Liveaboard Tipping

[Jax]

Wow - at those prices, I'm sticking to Florida!

 

[Magnolia3]

Wow - at those prices, I'm sticking to Florida!

Looked at Buddy Dive in Bonaire the price for me as a single was about $500 more than each for a couple..

BTW, that was an example.. not the real price I saw but the price jackup was similar for me vs each for a couple..

 

[Darnold9999]

I have been on one of the $500 plus per day boats. The level of service is extremely high and the expectation is that the tip will be in the 10 - 20% range. The boat I was on had more crew than divers, and the boat was full. Service included being met at all stages of the trip, guided from the international flight to the local flight and again at the stopover and guided from one leg to the next. At the end of the trip we were met in Bali and all passengers were driven to their various hotels. Baggage handling and haggling re weight overcharges, a dive guide for every pair of divers, massage, gear rental, NITROX, significantly better food, etc. etc. were all included. The clientel can typically afford the trip and the tip is typically generous. My recollection was that I tipped about 15% on that trip. Keeping mind that the tip is divided between many more people and the number of divers on the boat is significantly lower. Normally I would tip closer to 10%.


Doubt that I would go back to such a boat, not because I don't think it is worth the $, but because I would rather take two trips on a more crowded boat now that I have more time than $. When vacation time was more limited the service was nice and the marginal cost increase on the trip was not really that significant. Made for a very memorable trip.

 

[RJP]

Just a small comment.. and thanks for the tipping advice.. I would have probably tipped much more considering I put myself thru college as a waittress and bartender. I normaly tip 20% 98% of the time.. if the service is really crappy they get 5-10% depending on crappiness. Tips helped my son and I survive.. however..

I am a single. ALL the dive package at resorts and liveaboards are geared towards couples. The rate say, since we are using this amt.. $5,000 each but as a single I am charged $6,000. I get the same service as they do, but by the rule of thumb in this thread I should give $600 for the same service they are getting for $5,000 each.. and tipping $500.???

I don't mind sharing a cabin but still to charge me significantly more for a trip, and then expect me to tip more fore the same service somehow sounds a little....I don't really have a word for it.. but you know...
'bella

FYI - you will NOT be charged the single rate if you share a cabin. You will only be charged the single rate if you want the cabin to yourself.

PS - if I were to pay the single rate for my own cabin (I would never do so) I would tip based on the ordinary per-person, double-occupancy rate. Not on the single price. I don't think anyone - even the crew receiving the tip - would fault you for that.

 

[vladimir]

That is really a different scenario, and I'll tell you why.

Since sometime in maybe September, 2008 the entire travel industry changed. Obviously it changed with the economy, but let me go a little further. Everyone's budget, especially for leisure travel like liveaboards is stretched to (and past) the max. So are the company budgets. For instance, Joe puts in for vacation in January for his family's liveaboard trip. They have carefully budgeted and (as you say) have $400 left over for the tip. No sweat, we welcome them anyway. The vacation is approved, and they have the tickets, the dog sitter, etc. On Friday of the weekend they depart, Joe's boss says "Joe, I need you to work on the Harrison account next week and it needs to be done by COB Thursday". Joe gleefully says that he has vacation arranged and it was approved back in January. Can't Smith work on the Harrison account, and Joe will be available by Sat Phone if you need him. Boss tells Joe that if he likes his job he'll have the Harrison account on his desk by COB Thursday or he can go on his vacation and spend the remainder of the afternoon packing his desk.

Joe is going to miss the boat. You'd be surprised how many times per week this happens. Used to be that the company would make the vacation good, but with corporations being people now, they are in the driver's seat for employees, so Joe is SOL. Joe has learned to not schedule his vacation until the very last minute. If you looked at my calendar, you'd see that there are 5 spots available for the next weekend tip. That trip will sell out, and it will sell out the day of departure, when everyone has looked at the weather report, made sure that the lawn is mowed, honeydo's are done, and gas isn't $6 per gallon.

