Tipping?

[uncfnp]

Warning. Off topic..

As evidence...see the people that complained about Bonaire dive operators including a $20 Nitrox fee to offset their additional electricity costs.

You missed the point of the thread. Bonaire is known for its unlimited shore diving and its free nitrox. Charging for nitrox was, for many of us, a significant change in standard practice and worth noting.

Then too, free nitrox is one way of encouraging safer diving for divers that do multidives for multidays. For health reasons I have to dive nitrox. Free nitrox was a huge draw for me.

Yes, its just 20 dollars but that is this year. What will happen next year and the next. Eventually could mean the difference between a trip to Bonaire and a trip to...say Cozumel. No, I don’t blame them for wanting to cover cost but it is an unfortunate shift in policy.

And that brings to to the cause for the change, higher electrical fees. Bad for all and sure to lead to higher costs island wide. Not good incentive for tourist dollars. I half to wonder what brought on the increase.

I don’t think anyone “complained “ so much as they were just concerned what this meant for Bonaire.

Back to topic...

 

[Johnoly]

..Oh, and anyone who calls anyone out on not tipping....

In tips,,,Cash is King !

But communication is key if you don't have the cash (which you've known in advance) so there are many other ways to 'appreciate' the crew. Bring snacks, haul all 30 tanks to the end of the dock, grab that trash bag each day and find the shore garbage can, straighten the lounge, stay after and help wash down the boat, lead the other guests in a 3 - cheers to the crew, write a positive tripadvisor/ScubaBoard review calling out crew names and lastly Postal Mail a thank you card that the shop can tape to their wall.
...........................No Cash...........No Problem........get off your butt and get to work.!!

 

[caydiver]

Cash is the nicest way to leave a tip. And while there are lots of expenses to running by an op maybe two of the biggest and unexpected are insurance and the costs of repairs as everything is imported. Boat parts are hard to get and expensive when you are not on a mainland

 

[Barnaby'sDad]

Warning. Off topic..

You missed the point of the thread. Bonaire is known for its unlimited shore diving and its free nitrox. Charging for nitrox was, for many of us, a significant change in standard practice and worth noting.

Then too, free nitrox is one way of encouraging safer diving for divers that do multidives for multidays. For health reasons I have to dive nitrox. Free nitrox was a huge draw for me.

Yes, its just 20 dollars but that is this year. What will happen next year and the next. Eventually could mean the difference between a trip to Bonaire and a trip to...say Cozumel. No, I don’t blame them for wanting to cover cost but it is an unfortunate shift in policy.

And that brings to to the cause for the change, higher electrical fees. Bad for all and sure to lead to higher costs island wide. Not good incentive for tourist dollars. I half to wonder what brought on the increase.

I don’t think anyone “complained “ so much as they were just concerned what this meant for Bonaire.

Back to topic...

What this meant for Bonaire? A $20/week charge for Nitrox...that is going to be the thing that keeps people from visiting Bonaire?

If someone had to put a significant amount of thought into a $20/week surcharge being tacked onto their international vacation, they likely can’t afford the vacation in the first place.

On Bonaire being known for free Nitrox...was it really a reasonable expectation that would always be the case? Whenever I see a policy like that, I view it as an “enjoy it while you can” thing...not a “that’s the way it’s always been, so that is the way it’ll always be” thing.

Personally, I think the free Nitrox policy wasn’t a bright gimmick. Sure...people like free, but what happens when a business decides that free is no longer possible?

It doesn’t mean anything for Bonaire in the grand scheme of things ..and yes...people “complained” and it illustrated my point, that people don’t want to pay for something that was previously “free” (or tip...in the case of a DM).

 

[Lorenzoid]

. . .

With all that said, part of me wonders why the industry rely's so much on tipping? . . .

As I believe others have already pointed out, "the industry" (that is, the whole worldwide dive industry) does NOT rely on tipping.

