Question Tipping

[Lorenzoid]

I wish I knew more about how the cenote dive business works. I don't how much of that money is going to the guide. Hard to believe they are working for tips. Makes no sense to tip someone who is already well paid.

I hope they are well paid. The qualifications include not just being a DM or instructor but also being full-cave certified and jumping through a few other hoops. It's a bigger job than DM on a boat. My guess is that, unlike boat DMs, most cenote guides are not native Mexicans, as there aren't all that many Mexicans into cave diving in the first place. I haven't done many guided cenote dives, and my last was like 10 years ago, so that's just my speculation.

 

[horn34]

I don't have firsthand experience with those restaurants, but I find that rather hard to believe.

Yep, it's a ridiculous claim. 35+ years of visiting 25 states in Mexico, eaten at a thousand restaurants, zero tips refused.

 

[horn34]

Don, I’m curious also.

I looked at a couple of operators and the charge for a private DM is $70-$85. Granted, a small sample size of two. Also, how much before and after trip work they contribute to the company/trip or just along for the dive is unknown.

What is their base pay?

They don't have a base/hourly salary. Yes, it's technically illegal, but anyone objecting to it wouldn't be working there long (which is generally the case anyway). And anyone wanting to sue over it can join a long line of creditors waiting to get paid.

Generally, the DM gets about $5 per diver per boat trip. Tips are split between the DM, the captain and the office manager. So if I hadn't shown up that day, the DM would have had one German diver that wasn't aware he should tip and the DM would have made $10 for the day (the German dove twice).

Since I was there and gave the German a tipping heads up, the DM made about $33 for the day. The rationale for "no base pay" is that the good days of 6 divers doing 2 dives each and all tipping should make up for days when no one dives or the port is closed.

Again, this is just for Xcalak, I know Cozumel DMs are paid better.

 

[ggunn]

On the one hand, you can't get much more personal service than a cavern guide. On the other hand, cenote dives seem to be about 50% more than boat dives and without all the overhead of a boat. Entrance fees are low, maybe $10USD. Where's the money going?

What the traffic will bear?

 

[BoundForElsewhere]

On the one hand, you can't get much more personal service than a cavern guide. On the other hand, cenote dives seem to be about 50% more than boat dives and without all the overhead of a boat. Entrance fees are low, maybe $10USD. Where's the money going?

I wish I knew more about how the cenote dive business works. I don't how much of that money is going to the guide. Hard to believe they are working for tips. Makes no sense to tip someone who is already well paid.

Entrance fees to a lot of the cenotes is $25. They are all on tribal or familiar lands.
To be a cavern guide you also have to be full cave certified which is very expensive for the local guys and they don't really get paid to match their skillset.
I still tipped when I was going to Tulum or bought dinner at the end of the dives.

 

[ReefHound]

Entrance fees to a lot of the cenotes is $25. They are all on tribal or familiar lands.
To be a cavern guide you also have to be full cave certified which is very expensive for the local guys and they don't really get paid to match their skillset.
I still tipped when I was going to Tulum or bought dinner at the end of the dives.

I get that. And they are limited to 4 divers. Cave training is expensive but a one time expense. A few places might be $25 for divers on their own but no way guides are paying than that. But even so, at $120-160 that leaves $100 per diver x 4 = up to $400 in a day's work. Double if they lead morning and afternoon. That's an obscene pay for the skillset. It's more than doctors, lawyers, and engineers make there.

I've done a few dozen cenotes and most of the guides were Germans.

 

[Marie13]

Then there are the porters (aka scuba sherpas, as I call them) who help the cave divers at the cenotes. They’ll haul your gear and tanks up and down all those steps. Plus, they watch the truck, which is a good thing. I did full cave in the cenotes last August. With my bad knees and sciatica, instructor (early 60s herself who often uses a porter) suggested a porter right away when we initially talked last spring. 500 pesos ($25) a day. Plus we gave him 100 pesos for his transportation since he lived in Tulum, plus got him lunch and water/soft drinks. At the end of the trip, I gave him my last 100 pesos, as well as $40. I asked instructor if that was a good tip and she said yes. I was very appreciative of the help. He even bought my SM rig to me at the water’s edge and I got into it there. The porter had usually worked construction for 100 pesos a day. He actually was a diver. He had worked at a dive shop that closed due to Covid, or so I was told.

 

[Marie13]

Do people tip for courses the same? Doing a few shore dives and boat dives as part of AOW. Do people tip in US dollars or pesos?

Depends on what course you’re doing, I guess. Before I went to Mexico for full cave, I asked my tech instructor here what would be good. She dislikes cash tips. She said a nice dinner or a good bottle of liquor are appropriate. I took instructor and her partner (boyfriend) out for dinner. Even at a nice place in Playa, it was still only $50 for dinner for the three of us, including a 20% tip.

 

[Flyingbison]

Depends on what course you’re doing, I guess. Before I went to Mexico for full cave, I asked my tech instructor here what would be good. She dislikes cash tips. She said a nice dinner or a good bottle of liquor are appropriate. I took instructor and her partner (boyfriend) out for dinner. Even at a nice place in Playa, it was still only $50 for dinner for the three of us, including a 20% tip.

AOW and a few fun dives. Don’t mind tipping, just didn’t want to under tip!

 

[Germie]

On the one hand, you can't get much more personal service than a cavern guide. On the other hand, cenote dives seem to be about 50% more than boat dives and without all the overhead of a boat. Entrance fees are low, maybe $10USD. Where's the money going?

I wish I knew more about how the cenote dive business works. I don't how much of that money is going to the guide. Hard to believe they are working for tips. Makes no sense to tip someone who is already well paid.

As a full cave diver and cave instructor oc and ccr, a guide is really useless for a caverndive. We wanted to do a special cavern due to it strange stalactites, but it wasn't a real cave, just a sinkhole.
The entrance fee was about 20 dollar, but the fee to take a camera was not included.
Rental costs if we rent tanks including ean32 is normally 13 dollar per tank per day. So then you can say 50 dollar for tanks, 20 for entrance fee, but the rest?
We did not tip, the guide was ok, but was not the best. It was 'no deco', but we are trained (and both are instructor trainers for trimix as well) in making decompression dives. So this was for us too much 'sportsdiver holding by hand diving'. So we did not feel any need to tip. A good review on internet for the divecenter will do it. The dives where also done in quite a rush. We had to be back at 2 p.m. in the divecenter. There was no time to swim between or after the dives, but also that was possible in the entrance fee for example. We are used to relax between and after dives near a cenote. So the cenote was ok, we agreed with the price before the dives, but we don't see any need to tip for such prices.

The restaurants that didn't want to have tips were 7km outside tulum in a smaller village or so, a sort of streetfoodmarket with only locals. We had a lot of fun with that place, at seller one we bought a drink, seller 2 tacos, seller 3 another drink, and the next day again. They did not talk English, I only a few words Spanish. If we wanted to have fresh orange juice, we went there.