So, 30 days out when Joe has a van wreck, I'm happy to refund his money because I'm very likely to resell his spots. Hotels.com and Aggressor Fleet are teaching folks to book last minute by offering specials. So, in your case, Vladimir, I'm happy to have Joe and his family who have budgeted $400 in tips, because, as I said way earlier in the thread, we like tips, but don't expect them. It really is apples and oranges compared to Jax's scenario.

By the way, Joe's family (of 4, mom, dad, 2 teenagers) almost exclusively tip $400. Every time. Regardless of the price of the trip.

This is spot on, in my experience. I am one of those last-minute guys. For years I did it when I was self-employed, and I continued it when I joined the corporate world. But in recent years I went from five weeks off and a 100 dives a year to a week off—in good years—and squeezing in 25 dives a year on long weekends. I just quit. I am opening my own shop again and I will be diving regularly again.

 

[vladimir]

PS - if I were to pay the single rate for my own cabin (I would never do so) I would tip based on the ordinary per-person, double-occupancy rate. Not on the single price. I don't think anyone - even the crew receiving the tip - would fault you for that.

I agree, and that's what I've done. The way I viewed it, the company got my extra 50%—which it deserved—and the crew got a little bit lighter workload out of the empty bunk, plus my usual tip.

 

[DazedAndConfuzed]

Good point the Kooze makes, Wookie!

10% might be good for a 5-person-crew . . . What's good for the Spree?

If 10% is good for 5 (2% per), then 16% for 8?

how can that apply? I've been on ones with 6 crew members to ones that has 11, and they could vary from $2k to $4500. I assume the extra cost is associated with the additional amount of crew members, thus if I tip even more on top of the additional cost, I would be tipping exponentially. That is $300 (12%) for the $2k trip to $1000 (22%) for the $4500 trip.


Also, how can one apply tips when liveaboards always has these 'specials' that seem to apply to a significant chunk of their trips. They probably get 8 people on the reg priced ones and full boat on the specials.

 

[Jax]

Just musing, Lwang, not making recommendations.

 

[beautybelow]

I agree that the % way of calculating a tip on a live aboard is confusing. When involved with a big company, you are likely to be a repeat customer and have your tipping standards pretty well established by the time you get there on a "last minute deal" and tip what you tipped the last trip and every trip before that.

If you are a first timer, pondering what to tip all week and not enjoying your diving, then you might be Joe.

I will go out on a limb and say it.. $300.00 per person is a "very nice" tip, no matter what the cost of the trip.

I have also seen many a $500 per person single/couple traveler(s). I have seen a few $1000.00 per person single travelers.

To me it's a bit taboo to talk about your financial situation to strangers, even if you feel like they are family by the end of the week. Really, they are just people working for you.

I want to be the Captain who never does anything until you need him...haha. Where does he exist?

 

[BDSC]

I've often wondered just how the liveaboards split up the tips and if all the tip money goes to the captain and crew or does some go to the company. If it all goes to the captain and crew then you can make a really nice living working on the right liveaboard.

Last year I went to Cocos Island on the Okeanous Aggressor. The trip was priced at $4300 per person for 10 nights or call it 11 days. There were 20 guests on the boat. So if everyone tipped 10% then 20 folks are giving $430 for a total of $8600. There was a crew of 8 on board. Divided out that comes to $1075 for each crew member. When you figure that on a weekly basis, that comes to right around $700 a week. Now for a single person who would be living on the boat for much of the year not having to pay for food, lights, all sorts of bills etc., that would be one heck of a living.

Now carry a similar example over to Indonesia although those liveaboards typically have a larger crew and maybe not as many as 20 on board. But even if the totals were diluted somewhat and it came out to be half of the above example, I have read on other threads that an average of $350 per week would be way more than teachers, nurses, or even some doctors would make there.