now instead of the genuine piece-of-**** he was diving with when I got on board.

Ultimately, the advice of "tips are at your discretion, whatever you feel is appropriate is the right amount" is the right advice. I simply tend to believe that you should give some real consideration to what's "appropriate" before deciding on the amount. I tip a lot. I've never over-tipped.

 

[Rogersea]

Any recommendations for leaving a reasonable tip on a liveaboad? The liveaboard costs $5,000 a passenger, and they recommend 10%. $500 for a tip seems a bit large. Anyone know whats customary?

In my opinion tipping is an extremely personal thing and if you feel that 500 is too much then it is. Some people save their whole lives to take a "dream live aboard" dive trip, and simply cant afford to add another 10-20% to the cost.