Tipping the boat crew - conventions around the world?

[localmotionlynnerob]

I am shocked so many of you don't think tips are being given. The average knowledgable (mostly US and Canadian) person pays by Credit Card and usually adds a tip of 20% of dive cost to the crew which is then split. Giving cash to all members of the crew is also acceptable but you must remember to stipulate it is for all members just in case captain is not honest. All crew potentially puts their life on the line for all guests so remember that when you are worried about parting with a few dollars. As for those diving in the Caribbean all dive staff are paid very low wages and are essentially working for their tips. Unfortunately most Europeans don't tip and the dive staff know this so you are not given the same quality of VIP service or the location of your dives might be sacrificed for a shorter lower quality dive site. Most dive staff will do their best to try and avoid having Europeans on their boat so if you want better treatment by the crews in the US and Caribbean you better start changing your reputation by tipping the expected MINIMUM 20% to be split by all the crew on your boat. In my view your lack of knowledge of what is expected is a convenient way of being cheap. If you can't afford to boat dive and include the tip you better consider shore diving and the risks associated with diving strange sites on your own. You get what you pay for.

 

[dspeed]

I am shocked so many of you don't think tips are being given. The average knowledgable (mostly US and Canadian) person pays by Credit Card and usually adds a tip of 20% of dive cost to the crew which is then split. Giving cash to all members of the crew is also acceptable but you must remember to stipulate it is for all members just in case captain is not honest. All crew potentially puts their life on the line for all guests so remember that when you are worried about parting with a few dollars. As for those diving in the Caribbean all dive staff are paid very low wages and are essentially working for their tips. Unfortunately most Europeans don't tip and the dive staff know this so you are not given the same quality of VIP service or the location of your dives might be sacrificed for a shorter lower quality dive site. Most dive staff will do their best to try and avoid having Europeans on their boat so if you want better treatment by the crews in the US and Caribbean you better start changing your reputation by tipping the expected MINIMUM 20% to be split by all the crew on your boat. In my view your lack of knowledge of what is expected is a convenient way of being cheap. If you can't afford to boat dive and include the tip you better consider shore diving and the risks associated with diving strange sites on your own. You get what you pay for.

As mentioned here and some of the other replies, Deck Hands and DM's in the US are often payed very little or nothing and make most of there money off tips. I have seen tips done in many of the ways previously mentioned(tip jars, on a credit card, etc..). I usually tip very discreetly to the most helpful crew member after all of my gear is off the boat by passing them cash during a hand shake. I have been told various amounts for tipping. Usually though it works out between 10 and 20% of the cost for the charter. As far as a dive master in the water, if that is part of what I am paying for, I ussually do not tip specifically for that unless they really went above and beyond(or would that be below and beyond for diving).

 

[Mike]

Here a good one

I know this is a long shot, but I lost a GoPro hero 3 on Santa Rosa Wall. Our dive instructor actually found one on a previous dive the day before...so maybe there is hope that ours will get found too. It was lost during ascent so I'm not sure what depth it would be at. I do know that it wasn't on the edge where it was dropped. My dive buddy is the one that lost it and I actually have footage of her dropping it on our safety stop. If anyone hears anything please respond...thank you!

As for the camera that was found, it was also a GoPro Hero 3. It seemed the divemaster had every intention of keeping it since "nobody tipped" on his morning dive. I forget his name but he works with Dive Palancar and was on the Oystier boat on 12/26. Good luck!

Maybe the instructor didn't get the message that all his tips were going to show up like usual at the end of the week on a credit card?

 

[Lorenzoid]

THis is an advanced scuba topic?

