Question: Tipping in Restaurants, for Services, ??

[beaucaillou]

And if you go to a (fine-dining) restaurant frequently, good tipping for the waitstaff and valets will pay off in things like reservations even when "full" and all sorts of other fringe benefits.

The great love of my life was a fine dining waitress. She taught me a lot of things.

This is completely true. Whenever we have a 'happy mistake,' an extra order of something or the last of a wine bottle that isn't enough for a full pour, these things always go to our good, regular guests.

 

[Shimmy Sally]

20%

I tip most eveyone in the service field; waitstaff, porters, salon/spa staff, some types of delivery, etc. Anyone who expects gratuity as part of their pay, I will tip. I don't tip well-trained/well-paid technicians who generally aren't allowed to accept tips by their company.

 

[Phil]

Here's a nice puzzle

My friend Kelly just started as a waitress at Houlihan's. She wants me to come one day to see her and give some moral support (the food isn't half bad either). So now I have to figure out how much to tip. I don't want to look like a cheapskate, but I also don't want to leave too much and make it look like I feel sorry for her. Time do download that tip calculator onto my phone.

 

[Lincsong]

My friend Kelly just started as a waitress at Houlihan's. She wants me to come one day to see her and give some moral support (the food isn't half bad either). So now I have to figure out how much to tip. I don't want to look like a cheapskate, but I also don't want to leave too much and make it look like I feel sorry for her. Time do download that tip calculator onto my phone.

20% Phil, start getting into the habit.

 

[Lincsong]

When I was selling cars in Florida this New York transplant tipped me $50 for selling him the car and "making his wife happy". I used to get real mad in Florida when the grocery stores would put up signs that read; "taking your groceries out to your car is our pleasure, please don't tip the courtesy clerks":rage: I don't know what they were paying the courtesy clerks there, but when I got my first job as a courtesy clerk at 16 I was paid $3.85 an hour and if someone tipped me a buck I kept the money.

 

[Elaina]

Same here, Linc. My first job was carrying groceries out for $4.25, and I was lucky to get 15 hours a week. I also got trunks slammed on my head, kids kicking me while I walked them out, and all manner of rudeness. I figured the buck I got here and there didn't kill anyone.

As to having a friend and working, 20% is good. Depends on how many of you are going, and a number of other factors. My best friend is the cheapest tighwad I know, and never tipped me, nor any other server unless I pitched a fit.

 

[Haversack]

The people I tip are: food waiters at table or lunch counter, bartenders, doormen hailing a cab, cab drivers, movers, and barbers. Annually, I tip the paper delivery, the garbage collector, the parking lot attendant. I do not use valet parking so that is not included.

What I have noticed is that over the years, the recommended percentage for restuarant tipping has steadily increased. Back in the 1940s, most guidebooks recommended a ten percent tip as acceptable. By 1960, this amount had increased to 12 percent, with 15 percent for high-end restaurants. By 1985, 15 percent was the expected tip with 18 percent for high-end. Now 20 percent is beginning to be recommended.

Haversack.

 

[czack]

When did it become mandatory?

Talking about who to tip is all well and good, but when did tipping become mandatory? When I was growing up it was ten percent for good service and fifteen percent for great service. I have noticed that people will tip even when the service is lousy. In fact, this just happened last weekend with a waiter we saw twice in the two hours we were there. It wasn't that busy. Just wondering.

 

[Phil]

This applies to resturaunts only

I see it as a reward for good or excellent service or at least the show of an effort. If the waiter does really well, stays prompt, does all the the right things that he or she should, then a proper tip will be left. If the waiter is trying with a packed house, I'll understand too. I don't judge too hard on someone who gives a good effort but comes up short because they made a valiant effort. However, if the service is that disatisfying, I leave nothing. I've only had to do that once though. The exception ot this are themed resturaunts like Ed Debevic's where the staff is supposed to be less than nice.

 

[Lady Day]

Talking about who to tip is all well and good, but when did tipping become mandatory? When I was growing up it was ten percent for good service and fifteen percent for great service. I have noticed that people will tip even when the service is lousy. In fact, this just happened last weekend with a waiter we saw twice in the two hours we were there. It wasn't that busy. Just wondering.

Yeah I agree.
Its almost as if you are not a good patron unless you tip, and some of the people who work wont give you good service unless they think you are going to tip well.

BUt its also the jobs. They dont often pay a whole lot, and some places waitressing still is half of min. wage plus tips. So you got folks working on $3 + whatever the customer feels like giving. But I digress...


LD

 

[Lincsong]

Same here, Linc. My first job was carrying groceries out for $4.25, and I was lucky to get 15 hours a week. I also got trunks slammed on my head, kids kicking me while I walked them out, and all manner of rudeness. I figured the buck I got here and there didn't kill anyone.

As to having a friend and working, 20% is good. Depends on how many of you are going, and a number of other factors. My best friend is the cheapest tighwad I know, and never tipped me, nor any other server unless I pitched a fit.

