Sue_xx_yy

In any other industry, what is included is called a 'price tag'. In other words, what the seller chooses to market his goods or services for is up to the seller; the buyer either accepts his terms or refuses them to go elsewhere. Anywhere else but the hospitality industry, for a seller to claim, AFTER the transaction has concluded, that the buyer is somehow responsible for agreeing to terms that the seller never clearly set in the first place, would be denounced as bad business, which it is. And it isn't just the case in Prague - throughout North America, the buyer is expected to settle the undefined term of the contract that is called 'the tip.' Nobody seems clear on just what the term is when the transaction commences, but a lot of people have a lot to say about it after the fact!

Only in the hospitality industry do we have this constant, confused, frustrating debate over how much to pay for the services we buy. For only in the hospitality industry are the least knowledgeable and experienced people - the buyers - expected to figure out the payroll! Given that we are so expected, what is owed to US in the way of a tip, for going through all this agonized hand-wringing over who to pay and how much, etc. etc. ?

Kate

exactly, xyz, I recognise people as tourists everyday in London, but often couldn't tell you where they came from just by looking at them. ( I also can' tell the difference between an Amercian and a Canadian accent - my bad)

kerouac

<< but I always suspect that when the bill says service included, that is going to the owner, not the server >>
Absolutely not true in France -- since the service charge is recorded by the cash register, the amount is divided among all of the employees (even the bad ones) every month. Additional tipping is not at all required in France but doing it is an indication of a) yes I really thought the service was good and/or b) I have too much money.

xyz123

kate...

Canadian accents are easy to spot...just listen for the word eh at the end of every other sentence...you know, "Nice weather today eh!" "Goint to the theatre tonight eh!"

Also listen for words such as about..when some Canadians pronounce the word it comes out more like aboot (not quite but almost)..and very deep r's...

xyz123

Another quick way to distinguish Americans from Canadians...ask what the last letter of the alphabet is....in America we say "zee"...in Canada they say "zed"

I picked up my ability to tell Canadian accents from the time when I was a kid listening to Foster Hewitt on Hockey Night in Canada....

xyz123

typo (damn this forum which doesn't give you the ability to edit posts and I'm too lazy to preview my replies)..."Going to the theatre tonight, eh!"

elina

"let's not forget that English is a universal language, so I suspect the message is targetted at ALL foreign tourists, rather than Americans specifically."

I was just going to say the same. English is not my native language, and I don´t speak English at home or in my usual surrounding, but guess what I speak to waiters in Prague. It ain´t Czech...

Josser

To distinguish between an American and a Canadian, ask them to say:
"Hairy Harry is going to marry merry Mary".

If they are Canadian each word will sound different.

ira

Hi wren
>I am still really confused...so you do tip or round up to the next amount...ie 8.50 euro up to 10, even though the tip is included?<

A Service Charge is not a tip. It is a fee added to the amount of the bill to cover the salary of the serving staff.

A tip is an additional payment by the customer as an acknowledgement of good, or excellent, service.

For service at the expected level of quality, one usually rounds up - a bill of 28.5E becomes 30E (about 5%).

For excellent service, one might leave an additional 5-10%, as has been mentioned previously.

hunnym

I am Canadian and many years ago was in Prague with a cousin who lives there. We were speaking to each other in Slovak, a common language between us. When a waiter approached us, he spoke to me in English and my cousin in Czech, even though we had been speaking Slovak with each other the entire time.

I have no idea how the waiter KNEW this, but it was an eye-opening experience. (I was not carrying a backpack with a Canadian flag on it or anything else similarly obvious.)

Also in Prague, we went to a concert in a church. There were 3 entrance fees: cheapest for Czech folks, slightly more expensive for Slovak folks, and a way more expensive price for everyone else. So I wouldn't be surprised if there is a tipping double standard...but maybe it's just for foreigners in general, not just Americans.

Robespierre

Maybe we should carry a "menu" which we present to the wait staff on first contact.