Historically, a tip was something extra, to reward extra special service, but in the US that idea has morphed into something else. The practice of a customer being expected to directly pay someone else's employee that portion of the employee's value which the employer does not directly pay his employee is a purely American practice. The wage laws in the US implicitly support this practice by allowing employers to pay service employees less than what most of us think of as the minimum wage. In other words, in the US you the customer and the employer tacitly share a responsibility to adequately compensate the employee for the employee's value (whether or not you felt you fully received that value in a particular instance).

So, exactly how "expected" it is for the customer to pay the rest of the employee's value depends on the extent to which the location's economy has been exposed to the American practice. At one end of the spectrum, say in Cozumel, tipping is very expected. At the other end of the spectrum, say in Australia or the UK, they don't expect you to add a tip at all.

I look at where I am and what is typical there, resigned to the fact that the American influence has infected almost every corner of the diving world. If in Country X, divers are commonly tipping Y on top of the Z they already paid the dive op, I interpret that as meaning that the services I was provided were valued by most divers at Y+Z, and it's up to me to pony up that extra Z.

 

[caydiver]

I have to admit that the only country where tipping at restaurants was not expected but the service was outstanding across the board was Japan. In more casual restaurants in Europe and Australia we found the service to be okay. In places where tips are the norm we have outstanding service even in the most casual places. Having said that with two kids that worked in the service industry in several different countries I have heard several times that some of the people who are the most demanding despite hogging servers time and those who they would bend over backward for just because are the biggest tippers. It’s an interesting insight into human behavior.

 

[xmass-Eve]

Working as a DM, or even as an instructor, does not give you a very livable wage. So all tipping is very welcome. As a European, we aren't used to tipping and getting tipped too, but I appreciated it every time. And I also tip whenever I go holiday diving. I know how hard it is to make your living while working looooooong hours and getting almost nothing.

 

[Ministryofgiraffes]

If this is an endemic issue, the ‘DMS not earning a livable wage without tipping’...how much does the salary have to increase for it to be a liveable wage? I’ll be the first to admit that I know nothing as to the economics of running a liveaboard or a dive operation. Is it Honestly the case that all dive operations would go out of business or that the cost of dives would increase to the level that people would stop diving? I’m genuinely interested... there seem to be more and more liveaboard boats launching every year and that would suggest that it’s not a ‘bare bones’ operation for the owners..At the risk of being controversial, i’ve never tipped airline cabin crew, but I continually hear that they don’t earn a liveable wage either. DMS are certified professionals and as such, should be able to command a liveable wage, why are they not able to? Or is it just western DMS who are abroad? I know DMS from Honduras based in Belize who belly laughed when I once asked if they do it just out of the love for diving as it’s apparently ‘so poorly paid’...”brutha, how many dude from Honduras ya knaw who rockin a $900USD Suunto !” I don’t think waiters are a good comparison BTW, because waitstaff is generally considered to be the bottom of the ladder with the only other option being total unemployment and no real qualifications as a barrier to entry...

 

[Scuba-74]

Working as a DM, or even as an instructor, does not give you a very livable wage. So all tipping is very welcome. As a European, we aren't used to tipping and getting tipped too, but I appreciated it every time. And I also tip whenever I go holiday diving. I know how hard it is to make your living while working looooooong hours and getting almost nothing.

I see your point, but I will say this: we all encounter quite a few minimum wage workers in our daily lives, but dive professionals is one group that I never ever looked at and thought "you poor son of a gun, you have to suffer through this every day?!"

 

[Ministryofgiraffes]

I see your point, but I will say this: we all encounter quite a few minimum wage workers in our daily lives, but dive professionals is one group that I never ever looked at and thought "you poor son of a gun, you have to suffer through this every day?!"

Excactly... ‘ times are tough..dive professional is the ONLY job I can get to feed my kids....’ ...i’ll eat my hat if that statement has ever been uttered...