We got time and a half on Sunday's so for that summer there was only one Sunday I didn't work.lol One time this middle aged lady came in and she was plastered, grabbed me and wanted "one of those things you stand behind and it cuts grass" So I put a real expensive grass mower in her cart. When she paid for it she asked for me by name so I took it out for her. As I was trying to figure out how to put it in the trunk of her 2 door Ford Maverick this other middle aged man said he'd take it home for her. She told me to throw it in the back of his truck. She gave me a Five and him a wet one on the mouth.lol lol lol lol

 

[rockyj]

Tipping? why yes!

I find tipping sets a precedent early in the night with a healthy tip to the bartenter, waitress or whoever serves us. If I out with a few friends and the bill is say $40.00 (U.S) and I leave a $10.00 tip. I will definitely be noticed later. If I tip a 5.00 well, I'm still an "okay guy," However I won't stand out on a busy night.

 

[BegintheBeguine]

Here is something I have noticed: Freeloaders don't tip. At the winter work party there was a cash bar but soft drinks were free. The booze wasn't cheap but those drinkers tipped, including those who only had a bottle of beer opened for them. About one percent of the soft drinkers tipped no matter how many times they wandered up to have a pop prepared for them.
Also, at the $5.00 one hour open bar I frequent, only I and a couple of my friends tip each and every drink. No one else does. People, it's free! Give the hard working bartender a tip! A bigger tip than usual because it's free! Same thing for the free hooch at casinos. Very few guzzlers tip. I always do. I tip more at a diner than a fancy joint. I tip the on what the full amount of 2-for-1 specials would be. Usually I tip 20% or a buck a drink. I don't purchase coffee from baristas but I take taxis sometimes and it is 20%. Dog groomer won't accept tips. Hairdresser is shocked and pleased to get a tip. [huh] Skycaps get good tips from me as does the hotel maid. When hubby was a sack jockey at the grocery last year they were not allowed to accept tips. Pizza guys get a 20% tip. They are out in the rain and I am not.
I too hate when the waitress serves the males and ignores and screws up the females' orders.

 

[Elaina]

When I have to deal with a waitress serving my husband and not me, I usually leave a tip for the service he recieves, and don't for me.

As to maid service in hotels, I was taight it was customary to leave a tip the day you leave in an envelope on the dresser. Back in the day when I was going to alot of comic and anime cons all over the US, it got to be a pretty hefty tip, but with 6+ people in a room, they certainly deserved it.

 

[Spitfire]

I only tip if I feel there is a special reason to do it.
Why tip a rude taxidriver who can't even find his way or a uninterested waiter chewing gum...
I should ad that tipping is not ordinary in Denmark, and at restaurants it's included in the price.
So i's really up to you, if you feel like it. If you have had some ekstraordinary service etc.

Which also makes us look rather stupid abroad, 'cause we are not used to the system.
Or at least it takes some time to get used to it...
Taxis in Denmark are so b.... expensive, and you never tip.
So it was quite embarrasing when I took a taxi once at my first night in London When we arrived at my destination, I had the right amount of money, so I just - without giving it a thought - payed the driver, what was on the meter. He drove after me down the crowded street, yelling all sorts of abusive things...Welcome to London!

 

[Fleur De Guerre]

FYI to everyone, if you tip a bartender *really* well the first round or two, your drinks will be *considerably* stronger the next time. And you are likely to get better service everytime. Just sayin'.

Haha SO true! I did this at a bar in San Diego last summer and my whisky and coke was so strong I went back 3 times for it to be topped up with coke!

 

[Fleur De Guerre]

I only tip waiting staff and hairdressers, partly due to etiquette and partly because I know they need it. I never take a cab or have removal men or any of the other services mentioned. I also tend to tip 10% because that is what is standard over here and I'm not very well off. I tip for my takeaway curries because the local curry house provide you with snacks and usually delicious deep fried aubergines and dip free of charge while you wait. Plus they knock 10% off your bill when you collect as opposed to having it delivered, so really it's making it up to what it was originally!

 

[Cacklewack]

I tip barbers, wait staff, bartenders, and government officials. Okay, maybe not government officials. However, the last time I had some appliances delivered, I had so much going on with my move that I failed to tip the poor fellows who had to lug my refrigerator, washer and dryer up two flights of stairs! Now I feel bad.

Matt

 

[Tommy Fedora]

When I tip I make it a point to tip well at places I plan to return to, mostly restaurants and my barber. The service improves nicely with each visit to the restaurant, and with my barber doesn't make me look like a geek.

 

[K.D. Lightner]

Sometimes I get confused as to who to tip. When I lived in NYC some years ago, it seemed like you tipped everybody. In those days, it was 10 to 15%, though my friends who worked as wait staff tipped higher.

In San Diego, I noticed people tipped a lot less and less money when they did tip, same as Iowa. I continued to be a New Yorker and told my California friends, no, I will not scrimp on the tip. By the time I left San Diego, I discerned that people tipped better than they used to.

I have tipped wait staff, bartenders (extra $$ if they make a martini that is almost as good as the one I make), delivery people, taxi drivers, casino cashiers, porters, hairdressers, and probably others I have forgotten about.

I have tried to tip the store clerks who load groceries in my car but was told they could not accept tips. But, when in doubt, I always ask.

These days, I tip a standard 20%, more if the service is extraordinary, less if it's a bit shoddy. A few times I have left little or no tip.

karol