The scale of Cozumel’s economic problem with no cruise ships

[kelemvor]

I tip here and there, but still think that this tipping thing has gotten out of hand.

It has. I feel guilty if I go to a third world country and don't tip liberally.

In the end, altogether I end up spending around $300 in tips for a 6 night trip. I go once a year or less to someplace like Cozumel, and end up spending $3000-$4000 for my wife and I combined so it's just a drop in the bucket at about 1%. Yeah now that I think about it I should have mentioned that I'm tipping for two of us. In the US I tipped 15-20% back when restaurants were a thing so maybe I have been stingy in Mexico? That kind of thinking has to exit my brain right now.

I have only stayed at Hotel Cozumel twice. On both occasions I've definitely had the same maid every day. I saw her often in the halls when moving between rooms. After the first day they tend to leave extra beers, flowers, and even fold towels into penises and other things on your bed. That last one is kind of strange. When in Mexico, I guess...

You know, I remember hearing for years about how everything was so cheap in Mexico. You could live for a decade on $50.00, and live like a king for $100.00. I exaggerate, but the reality is that I've found things to be no cheaper than they are in the US.

 

[ReefHound]

It has. I feel guilty if I go to a third world country and don't tip liberally.

In the end, altogether I end up spending around $300 in tips for a 6 night trip. I go once a year or less to someplace like Cozumel, and end up spending $3000-$4000 for my wife and I combined so it's just a drop in the bucket at about 1%. Yeah now that I think about it I should have mentioned that I'm tipping for two of us. In the US I tipped 15-20% back when restaurants were a thing so maybe I have been stingy in Mexico? That kind of thinking has to exit my brain right now.

That's 10% and most of your total trip cost includes airfare and hotel which isn't tipped on so your actual tipping on tippable services sounds like it may be 20% or more.

 

[DandyDon]

I end up spending around $300 in tips for a 6 night trip. I go once a year or less to someplace like Cozumel, and end up spending $3000-$4000 for my wife and I combined so it's just a drop in the bucket at about 1%. Yeah now that I think about it I should have mentioned that I'm tipping for two of us.

Yeah, tipping for two is of course different, but as he said...

That's 10% and most of your total trip cost includes airfare and hotel which isn't tipped on so your actual tipping on tippable services sounds like it may be 20% or more.

And that's your call. Anyone know where I can get KN95 masks imprinted with a warning: "Not a Big Tipper"?

I have had visits to the island when the maid found a buck on the bed and carefully placed it on the nightstand for me. The next day I left a note, and I guess someone translated it for her. This trip I'm taking more $2 bills than usual and will try to be more generous, but the old idea that tipping is to offset for a lack of employer payments is just wrong to me. Pay the employees, market your product or services accordingly, and I'll consider it.

 

[BrewingDiver]

Interested in whether or not $2 bills are easily spent on the island. LOL

 

[DandyDon]

Interested in whether or not $2 bills are easily spent on the island. LOL

I've read that some locals keep them as good luck charms until or at least unless they get desperate for spending currency. I've been spreading them on travels across the US and the Caribbean for decades. I even got my local bank to start ordering them.

In some countries, they're not deemed so unusual since their countries have bills or coins equal to two of their basic currencies, like Canada's Loonie and Toonie. 90 years ago in the US $2 bills were used in welfare payments in the Great Depression which gave them an air of bad luck if I remember correctly, so they became unpopular. Cash registers don't have a slot for them, cashiers stick them in with large bills, and such. After they became rare, some started to treat them as good luck. I have a couple with red lettering that are old enough to be worth more than $2, but otherwise they're just currency.

On my first international dive trip to Roatan, I took some Susan Bs, but soon reconsidered those. Banks have to fly currency exchanges between countries and I doubt that they are like the extra weight and handling. I do offer to buy torn and marked dollars that cannot be exchanged in Mexico as well as coins that some get stuck with.

 

[ggunn]

If you have a pesos bill, especially a large denomination one, that has a corner torn off it can be very difficult to get someone to take it for a purchase. Is tearing a corner off a "thing"? I have occasionally gotten a pesos bill with a corner missing from it from an ATM.

 

[ggunn]

Back to the theme of the first post, I hate the cruise ship industry and what it does to local environments - including building an artificial economy that caters to them. I sympathize with the working people of the island, I donate monthly to a food bank, but I'd love to see those barges scrapped and the island returned to itself.

That's my fantasy as well, but we'll never get that toothpaste back into the tube. The population of Cozumel has increased dramatically since the cruise ships started going there and in normal times the economy is largely dependent on them. Normal times will eventually return and so will the ships.

 

[kmarks]

In the end, altogether I end up spending around $300 in tips for a 6 night trip. I go once a year or less to someplace like Cozumel, and end up spending $3000-$4000 for my wife and I combined so it's just a drop in the bucket at about 1%.

I think you might want to run that math again.

 

[MMM]

Yep, exactly. I worked down there for years, and this was definitely the typical reality, and I'm highly confident nothing's changed on that front.
It was routine for the person that received the cash to quickly slip it in his pocket, and keep it, if at all possible. Boat crews were constantly on the lookout for this, towards the end of a trip.

A few years ago, I did quite a few dives with a freelance DM. He told me that tipping is the number one issue for boat crews. When he accepted tips, he folded them up and slipped them under his computer wristband. That way it was transparent to the rest of the crew where the tips were and that they weren't sliding into his pocket. He said, as a freelance DM, he didn't ever want to get a reputation of one who kept tips. OTOH, I dived with a different freelance DM who kept all of the tips himself for, oh, maybe 2 days, before the rest of the crew complained to the owner and he was dropped. He WAS a truly awful DM, so he'd have been gone soon in any event.

 

[DaveC]

Yeah, tipping for two is of course different, but as he said...

And that's your call. Anyone know where I can get KN95 masks imprinted with a warning: "Not a Big Tipper"?

I have had visits to the island when the maid found a buck on the bed and carefully placed it on the nightstand for me. The next day I left a note, and I guess someone translated it for her. This trip I'm taking more $2 bills than usual and will try to be more generous, but the old idea that tipping is to offset for a lack of employer payments is just wrong to me. Pay the employees, market your product or services accordingly, and I'll consider it.

In theory that sounds good, but that is not how the real world works.