Scuba Etiquette: Tipping?

[JohnQPS122]

Thanks for bringing this up. My wife and I have had two one-week-long diving vacations so far, and we've received excellent service every moment of every trip. We've been pretty concerned about our tipping, and this conversation helps shed some light on whether we have been doing the right thing for our DMs (and boat crew) or not.

Figuring this out while on your trip is not quite as straightforward as tipping in a restaurant because you don't necessarily get a bill handed to you when you get off the boat, and you probably aren't going to just add the tip to your credit card at the end of the week. If you're diving for several days, you might not get a bill until the end of ther week, and you might not be able to predict what it's going to be because of mutli-trip discounts and such, so it can be tough for new divers to decide how much cash to hand a DM at the end of a day.

So we have to just be a little more thoughtful and intentional than we would in a restaurant. Now that we have done a couple of trips, we know what to expect and we can plan ahead and have the right amount of cash in hand before we leave the dock.

I know diving is expensive, but if average service from a server in a restaurant is worth 15% of the bill, and good service is worth 20%, I think service from a Divemaster is worth at least that much. I can't remember the last time I felt I was putting my life in the hands of my waitress at Chili's.

Although, I worry about that triple-cheese big mouth bacon burger more than an air embolism ...

 

[Gombessa]

I am glad I live in a country where tipping is not part of the culture! It sounds stressful to be trying to figure out who gets tipped and how much!

I worry about this every time I travel. Do they tip here? How much? What about for bellhop service? Taxi? I paid up at the cash register before getting my meal, do I tip? Is anyone else tipping?

I imagine Aussies don't get much of a break abroad since a lot of people just assume you're particularly cheap-ass Americans?

 

[FredT]

:hijackedthread:

OK, a bit of a twist in the orignal posters question, but what about tipping DM's who assist in-water with a class thru a LDS??

IMNSHO

Class DMs should eat & drink "free" after dives, on the students who passed.

 

[luckydays]

I imagine Aussies don't get much of a break abroad since a lot of people just assume you're particularly cheap-ass Americans?

With lovely accents!

Most of the people in the service industry in the US is underpaid by every standard known to man. Minimum wage for servers and bartenders is less than the standard minimum wage because of they are classified as Tipped Employees, thus the employer does not have to pay them more than the minimum, unless the tips plus the wage does not equal regular minimum wage employees (Currently $7.75 per hour in Illinois). It would take a very tight budget, in a less expensive place than Chicago to live off of that.

For me, I tip almost anyone who directly offers me a service that they do directly for me. I do not tip my doctor or dentist or even the car mechanic since they all get paid a pretty decent wage to do what I need for them to do. (More people can tip their lawyer though, we would appreciate it greatly ) I do tip the taxi driver, door man of my building that I worked in (only once a month though), the maid of hotels that I stay in (depends on the length of the visit and how often they cleaned the room), the girl who washes my hair at the salon as well as my hairdresser (but each individually and separate amounts), my cleaning lady, the dog groomer, the kid who unloads my grocery cart into my car, and any food server that brings me food that I had to sit down to order. Bartenders and Barista's will get the change from my order but not a flat amount or more than the drink cost. Generally somewhere near $1 per drink, especially since they are not bringing me the drink, I am waiting in line for it.

As for boat charters, I have thus far only tipped the DM for the few trips I have taken. Every boat charter I have been on though, has reminded me to tip the DM before the trip is over. I assume that this money was either divided amongst the crew or kept by the DM. When I was in my classes, I asked the instructor if I should tip the DM who helped. I did not feel the need to tip the instructor as she was getting paid to teach the class. But the DM was there to help keep an eye on me so he deserved something (and since he was not getting paid to be there, a tip was in order).

If I am ever in doubt as to who I should tip or how much, I just tip 15-20% of the bill. Diving, I tip at least $5 per tank which so far has worked out to about 15-18% tip on most trips but for the extra special attention that I have received occasionally, I have tipped another few $$$, usually another $5 per dive.

Here in the states, tipping is de rigeur and thus expected almost everywhere you go. If minimum wage was higher for all employees and it was a livable wage, then I would say that tipping might become less common but trying to live off of less than $10 per hour in most places in the US is very hard to do, if not impossible. The only way I have ever been able to do it, is if I had roommates to help cover the bills, lived with family, or when I was first in the military where I had no real living expenses.

 

[Sas]

I imagine Aussies don't get much of a break abroad since a lot of people just assume you're particularly cheap-ass Americans?

Yea I have had troubles in the past. When I was 19 I traveled to Egypt and got chased down a street by someone yelling 'baksheesh! baksheesh!" after I had not tipped a toilet attendent. Now I do a bit of research before I travel so I know what I am supposed to be tipping

 

[JJTNJ]

I'm taking a one day refresher course. Should I tip the instructor?

 

[Gombessa]

I'm taking a one day refresher course. Should I tip the instructor?

Tipping instructors doesn't seem to be the norm. I don't think it really has anything to do with you paying him/her directly for a service, but when was the last time you tipped your teacher/professor?

 

[cvchief]

MMM,
Sorry, I might have sounded wrong about the best boat. Let me clarify:
1. I have NOW 12 dives under my belt.
2. When i said best boat, I actually meant the boat. If you are in san miguel, you know the Maximus. My wife is extremely sun sensative because of lupus and Maximus had an actual cabin where she could hide from the sun. Most of the boats I saw here were smaller with more divers and limited shade. I did see a few bigger boats yesterday that had more shade. But as I say, shade is a "special need" for us and I was only commenting on what I actually saw.
3. As for the best operator, I am not qualified to judge, as you say. Our only other experience involved two operators it took for us to get checkout dives in Antigua, one that seemed bad and one that seemed great. I will do a write up on the whole thing in Coz in total, but in short we were very happy with the attention for 4 divers starting the week with no experience. Maybe not the thing for the experienced "drive me, dump me and leave me alone crowd." Maybe I'll be there some day. (sooner if I hit the powerball and go on permanant vacation )

 

[Jupiter31]

I do not go to hairdressers... but I have not heard of others tipping one's hairdresser.

Generally if someone is better at something here they charge more already and if not, I still do not tip. It is just not part of the culture. The minimum wage here is high enough so that people can live off just that and there are also other social security measures in place which mean that people are not dependent on tips.

Hairdressers/barbers in the US are commonly tipped - if the shop owner did your hair, in the past is was not common to tip that person, but that's going by the wayside.

For better or worse, tipping is very common in the USA, as many in the service industries derive the majority of thir income from tips.

Personally, I'd like to see the system change, but that's unlikely to happen - business owners prefer the lower fixed costs; the other part of it is prices would rise. No free lunch.

On liveaboards, you pay, $3500 - 6,000 for a week, AND they want 10 - 15% additional for crew tips - large extra expense, and while its "voluntary" the reality is its not b/c the tips are expected.

 

[k ellis]

Id say its important to remember the real meaning of tipping which is a gratuity. I generally tip around the 5 dollar a tank mark but 2 weeks ago I was in the Grand Cayman Islands in a town called George Town. I took a dive tour arranged through the cruise lines and All I remember was the boats name was "Cayman Wall". Now I am going to be the first to admit the Grand Caymans was far better then I ever anticipated even through all the research I had done.

The dive crew was an awesome crew using a great mix of humor and very very friendly (Id say to date the best crew I have delt with) we did 2 dives and I gave them a $20 simply because they had chose the best dive sight to date and was top notch.

As for tipping though my honest opinion is tip the crew based on the service you received. If they were rude and hateful then nothing but if they trully deserved more give them the amount you feel they earned!