I am in Portugal. There is not even a tip line to leave money on the receipt. It feels odd. The service isn’t the best but from what I’ve been told, the service jobs are mainly immigrants - I’ve met a Cuban former medical student. Someone from Oman. They talk about the cost of even finding a room. I actually want to tip and have on a few occasions.
Interesting how different cultures operate.
We just gave a waitress a 50 euro tip. Not a typo. We had breakfast at her cafe next to a campground and she told us how to walk to this lovely village where no cars are allowed. We wandered around for about an hour and then got a Coke in a restaurant built into the rock. We were sitting on a deck with an incredible view. Then the waitress from breakfast appeared with DH’s credit card. He had left it behind (yes, this is at least the third thing he’s lost on this trip). Somehow she had tracked us down! She didn’t want to take it but DH insisted. She hugged him.
I think tourists that feel the need to tip oftentimes do more damage to the local economy than they realize.
Years ago I lived in a country experiencing an oil boom. It costs the equivalent of a dollar to take a taxi about anywhere in the main part of the city. The expats could not be bothered to have the smaller denomination notes and would pay the equivalent of $2.50. In no amount of time, that was the new price and it was a burden on many of the locals that I worked with.
Interesting at lunch my waiter was from Malawi.
The bill was 34 euro. He asked if I wants to add a tip. They bring a machine to you. They just type in the net amount.
So I said yiu ate the first to ask. If I put in the machine, will you get and he said the staff will.
I have 4. He said that was very generous. Usually it’s one or two. I felt four was substandard.
One person told us Lisbon is the most expensive city in the world based on wages (760 euro a month - so about $830) vs cost of renting a room.
We do our best but if someone gets a few more $$ I’m ok. Honestly the service is here is - not real strong.
Interestingly you say this tho bcuz it reminds me - different subject but same concept of this band in Malaysia where the other day two male members shared a kiss. They thought they were doing the right thing but a gay person said now you’ve made it worse for everyone else.
When one tries to do the right thing I guess it doesn’t always have the right intent.
I have been grousing about this a lot lately, mostly for the tips expected to buy whole bean coffee at the counter or that sort of thing. Today, however, I saw an obituary of the father/husband in a family that I am fond of and it offered me an opportunity to click and give money to the charity of his choice. Great idea, I thought, so let me do that before I forget. I clicked and put in my token amount and then I got a TIP screen! I couldn’t even tell who I was supposed to be tipping! The newspaper that printed the obit? The charity to which I was already donating. At this point, I gave up on the donation and decided yes, tipping is out of control.
That is insanity.
I’m with you. Do they expect tips because someone showed up to their job?
That’s really out of line! I’d be tempted to do a little investigation to find out just where the tips go. I don’t even like the suggestions to give more to cover the cc transaction fee when donating to a charity. Ummm…no. I donate mostly to two charities every year, and the amounts are substantial enough that the charity (only one does this) can just deal with the cc transaction fee themselves. I just feel it’s bad form to ask someone giving you something for more.
Loving Europe…
S and his family flew up from FL for a few days. I was thrilled to have both kids & their families together so wanted to pay for Thursday night dinner at a brewery. When I got the bill, there was already a gratuity of 20%. I suppose because we were a party of 8, it was automatically added. Fine. However, when I used the QR code to pay on my phone, the app was trying to prompt me to add another 20% “tip.” Original tip/gratuity was based on after tax amount and we live in a high tax area. It rubbed me the wrong way.
We are going to Iceland next year, so I’ve been following some of travel threads.
Apparently Iceland had figured out that people from a certain country are somehow pre-programmed to tip. So now ‘service’ charges are appearing on restaurant bills.
Tipping jars are appearing everywhere and the locals are not happy.
Why do Americans feel the need to completely disregard local cultural norms in this department? I happen to think it is rude.
To be fair, I once worked as a server in NJ a few miles out of Manhattan, so we’d get tourists. Most servers didn’t want tables where the customers might be an overseas visitor because tips tended to be much lower. So it works both ways.
I’ve been in Portugal, Israel and now Greece these past two weeks.
Everyone wants a tip. No one is insulted.
I don’t know about past years but all this stuff my dad tells me is bs. Especially in restaurants where servers make the minimum.
Carolyn Hax addresses this in her column. Interesting take on the subject: (gift link). https://wapo.st/3Yoiddh
One restaurant in Paris and one in Barcelona told us the tip was not included. The website for the Normandy beach tour mentioned that tips were appreciated. Other than that, nobody expected tips. So nice.
Tonight in Athens, they ran our card just for the bill.
I said to the waiter - others ask for service or have it on the machine - usually 10 and 15%.
I said I meant to leave you.
He says, here we don’t ask. We hope the customer says to us, please add gratuity.
But we don’t want to come off as begging.
I’m not in France but my guess is the tip is desired.
In Portugal and Israel, if the bill is 50, you say can you make it 60. Mt nephew who lived there 8 years said it’s uncomfortable but that’s how it’s done. So it’s what I started doing.
In Greece - at most places - seem to have a % in the machine.
Uber asked too but at levels mich lower than home.
I have no idea how tipping can be an insult.
In Portugal, the workers were all immigrants making minimum wage. In Israel they struggle to get by. Not sure about Greece.
In Italy this summer I asked at 3-4 restaurants if it was possible to add a tip to the bill when paying by credit card since we weren’t carrying much cash. I mostly got puzzled looks, like nobody had ever asked before, along with a negative response. Only one restaurant was able to do it.
We eventually got comfortable with just tossing down whatever amount in cash we had handy - anywhere from one or two euros up to 10% of the bill.
We were surprised at a 2-Michelin star restaurant that the French couple next to us just left 2 euros on a 300+ euro bill, though. That place had truly amazing service and food.
We asked a couple of places and they smiled and said no tip was expected. More than one waiter chuckled and said they’d heard how tipping was demanded in the US.
Interesting you say that everyone wanted a tip in Greece and Portugal as I was in Greece last week and wife was in Portugal last week. We never saw anyone “wanting a tip” and not sure how one would know or what that means?
We primarily paid cash so perhaps you paid credit card and were prompted?
Sometimes I would round up the bill, but oftentimes not as the server clearly had the change ready when I paid.
I would think almost everyone (excluding the Japanese) would like to have a tip. I would like and hope to find a $100 bill on the street when I go outside, but do not expect or get disappointed when I do not see it.
As noted it’s something they want but they typically don’t have a line on the bill or cc. You have to tell them and they add it. Multiple people in Portugal told us everyone makes minimum wage 760 euro - and appreciates it.