Tipping on dive boats

[TMHeimer]

No services whatsoever desert any tipping in that horrible country.

I have never ever tipped anything like US$5.00 per dive or even 10% of the trip. Just keep the habit in USA.

Agree on that. I hate tipping, but that's another thread.

 

[yle]

Same here in SoCal though the more I dive on boats, the more I see what kind of "services" boat crews provide. Some remove fins for divers coming up on the swim platforms while some don't. Some are perfectly okay with doubles/sidemount while others are single tank only. Some are very quick with air fills while some seem to take forever. Some provide pre-cooked food/meals while some make them from scratch.

I also know several boats who charge less (about 40% off) if you sign up as a freediver cause I guess they don't need to give you air fills and help you up the swim platform. A very well-known LDS said that industry standard tips is $5/dive while another said it's the same as the standard 15-20% "restaurant" style guideline. I was just on a charter yesterday organized by a dive shop and they said tipping is 10%. I'm really curious to hear others' opinions on this especially those who dive in California.

This is really the heart of the matter: unlike having a meal at a restaurant, where the process is always the same no matter where you are (you sit, you order, you eat, you pay), dive boat experiences vary widely. When I dive in Key Largo (or most Caribbean locales), the agenda is typically a relatively short (30 to 40 min) boat ride to the first site, dive, SI to the second site, dive, back to the marina. The whole thing usually takes less than four hours.

In contrast, I was on a dive boat last weekend that left Long Beach at 7am for a two hour crossing to Catalina (during which we were served breakfast.) After two dives (at two different sites), a break for a hot lunch, a third dive (at a third site), some dessert, and a two hour ride home, we returned to the harbor at 7pm.

The role of the crew in both of these scenarios is markedly different: in KL, the crew is more "hands on"... assisting with gear, providing weights, hauling tanks on and off the boat, and guiding the dives. In California, everything is self-service... I brought my own tank and weights (hauled all my own gear onto the boat), no guide in the water, etc.

But... a four hour trip vs a 12 hour day (which is even longer for the crew, having to prep the boat before and clean up after.) BUT... I know for a fact that the KL crew works only for tips, whereas the California crew is paid something by the boat op.

My point: a simple "per tank" or "percentage of the trip cost" guideline is tough to apply universally to all situations, because so many factors with dive trips vary from place to place. Consider all of the work the crew performs and recognize that if they weren't willing to put themselves through it, you wouldn't get to dive. Tip accordingly.

 

[yle]

So.......this raised my curiosity a little. Say you go to a dive resort for multiple days. Is it customary to tip after each “tank/dive”? Or at the end of the trip? Or is there not a correct answer?........

I'll usually ask the owner (or manager) of the shop at the beginning of the week how to handle tips for the week (every day? or all at the end of the week? or...?). I figure that's the easiest way to know what the crew expects and how the tips are split.

 

[Germie]

I see here extremely high tips. I live in a no tipping country. We don't tip. It is a little bit a stupid idea that your own boss doesn't pay you enough. Tipping here is not part of salary, we only do it if the service is excellent. So on a 30 dollar bill in a restaurant 1-2 euro is ok. But not needed if you don't want to. Most times we round the bill, so 29.20 will be 30. Of course we know there are countries where tipping is normal. But it all depends on where you dive and what the basic price is. For example, in france you pay less than 30 euro for a boatdive and no tipping is needed. Why would I ever tip if I pay over 30 euro for a dive? Then the shopowner pays his own employees too less. So easy it is. So if I pay 40 dollar for a dive, tip will be 1 or 2 dollar. Not the 10% in a restaurant or so, I know that this is only for the waitress and then no problem with the 10 or 15% as the bill is cheaper than here. There I know it is normal, but it isn't normal if you already pay such a high amount for a dive.
If divers pay 100 dollar for a 2 tank dive and still tip, sorry, but you are destroying the market.
I have paid 100 euro for a 3 tank dive in Thailand. No tipping was needed. This is an European price for diving, and you are in a low wage country, and the costs to run a boat are also lower than here. I paid 10 dollar tip a day on a liveaboard in Thailand with 4 dives a day. That was a good tip is told me. The diving was a little bit lower priced than average, so then it is ok. And this 10 dollar was for every employee, so the boatcrew, but the people who made meals and cleaned the toilets also.

 

[Centrals]

Tip is appreciated but never expected, this is the general attitude that I had noticed over the yrs in SE Asia.
Some operators will place couple of tip boxes in strategic location so the customers can place whatever they feel appropriately. It is entirely up to customer's generosity.

 

[Jonny Wishbone]

I don’t mind tipping decently but I’m not going to pay top dollar for dives and then help pay the crews salaries too. A tip is just that, a tip, not a chunk or a big piece of the pie. If DM’s in places like KL don’t make any salary and just work for tips then something’s wrong with the employment system. How are they covered by the business insurance if they are not an employee? After all, this is his or her chosen profession and is part of their internship to maybe get a paid spot on the boat or become an instructor. This post sounds like a cheapskate but my family has 4 divers that I pay for so I help them as much as I can to justify my tip. With that being said, I have never felt like I have under tipped.

 

[TMHeimer]

I don’t mind tipping decently but I’m not going to pay top dollar for dives and then help pay the crews salaries too. A tip is just that, a tip, not a chunk or a big piece of the pie. If DM’s in places like KL don’t make any salary and just work for tips then something’s wrong with the employment system. How are they covered by the business insurance if they are not an employee? After all, this is his or her chosen profession and is part of their internship to maybe get a paid spot on the boat or become an instructor. This post sounds like a cheapskate but my family has 4 divers that I pay for so I help them as much as I can to justify my tip. With that being said, I have never felt like I have under tipped.

DMs working for tips only is a subject often discussed on SB. IMHO it's just as much their own fault as the owners', probably more so. "Chosen profession" is an interesting description.

 

[Centrals]

There is NO such thing as "under tipped".

 

[Efka76]

Tipping should be for extra service or if you are very satisfied with services. E.g. I was diving in Puerto Galera and was very positively surprised with the quality of service: tanks were brought by staff to the boat, they also were assembling my gear (putting regulator, BCD on tank), assisting in putting on BCD, rising my equipment after dive. That was an additional service which I definitely did not expect. I gave generous tips as I was very happy with service.

Another case: I was diving in Thailand, paid for dives, received service that I expected. I said thank you and that's it. I really do not want to know what is salary system in each of the country, do mathematics, pay appropriate tips because it is tips are part of some persons salary. I think that Americans really screwed the whole concept of tipping and made it a rule in US, however, US is not the whole world people should not have false expectations about receiving tips.

 

[Efka76]

DMs working for tips only is a subject often discussed on SB. IMHO it's just as much their own fault as the owners', probably more so. "Chosen profession" is an interesting description.

There are many professions which are underpaid but require expensive equipment, skills, etc. For example, professional photographers who are using expensive equipment, spend time on various courses, however, their services are poorly paid. What is funny that almost all divemasters or dive instructors told me that they are working "not for money" but because they like such life style, like diving. I also know one very rich venture capitalist who took year off and was working as dive instructor.