Sharelle

I think that it is such a part of our culture. The time that I spent studying at the Sorbonne, I was living a on a student allowance but I still tipped a bit even though I was told by the French that it wasnt necessary. I've been back to Europe a few times and I just have that North American custom drilled into me. I actually feel guilty if I don't leave something.

xyz123

When in Rome do as the Romans do....

Michael

If a restaurant in the U.S. autoamtically adds a service fee of 15 to 18% to a party of 6 or more, do you still tip? If so, then tip the same relative amount in Europe.

Sharelle

No, I don't tip over that.

kismetchimera

I confess , I am Guilty and my crime is Tipping...Since I was a young thing , I felt compelled to tip for good services received..
I feel better now that I confessed my sin..
Now you know my secret..

travelwomen

No, I don't feel any guilt at all and I find it refreshing. There is a part of town where I live called the South End that has some wondeful restaurants but the waiters expect 20 % Hell no, I leave 15% if the meals was very good and then 15% any other time. Americans have to get over this sense of inferiority when they go to Europe. Grow up Shanelle!

elaine

I tip usually, in small amounts over the service charge, and I don't feel a sense of inferiority. It's just habit, like wanting my coffee with dessert or folding my hands in my lap rather than keeping them visible on top of the table as the French do. I do try to respect other people's customs, but I have no sense that tipping endangers international relations nor that it makes me an Ugly American. If someone thinks I'm a spendthrift American who throws money around unnecessarily, so be it. I've never had a tip refused nor have I seen it cause offense. I also see tipping mentioned in just about every guidebook, including Fodors.

StCirq

No, no guilt here. I usually round the bill up by a few euros, but I don't have any compulsion to tip as I would in the USA. I do sometimes trick myself into thinking that because I'm not tipping I'm actually saving money to be spent on other things, but actually I know better.

Christina

I rarely tip in countries where an approximate 15 pct service charge is added to the bill, becauase that's what a tip is -- a service charge paid directly by the customer. No, I don't feel guilty in the slightest, it's simple economics. The US allows employers to pay less than minimum wage to tipped employees, so the tip makes up the wage but the customer has to pay it instead of it being added into the price. That isn't the case in Europe. Not only are wages regulated at a higher rate, but so are holidays and benefits. No US employer is required to give any holidays or benefits, that I know of. I think the whole tipping culture in the US is bad, and I wish we didn't have it. I think people should be hired and paid the wage by the employer. I work for a salary that my employer pays me and no one tips me for doing my job, even though I do perform many individual tasks for various people outside my company as I work in a consulting firm and have different clients and different projects. Tipping automatically puts people in a subservient position--I don't like the whole concept. I would never tip in the US when the restaurant adds a 15-18 pct service charge to the bill, which some do, so see no difference in that and many European countries where is it included in the prices.

Robert2533

As xyz123 put it "When in Rome do as the Romans do".

We have found that at a number of smaller restaurants, mostly boutique, locals, including our friends, often will leave 1, 2 or even 3 euros as a thank you to the host. I've only witnessed one time when a party left five euros, but that was the exception. Most of the restaurants we frequent are smaller, family owned boutique restaurants, where everyone in the family is involved and shares in the work. Seldom to they employ anyone from outside of the Family,

Please, when at a more sophisticated restaurante, try no to leave a tip based on some arbitrary percentage arrived at by someone a long time ago, now lost in the annals of time. It tends to confuses the waiters/waitresses, who are professionals and get paid a decent wage. I've had waiters/waitresses at restaurants we know ask me what to do when someone leaves an overgenerous tip. Sometimes they are embarrassed and want to return the money, thinking the people (Americans) who left it made some kind of mistake, but you tell them to keep it and try to explain the situation back home in the States. The really don't understand. It's just another one of those cultural differences that some people have a hard time with.

