I think I'm a generous tipper, but I hate feeling pressured into tipping when I don't feel like it's deserved. I have to imagine that at some point in time tips were conditional on the service rendered. Today, gratuities seem like they are simply service charges.
- The server tip: Everyone knows that paying less than 15% to your server in a restaurant is cheep and that 20% is the generally accepted decent tip. I don't mind this so much since I don't eat out too often and I feel that anyone working in a restaurant needs some extra cash.
- Taxi rides: I take taxis when I'm traveling and I always tip. However, I usually keep it between 10-15%. I've never been in a cab where I felt the service was spectactular, so I wonder why I tip at all for simply getting from point A to point B.
- House keeping: When traveling I never resent leaving 5 bucks for the cleaning lady after I leave my hotel room. Of all service people, someone who cleans up after you definitely deserves a little extra cash. Unfortunately, this is one area where people probably under-tip since you don't have to look the person in the eye if you stiff them.
- Bell hop: I rarely have a hotel bell hop carry or check my bags, but when they do I'm always uncomfortable with the sitation. What's the going rate for someone fetching your bags? If it's all the same, I'll just carry my own.
- Bathroom attendant: I'm not even sure what to call these people, but occassionally I'll visit a fancy place where the restrooms are staffed with someone ready to hand you a dry towel after you wash your hands. And then, as if it weren't already too obvious, there's a tip jar besides the sink. Do you really expect me to tip someone for handing me a towel that was already within my reach? I refuse to tip in rediculous situations like these.
What are your thoughts on tipping?
7 comments:
I just liked it when you asked the cabbie in Italy how much to tip him, then he ripped you off.
I have never been in a bathroom fancy enough to have someone hand me a paper towel, but I find the whole thing absurd. I do get really nervous though when I go out to eat with a large group of people and I don't have control of the tip amount. I hate under-tipping servers. I am clueless, however, as to the standard tipping percentage for getting your hair done. It it 15%? I really have no clue and feel stupid every time I get my hair done (which luckily only occurs about once a year).
Who wants money that's touched by someone's hand in the bathroom? If I were the bathroom attendant, I would not want people handing me cash with their bathroom hands. Even if they washed their hands, as long as you're still in the bathroom, they're bathroom hands.
Like the taxi cab, I can't stand when non-sit-down restaurants have tip jars. You walk up to the counter, order your food, then they call out your number, you walk up to the counter to get your food, and that deserves a tip? No, that deserves the $6.75 I paid for the burrito. Right?
If the service at a restaurant is downright horrible, then I might give less than 15%. But normally it's just average service--nothing special. That deserves 15-18%. For great service, I'm not opposed to giving even more than 20%. I always like to think how excited I'd be if someone gave me a big tip. So I make sure I give them one.
Ooh! I have a good one. We ordered Chinese food for one of our student meetings. It was food for about 80-90 students and probably came out to about $800. I wasn't actually there, but I was talking on the phone to the guy who delivered it and telling him who to look for at the meeting to sign the receipt. He asked me how much I wanted to put down as the tip since my coworker might not know how much I wanted to tip. So I told him $30. Keep in mind all he did was drive the food over and put it on a table. That's it. Nothing special.
So do you know what he said? "Uh, it's usually custom to give 15% tip." Um, excuse me? So I said, "Well then you can make it $40." There was no way I was tipping him over $100 to deliver the food--which was his job!! When the copy of the receipt back from my coworker the tip amount said $90! He didn't write it in. He decided to see if my coworker would give him more.
Made me so mad that I won't use them anymore.
Dwight Schrute from The Office says it best. "Why tip someone for something I can do myself. I can deliver food. I can drive a cab. I can and DO cut my own hair. I did, however, tip my proctologist because I am incapable of pulverizing my own kidney stones."
I have to comment again. I'm all for the tip jar thing. You're not obligated to tip, but it's there if you want to. And in sit down restaurants, the waiters generally give the kitchen a portion of their tips. So in an order at the counter type place, the kitchen can still get tipped for doing the same job they do in a sit down place.
I hate the bathrooms in Europe where you have to pay to use it in the first place, and then you have to tip the attendant. Drives me nuts, and justifies in my mind those people who would rather do their business behind the dumpster in an empty alley. Life is too expensive already.
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