I suppose it should be "taught" in OW class, but it isn't. I am embarrassed to say that immediately after getting certified I did a couple of day-boat trips without realizing that tipping dive crew was customary. (This was when the Internet as we know it was in its infancy, and there was little information on-line about diving.) I am American and had all my life been accustomed to tipping restaurant servers, taxi drivers, baggage handlers, etc. But until someone I was with mentioned it to me, it did not even occur to me that people tip the dive crew when they go out on a boat. Nowadays, even with resources like SB, some new divers--even Americans--still remain oblivious to the custom. I dove with a couple who were recently certified. Their only previous dive had been on vacation in Australia, and they were not yet aware that back home in the US (this was on a trip to the Keys) we tip dive crew.

 

[Hawkwood]

I suppose it should be "taught" in OW class, but it isn't. ...

As a matter of fact I do bring it up.

 

[EYEIIEYE]

I live in S. Florida and I only see maybe 5-10% of any boat I ever was on give a tip. It usually is the northerners that tip.
The canadians are usually cheap, seen some tip. Europeons are the worst, they usually never tip. Ive been on boats from key west to key largo and
I 100% agree with you that if everyone gave $2.00 the crew would be jumping for joy. I usually dive 2tank mornings & 2tank afternoons and just give them a $20
at the end of the day. But I also use all my own gear, set myself up and change out my tanks, so I feel $20 for the bottle of water and few cookies they
give you is plenty. Sometimes I will follow along on a guide and tip them personally. But I guess people feel they are spending a hundred dollars or more
for you to take them there and that should cover everything incl. a tip.

My 2cents worth

LOL, I told you in that thread that I tipped $5 a tank on my Florida Keys dives and never saw a single other diver give a tip out of probably 200 dives while I was there. Sounds like you had the identical experience.
Conclusion - everybody on scubaboard tips, but obviously nobody on scubaboard actually ends up on any dive boats you will ever be on.

In the US, Mexico, Caribbean I tip $5.00 a tank and don't worry about it.

I know everybody on scubaboard tips $10, $20, or $50 a tank, but until I actually witness a dive boat where more than 10% of the divers on board actually are giving any tip at all, my $5.00 a tank seems to be warmly received.

I'm pretty sure if 100% of the divers on a boat tipped $2.00 a tank the crew would be jumping for joy.

 

[boulderjohn]

I suppose it should be "taught" in OW class, but it isn't. I am embarrassed to say that immediately after getting certified I did a couple of day-boat trips without realizing that tipping dive crew was customary.

Same with me.

 

[wedivebc]

The canadians are usually cheap, seen some tip. Europeons are the worst, they usually never tip. Ive been on boats from key west to key largo

Saying Canadians are cheap because tipping is not our custom is the same as me saying Americans are all ignorant because of comments like yours.

 

[billt4sf]

So what exactly is above & beyond normal service. Most mates on dive boats doing normal service is more than most know. Keeping the boat clean & organized, helping with customers,getting anchor ready & hooking wreck,tying into wrecks,(we don't have mooring balls in the Mid Atlantic) then coming back to give a condition briefing of the site. Then helping get everyone off boat safely. We have a compressor on board so we normally fill tanks in between dives.
Then of course I get to go untie from wreck.
So no tip for any of this? Like I said this is normal service.
.

Yes, I think this is normal service, therefore not particularly deserving of a tip. My opinion.

A few examples where we did tip: 1) in a night dive I lost my air and the DM got me breathing again and up to the surface safely; 2) my wife lost touch with the ladder as she was taking off her fins and the Captain jumped and and swam out to her and towed her back in.

Last night a taxi brought us home and he helped not at all with our bags. Think he got a tip? Many Americans would tip in such a situation, but I don't.

We have sometimes given tips on liveaboards and on day boats "just because". But mostly I want to make an effort to single out those who really did something above and beyond normal service.

- Bill

 

[BRT]

I tip. Usually even when the service isn't that great. But what a terrible system. Why should I be paying their employees? How many know that many of the Mexican service station attendants only get their tips, no wages? And they are working at government owned/controlled stations! So they get used to tourists stiffing them and figure out how to cheat us. My employees have to be good with customer service, but when someone tips them, or me, we consider it a badge of honor and tell everybody. That is how tips really should be. I'm all for the European system.