My son asked my opinion on tipping for a couple of things. I know during COVID we because more generous with our tipping.
I’m curious what others do in the areas I’ve listed below and more -
Valet?
Restaurant %?
Housekeeping?
Concierge?
Hours long activities/tour groups?
Days long guided tours?
What else do you tip for?
Where? that matters a lot!
Valet? You mean like someone who carries your bags for you? We carry our own. No tip.
Restaurant %? 20%
Housekeeping? In a hotel, we do $5 a day…depends on the type of services offered.
Concierge? No
Hours long activities/tour groups? When we have done group tours with people we know, we collect from everyone and give one tip. Amounts vary by the family or person.
Days long guided tours? If I’m paying someone for this, I don’t also tip them.
What else do you tip for?
We also think about what is customary where we are. For example, in many places abroad, no tips. On a cruise, there is a tip fee one can include. At an all inclusive…it depends.
Wherever - if you’re on vacation in a place that expects tipping.
Valet - when someone parts your car for you is what I’m talking about.
We usually self park. So no issue.
Housekeeping- $10 a day regardless if they actually service the room or not. (Note: if they don’t service our room every day then I usually do find a housekeeper in the hallway and give them $10 for more towels and soaps, etc.)
Valet- $10 every time we retrieve it. (Usually once a day. Rarely do we use it more than 2-3 times a day.) And I want my car returned promptly and in same condition I leave it.
Concierge- we rarely use but if we did and it was more than just asking a simple question, then we’d do so.
Bellhop- $20 or $30 depending on how many bags. Makes it easier to find the room and they have a job so might as well let them help us.
Restaurants- $20%
Takeout- 20%
Pool/Beach lounge chair and towel attendants- $10 -$20
ETA- when we were younger (ie less money) then we would always try to self park, and almost always carried our own bags. Now we are older and have more discretionary money so we enjoy having others help us and tipping them in return.
We tend to tip 20% for most things - restaurant, tour guides, etc…
I haven’t seen a valet in our neck of the woods since pre covid! And the last few times we’ve travelled, no housekeeping at hotels or inns.
We’re doing an all inclusive for our next trip and the tip was already added to the bill. I’m not adding anything else. (And we’ve been told that the staff are trained not to accept tips).
Valet - a couple of bucks when they bring the car back without scratches. No tipping when you hand them the keys.
This is a pretty darn good guide:
https://www.seattletimes.com/life/whom-and-how-much-should-you-tip-it-depends-experts-say/
A brief guide to how much etiquette experts say you should tip for different service professions.
| Occupation | Sector | Tip |
|---|---|---|
| Barista | Food service | $1 per drink |
| Bartender | Food service | $1 per beer, $2 per cocktail; or 15-20% of the tab |
| Bellhop | Travel | $2-$3 per bag |
| Concierge | Travel | Not necessary, but leave $5 to $20 for going above and beyond |
| Delivery driver | Food service | $3-$10 or 10-15% of the bill |
| Dog groomer | Other | 15-20% |
| Door person | Travel | $3 for the first bag, $2 per additional bag; $3-$5 for hailing a taxi |
| Facial, waxing, massage | Beauty and personal services | 15-20% |
| Hair salon/barber shop | Beauty and personal services | 15-20% |
| Hotel shuttle driver | Travel | $1-$5 per ride, $2 per bag |
| Housekeeper | Travel | $2-$5 per night, $5 for special services |
| Manicurist | Beauty and personal services | 15-20% |
| Outdoor rental attendant | Other | Not necessary, but 10-15% is a nice gesture |
| Personal grocery shopper | Food service | $3-$10 |
| Restaurant takeout | Food service | 10-15% |
| Server (sit-down restaurant) | Food service | 15-22% |
| Skycap (baggage drop-off outside airport) | Travel | $2-$3 per bag |
| Taxi or limo driver | Travel | 15-20% of the fare or bill |
| Tour guide | Other | 10-20% of total ticket cost |
| Valet | Travel | $3 to $10 |
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Source: The Emily Post Institut
I’ve never had a valet service, so nada. Same with a concierge. Not even really sure what they do. We’re Holliday inn express type people.
