What about Tipping your Guides?
 

Hi guys!<BR><BR>We are going with a tour company with our own private tour guide and driver for 14 full days. What do you suggest the tipping should be per day per person?<BR><BR>The tour company didn't provide me with any useful guidelines.<BR><BR>Thanks,<BR>Ingrid :-)

You should really question the experience of the tour company because they must have the necessary guidelines on tipping if they send a lot of tourists to the destination country.

We are going this wk. w/tour company to Beijing and Xian and they suggest $5/day for guide and $2/day for driver. Most everyone I have spoken w/on this site feels that is a reasonable tip. Your tour company will probably also have a suggestion.

I made a mistake in tipping suggested by our tour company - sorry! It was $5/day for the China tour guide, $2/day for regular guide and $1/day for driver.

The answer to Ingrid's question rather depends on which country she's visiting. If it's Japan or China, for instance, there is no tipping.<BR><BR>If your tour company for China is suggesting tips in a country where tipping is not the norm, it is either being taken for a ride by the ground handlers (local company handling the arrangements within China)--in which case it has insufficient knowledge of China and you should consider using someone else--or you are simply being ripped off. <BR><BR>Even if tipping were the norm in China, the tip rate quoted for the guide alone amounts to paying what would be a very healthy salary on an annual basis. In short you're paying for the tour twice (and I'd be willing to bet both that you are being overcharged in the first place, and that you will be paying large sums in hidden commissions to restaurants and souvenir shops during your trip, so that will make three times).<BR><BR>The day when you see Chinese start to tip will be the day you should start to think about it, too. Any tour company suggesting this is some sort of norm is one to be given a wide berth.<BR><BR>Peter N-H<BR>http://members.axion.net/~pnh/China.html

Hi Ingrid,<BR><BR>I am sure your tour company guide will provide guidance for tipping. It is true that tipping is not a custom of China but when you see how hard these tour guides work each day to make your trip so wonderful, you will want to be more generous. They are so poor.<BR><BR>We just returned from a tour of china and our company suggested $4 per day for tipping. They divided it among all the service workers = guides, bus driver, hotel luggage transfers, etc., food servers, etc. In my opinion, the DRIVER, is the very most important person on the tour. When you see how they have to drive to keep you safe and unharmed, you too will feel they deserve the 'gold'.<BR><BR>I just cut and paste from our tour what the tipping was per person for a 22 day trip.<BR><BR>Additonal Costs To Be Paid For While In China: Recommended Tipping Per Traveler ($4 per day) $80 <BR>Aiport Taxes ($6 per domestic airport) $24 <BR>China Departure Tax $12 <BR>Total Tipping and Taxes Per Traveler USD $116 <BR><BR>It was very nice not having to be concerned everyday with tipping as there was a new guide in EVERY city.<BR><BR>Enjoy your visit to China and hang on....it can be a scary ride!!!<BR><BR>....but our BEST foreign travel so far!<BR><BR><BR>

Hi :<BR><BR>On my travels whether to China or Europe or elsewhere, I usually tip the driver more generously and I do it during the trip and not at the end of it. When we stop for drinks etc, I'll usually pay for them as well. Just show them a little caring and it really make their day. The guides are the ones making the commision and not the driver and he is THE person we have to look after for obvious reasons. By being generous and of course friendly, I feel gets me some 'fringe benefits' like the better/bigger room, perhaps room with a view or such.

Hi again!<BR><BR>I am not sure why my message pulled up under China. We're going to Thailand.<BR>They said $20 a day or something crazy like that - does that sound right?<BR>Ingrid :-)

Ingrid<BR>$20 a day sounds far too much!!Rita's suggestion sounds fine for Thailand as well.

Hey, where is Peter, the authority on everything? I am sure he has a lot to tell you about Thailand as well and how to stifle tour guides there. Too bad you wasted so much of his precious time because you did not mention you were going.

Hi!<BR><BR>Thanks for all of your help! It's always uncomfortable when tipping time comes around. I will go ahead and do what you guys suggested.<BR>We are so excited, we leave in one week - hooray!!!

Tipping is not that common in Thailand. In bars, restaurants a nominal amount is appreciated, 20Baht would be our normal tip at a bar or a restaurant. With taxis just round up the taxi fare, that is assuming that you have a taxi with a meter if you negotiate a fare then there is no need to tip. If a porter takes your bag up to your room, a ten or twenty Baht tip should suffice.<BR><BR>Your guide will do well on commissions and you will probably pay for some of his or her meals as well. Recently we had guests in town and took them to a silk outlet here in Chiangmai. My wife was the only Thai with a group of Farangs and was mistaken for a guide and told that she had to register if she wanted the 20% commission. With commissions like that, they don’t need tips! That said I would give them something, 1,000 Baht springs to mind.<BR>

Tangata, thank you very much for your most valuable information on tipping in Thailand. In my opinion, tip what a native tips his/her own countrymen. I learned not to take tour company suggestions seriously. However, I do bring small presents from home and occassionally buy guides and drivers drinks.

When I was in China I gave my guide $50. This was for a group tour that lasted ten days. I gave our drivers $5 each (we had 4, one for each city-Guilin, Xian, Beijing, and Shanghai). I tipped the local guides $2. These people all seemed to be very happy with what I gave them.