Tipping the boat crew - conventions around the world?

[Mike]

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.

I'm not going to say all Canadians are cheap, because I've met plenty of Canadians who weren't. But when you say you don't tip in your travels to other countries because it's not a Canadian custom to tip, that is a cop out and it does make you cheap.

If you're Canadian, and you're in Canada and it's not custom to tip and you don't tip, you're not cheap.

If you're Canadian, American, European, Australian etc... and you're in the US, Antigua, Botswana, England, etc...and the CUSTOM IS TO TIP, and you don't then you are cheap.

The number 1 rule in travel is "When in Rome do as the Roman's do."

Follow the local customs.

 

[boulderjohn]

As one who is baffled by tipping customs around the world, I find the statement that tipping is not a Canadian custom interesting. Earlier in the thread I told the story of a friend who had his tip pushed back at him in Australia. I said he had become accustomed to tipping a bartender with every drink because where he had lived for years before that, if you didn't tip the bartender regularly, you would never see him again. He was living in Canada when he learned that.

I agree with following the local customs.

If you are visiting in an area in which tipping is the custom, the person working for you is being paid less than adequate wages in the anticipation that tips will be earned. For example, waiters and waitresses are allowed to be paid less than the legal minimum wage because of that. If you don't tip, then you are allowing the person to do the work at a lesser rate of pay. You are stiffing that person.

If you are visiting in an area where tipping is not the custom, then the people who would otherwise be getting a tip are being given an adequate wage. The owner provides that adequate wage out of the money being charged to customers. Thus, what you pay for those services is paying those wages. Think of it this way: your "tip" has been added to the cost of the service; you are in a sense tipping without being given the option of withholding it.

Another way of thinking of tipping is that you were charged less for your services on the theory that you would make up the difference with your tip.

 

[Hawkwood]

...I find the statement that tipping is not a Canadian custom interesting...

Hmm....that's certainly news to me.

 

[cathycalg]

People tip in Canada. We tip servers in restaurants, hair stylists, taxi drivers, hotel maids and the pizza delivery guy. When diving, I tip the DM, Boat Captain and crew. I was in Australia last year, and was paying for dinner with a table-side automated payment system and was searching for the "tip" function. My nephew, who lives in Brisbane, explained there was no tipping in Oz because the minimum wage was so good. Prices were high, mind you. So, that's the way you pay for the service. But I still tipped when diving. I tend to tip more in places like Roatan and Belize. If there's a tip jar, I use that. Otherwise, I just hand it over as I'm leaving the boat.

 

[Mike]

If you are visiting in an area where tipping is not the custom, then the people who would otherwise be getting a tip are being given an adequate wage. The owner provides that adequate wage out of the money being charged to customers. Thus, what you pay for those services is paying those wages. Think of it this way: your "tip" has been added to the cost of the service; you are in a sense tipping without being given the option of withholding it.

Another way of thinking of tipping is that you were charged less for your services on the theory that you would make up the difference with your tip.

A great way to put it.

 

[Quero]

An easy way to figure out whether tipping is culturally acceptable on a dive boat in a place you are visiting is the presence of a tip box. When there's a box, you're invited to use it, and not using it makes you a Scrooge--there are just no two ways about it. If you don't spot a tip box, ask a crew member where it is--if tipping is discouraged, they'll let you know.

 

[billt4sf]

An easy way to figure out whether tipping is culturally acceptable on a dive boat in a place you are visiting is the presence of a tip box. When there's a box, you're invited to use it, and not using it makes you a Scrooge--there are just no two ways about it.

That's ridiculous. The presence of a tip box does not mean that tips are expected in that part of the world.

I do agree with BoulderJohn's comments above.

- Bill

 

[Quero]

No, it's not ridiculous at all. If the crew go to the effort of putting a tip box out, they are most definitely inviting their customers to use it. If it were culturally unacceptable, the box wouldn't be there at all. I have lived on four continents and have spent significant time in a fifth, making me intimately familiar with the differences in tipping cultures. Where there are no tips anticipated, there's no box.

 

[Lorenzoid]

. . .

If you're Canadian, American, European, Australian etc... and you're in the US, Antigua, Botswana, England, etc...and the CUSTOM IS TO TIP, and you don't then you are cheap.

The number 1 rule in travel is "When in Rome do as the Roman's do."

Follow the local customs.

But isn't the conundrum that tipping has spread and continues to spread to places where it was not historically the custom to tip? I believe it is me and my fellow Americans who are largely responsible. What about countries that are becoming accustomed to tipping but where it's not yet fully expected? Should Canadians, Aussies, Scandinavians, etc., feel obliged to tip in such places? It's easy to say "When in Rome" but not always easy to know when one is really "in Rome." The presence of a tip box may or may not mean that the place truly has a tipping culture--it may be more wishful thinking ("hey, Americans visit us and they like to tip!") than a matter of survival for the crew. It's sometimes difficult to know. In the US, we all know that service industry workers who are legally paid less than the "normal" minimum wage need, expect, and deserve the tip to survive, as it is essentially part of their normal compensation. But I don't know and can't know how it works in all places in the world. As an American, I will generally tip in an unfamiliar place unless I'm specifically told it's just not done there. But I don't expect people who come from non-tipping cultures to do the same.

 

[Flutter]

FL - gulf tipping - We also generally tip $5/tank (my husband & I), whether or not we see a jar, or it has been mentioned in the "brief". We set up our own gear, listen up, and generally try to be unobtrusive on board. We seldom see others tip, even the "needy" divers, but figure the crew works hard for their money. We tip extra if the site/outing was especially grand.