Restaurants 15-25% depending on the service. It’s rare I give nothing even if it was especially poor service. Occasionally I’ll give more than $25% if the bill is really small <$25.
I admit it’s rare for me to pay anything for housekeeping.
Day trips/tour guides. It really depends. We usually do give something based on the length and number of people in our group. $20 is typical when we have 4 people.
We recently had a guide that got nada. It was a small group and he was pretty bad. Lots of awkward dead silence, so I tried to ask some questions to move it along. And that’s when he started ranting how safety measures were just theater and our masks were useless against covid. My family were the only ones in masks. Umm ok… it was pretty bizarre and yep. He got nothing from us
Omg! What a jerk!!! I would be ticked. Definitely no tip for that kind of travel guide service!!!
I grew up in the hospitality industry - no, we didn’t own restaurants or hotels, we worked in them. My mother supported my brother and me on waitress tips for at least the first 15 years of my life - My first “real” job was waitressing with my hourly wage being $1.35 (same for my friends), so I understand “tipping” as a need to making ends meet, not padding a bank account - that said, we (my friends and I) are often tipping heavily, though not UNnecessarily - in other words, when we receive wonderful service (cheerful, helpful) we tip good(!) (think 30%) as we know that in most places those tips are shared among several (bartenders, barback, host, busser, dishwasher, etc.) - When we take cruises or have gone to all-inclusives, we are the folks you see on the last day with a stack of $10s and $20s literally walking around thanking everyone for making our trip a wonderful one, and handing them some $ - we pre-pay tips, and still give our steward extra (have yet to have cruddy steward service). When we take tours we do drop at least $20 p/p in the tip jar (again, never had a cruddy tour experience) - I don’t think I’ve ever valeted my car - so I can’t speak to that.
I once read an article about the value of an extra $1 tip for the person giving and the one receiving…paraphrasing…the person giving has just gone out, put on special clothes, makeup, shoes, etc., and spent $100 on 2 dinners plus a bottle of wine, and another $20 on 2 cocktails waiting for their table…that extra $1 tip is “nothing” in the scheme of their evening…the person receiving is making $3.35 an hour, has to pay for their work clothes (and then to have them cleaned), is on their feet 6-8 hours dealing with every type of clientele, juggling several tables at once, all with different timing of food/drinks coming/going, and at the end of their shift, has to share as much as 50% of the tips that they earned with a group of people that made the customer’s experience special. That extra $1 tip is more than a blip in their radar.
If someone made your time special, especially now with so many establishments shorthanded, reconsider being a generous tipper, that little extra makes a difference.
I love all Inclusive trips when I don’t have to tip. It’s not a vacation when I have to worry about tipping.
I’m in Europe, no tipping, but if I do tip, the waiters are very grateful, they thank me profusely, such a pleasant experience. Just texted my kids, 2 large coffees, 2 croissants for €5.70. In the states, I would have to pay 3-4 times as much and the croissants are not as good.
I stayed in a hotel this summer for 5 days. No cleaning service in the room, 1 waste basket (none in bathroom, and you think NBD, but it really was inconvenient), a big wedding in the hotel so couldn’t use the tiny pool, no bucket to get ice in (and the first one Out of Order, even though it was the maintenance man who directed me to it).
The room next to ours had an alarm that went off at 7 am and beeped for 10 minutes every morning. It took us over 45 minutes to check in even though I showed them the confirmed and paid reservation on my phone. Why? They’d spelled my name wrong (spelled correctly on the reservation confirmation).
It was not a cheap hotel. Parking your car was $36/day (we didn’t have a car) but that wasn’t for a valet, just do it yourself.
No tips. No one TO tip.