We have dined at some of the best restaurants in Spain and France and have never left a tip beyond a couple of euros. Even when dining at such places as Arzak, Auberge de la Galupe, Les Bookinies, Tragabuches, Ze Kitchen Galerie and even at Mugaritz. About the only exception was at Fish la Boissonnedie in Paris one evening, when we were sampling some excellent wines and were not charged.

cigalechanta

Also, here in th states, though you may want to reward your server for exceptional service, He may have to share. There was a big to do last year in New york City because the waiters had to share with the maitre D'

Patrick

I guess I'm different. When a large group of us go out to eat here in the states we are "a pain in the neck", everybody too busy talking to give orders to the waiter, calling him back to give individual drink orders a number of time, changing minds, etc. So when they add the 18% or whatever, we always leave quite a bit more -- they've earned it.

When in Europe I feel it's the same thing. While service may be included, if the waiter has spend considerable time with us explaining items on the menu or chatting, or "putting up with" our lace of knowledge, then we leave about another 10%.

cigalechanta

I agree with that!

kappa

I know how American visitors to Europe feel guilty not to tip as much as they do at home. A recent example :

Last Friday we had a dinner at a nice French restaurant in a 4-star hotel in Geneva, Switzerland. We were invited by a good friend of ours, an American guy who had already lived for about 5 years in Europe. We were a group of 5 and he got the bill of CHF400(EUR260). Since he knew us well (all locals), he asked if he could leave CHF40 tip. We suggested half of it, that he followed but looked a bit uneasy.

Tulips

We round up, to leave a few Euros; up to about 5% of the bill usually. In the UK, there is a service charge added to the bill in nearly every restaurant. In the rest of Europe, service is included in the cost of the meal, but most people I know still leave a bit extra. Not if you're only having a cup of coffee, but for a meal certainly, if the service was good.

I'm Dutch, but live in Belgium. Belgians always make jokes about Dutch people being stingy, not wanting to spend money, but I have noticed here that Dutch people tip more than Belgian people, who will often literally round up to the nearest amount, even if this leaves a tip of 10 cents. To me, that would be embarrassing; leaving 10 cents. Even worse than not giving anything.

sheila

IT's absolutely NOT the case that most restaurants in the UK include service charge. That may be the case in London but not anywhere else that I know of.

And it's also not the case that where a tip is not expected it's because the service is included. It's simply not expected

Neil_Oz

It's one of the oddities of the restaurant business (in some countries at least) that people accept retailers adding a compulsory surcharge for delivering the goods you've bought when you're already seated in their premises. And that it's equally reasonable for the same retailer to not pay their staff (to all intents and purposes), leaving it up to you to remedy this oversight. Or, judging by some of the foregoing posts, both at the same time. Does K-Mart or your local pharmacy work that way?

I tipped when I was in the US on the "when in Rome" principle, and because I knew that the people serving me weren't being paid a living wage. Here in Australia I don't, except in special circumstances, because I know that they are. Also, I don't want to give their employers any excuse to start agitating for a reduction in their wages and benefits.

I'm on Christina's side. I don't like the tipping culture one little bit, and I'd do nothing to help introduce it into a country where it's neither practiced nor needed.

Recently there was a heated exchange about tipping in a list devoted to travel in China. Even after the moderator, a travel writer, pointed out that the Chinese see tipping as "giving away free money", i.e. the mark of a lunatic, one poster expressed his intention of continuing to tip in China. On what grounds? That it made him feel better.

TopMan

Tipping remains a purely personal thing IMO whether or not a service charge is added. If I feel the server deserves something above the added charge I freely give it.

I find that many people who have to ask other people "whether or not" they should tip, a frequent question posed on this board, have probably never had to work for one themselves. And when you have it often makes a big difference in your viewpoint.

travelwomen

I have a friend who is a over tipper! Its annoying dinig with him because he will leave 30%. Yes he was a waiter! But 25-30% is just ridculous!

ira

Hi Sharelle,

> No, I don't tip over that.<

If you don't tip in the US if there is a service charge, why do it away form home?