Tipping

[runsongas]

public employees would be bribery, generally not legal anywhere.

liveaboards should just tack on a service fee like restaurants in New York frequently do because of the high amount of international travelers.

 

[myshadeofred]

I tip for the cost I paid for the boat...not the whole trip. As for you, it sounds like your sons are young...I don't think I would tip that much for kids...only because you will probably do most of the work. However, if your sons are adults I might change my decision. Please let us know what you did...and again...you're not made of money.

 

[runsongas]

some pax will end up paying a lot less than others, so rack rate is more equitable. the trip organizer for many charter groups goes for free, does that mean they shouldn't need to tip the crew? 20% of 0 is still 0.

same as if you are friends with the owner of a restaurant and they comp you, you still are expected to tip the waitstaff on what they would have gotten for a regular paying customer.

 

[mcohen1021]

So…. If I paid 2000 for a trip another traveler paid 3500, both should tip 350/350 vs 200/350?


Hmmmm…. This sounds like Bernie math to me

 

[Jcp2]

I think most people want people to be treated fairly. In some countries (A), service workers are paid decently because of laws placing that burden upon their employer and not dependent on customers making up the difference. There, I do not tip. In most other countries (B), there is no such legal obligation. There, I do tip, because I understand that the advertised cost does not treat all people fairly, and build the tip cost into the total cost for B as it would have been explicitly included in A.

 

[runsongas]

So…. If I paid 2000 for a trip another traveler paid 3500, both should tip 350/350 vs 200/350?

yes, as you both are doing the same trip.

 

[ontdiver]

I am from Italy, where tipping is not only quite uncommon, but can easily become a crime (if you tip a public employee, which I am...).
So generally I do not leave any tip. Only when travelling in the US, some service people or taxi driver did explain me that they were expecting a tip, as this is their wage, as they are not paid for doing their service job or driving the taxi.
This caused some problem, as when travelling for job I am reimbursed of the expenses only if I provide formal receipts for them. And in many cases you do not get any machine-printed receipt for a tip, so I materially cannot pay them...
I see this "mandatory tipping" as one of the strange things peculiar to US, and luckily not followed in any other place of the world.
So in the end I only leave tip when requested by people who are really needing it for being paid for their work. And only if I get a written receipt for it!
In all other cases, I find it substantially absurd: if the service I receive includes additional costs, these should written in the bill, and I will pay them without problems.
Why money has to be paid which is not written in the bill?

Good point Angelo Farina. There is a North American mind set to tipping that causes a great deal of unnecessary hand wringing. While I am still inclined to tip for good service, I would not want to see a 15% gratuity automatically added to the bill.

 

[Angelo Farina]

Good point Angelo Farina. There is a North American mind set to tipping that causes a great deal of unnecessary hand wringing. While I am still inclined to tip for good service, I would not want to see a 15% gratuity automatically added to the bill.

I have no problem if the bill contains a voice titled "service", amounting to 15% or even 30%. A "gratuity" instead starts to be a problem, as some of our secretaries do not consider it a reimbursable voice. So I will not get refund for it, which of course is bad.
If this money is to pay service personnel, it should be named properly.
And I think that fixing the percentage is much better than leaving to the customer to evaluate the proper amount. Doing so, a pretty girl will earn more money than one less pretty. A serviceman with some mechanical disability will get less money than his colleague, younger and more fit.
This is not socially acceptable to me. I want that all of them get enough money to live decently, and not allowing the customer to give more to people who are already favoured by nature, and give less to people which simply were less gifted.
It is correct to give a premium to workers who take better care of customers, but this should be left to the employer, not to the customer.
Here I see a huge cultural difference between our countries.
And I find that the US approach is really causing troubles, stimulating coworkers to try to be smarter than their colleagues, for getting more tips, instead of helping each other. It is an approach which pushes towards competition for money, something very disgusting for me.
This competitive approach is growing also here, even in the academia (where I work), disrupting a tradition of almost 1000 years of fair, cooperative relationships among colleagues.
With this competitive approach you are stimulated to always try to be evaluated better than your colleagues, instead of helping them to grow and possibly to become smarter than you.
All this starts from this bad habit of tipping, I will always fight against it.

 

[ontdiver]

Well said, Angelo.

 

[offthewall1]

A good general rule of thumb is 10% of the rack rate. A $2500 liveaboard trip, I'd tip about $250.00 Yes, it can get pricey. I often tip based on region and crew. In other words, in the US and many places with similar living costs, 10% is more than fair. In countries where the cost of living is significantly lower, tipping at 10% can be excessive and put boat crew on par with the richest people in the country. That seems a bit far fetched... so I may lower to 7.5% or so. The thing no one ever shares with you is how the money is dispersed among the crew. Is the Captain taking a cut? Usually not but in some places that may occur. There is an engineer aboard most vessels, dive masters leading dives, a cook and sometimes just deckhands. On most boats, it is customary to give your entire tip amount to the Captain for dispersal. Every boat has a system and every crew member knows what that system is. Putting your faith in the honesty of the Captain is the only question. I have been on boats where crew have grumbled about their tips openly regarding the previous weeks guests. That is rare. In such cases, I look for clues. If the staff is exceptional, they either had some cheap guests or a thieving Captain. You have to use common sense. One other thing you can do is to disperse your tip yourself however you see fit among the crew. While it is customary to give the entire tip to the Captain, it is not the law. If you receive exceptional service from a particular crew member or two, tip them directly and give the balance to the Captain. This way you'll know they got a little something extra from you.