Minimal service and attentiveness: 5%
Acceptable service but lacking promptness: 10%
Good service and anticipation of needs: 15%
Truly outstanding in every respect: 20%

wills

Tipping and the art of, cause more consternation than most parts of travel. In Europe, the general rule at restaurants is to round up. Service is most always included. I do agree that there are those who have come to expect Americans to tip anyway though, and it's almost a defacto criticism if we don't. Too bad. When travelling it's always a good thing to do as the Romans do, you'll usually be within the bounds of reason. The only time I violate this is if I know that I am returning to the same place regularly. (I travel for business) I am not regular enough to count as a frequent customer, so I leave a bit more to ensure that the next time I come in, I receive the service that I want. It's always worked, or I go elsewhere. I try to remember it stands for To Insure Promptness.

Poohgirl

I like Robespierre's menu idea!

As a comment about overtipping - someone said they laugh at overtippers behind their back. Oh really? Some may do, but I have to doubt that it is all that common. Although I have never waitressed, my sister and a cousin did in their younger years (in the US). When Arabs came to the restaurant, they were famous for tipping astronomically - well over 100%. No one ever laughed at them to my knowledge (well, at least not for overtipping); instead, the servers WANTED to wait on them, especially if they recognized the person. Even if they happened to be rude, they were still popular because of the generous tips. Not that they seemed to be more or less rude than anyone in general...

KarenE

I am German and I always add 5 to 10 percent to the bill in Germany (and anywhere else). My friends, family and most people I know do the same. I would find people who only round up very cheap.

rickmav

I don't know what kind of Canadians you guys have been hanging around but the only people I hear saying 'eh?' anymore are Americans making fun of us or during Bob & Boug MacKenzie reruns. Some of my nephews put it on when they are trying to be cheeky, but give me a break - can't we let the stereotype go?

And Josser, I read your sentence five times AND I'm Canadian and none of the words sounded different. I'm either watching too much American television or only Canadians would read it five times to try and get it to turn out different!

By the way, I am from Western Canada. I really can't speak for all those eastern freaks. Like a different country to us.

xyz123

rickmay...

I want to make clear I wasn't making fun of Canadians...heaven only knows how parochial my accent is..I meant it to a degree tongue in cheek and didn't do it to offend. However, I know quite a few Canadian hockey players and many of them do say eh quite a bit (as well as the aboot thing)....

Pvoyageuse

""Absolutely not true in France -- since the service charge is recorded by the cash register, the amount is divided among all of the employees (even the bad ones) every month.""

Not really, precisely because the service charge is included in the bill, i.e. represents the exact amount you paid the owner to cover, well... service charges. He does not deduce them from his form when he sends his tax returns or add them up and divide them by the number of waiters.
Just like in the US, I suppose.
Service charges also cover linen, flowers on the table, use of restrooms, heating in winter, AC in summer, cleaning crew, electricity, dishwashers, etc.

Tips are sometimes divided, sometimes not. It depends on the restaurant and on the waiters.

xyz123

(...BTW you guys still pronounce the word schedule incorrectly <g> and reverse the e and r in words such as center and theater <g> and add extra u's when they are totally unnecessary (colo(u)r, labo(u)r) <g> but at least you drive on the right side of the road!

tuscanlifeedit

I have never been to Prague, but have a naive tourist tipping story:

Very early in our travels to Italy, my DH asked a waiter if the tip was included in the bill. The waiter very pointedly said, "Not for YOU." I don't know if he purposefully exaggerated the pronoun, but it came out the way. "Not for YOU" became a little joke catch phrase on that trip.

As for being laughed at, we have had waitstaff follow us and thank us profusely for the tip (not huge, but larger than local custom, I guess).

We tip less than we did on early trips to Europe, but still leave something extra for good service.

rickmav

xyz123 - how do you know the hockey players are Canadian? Maybe it's like Americans putting Canadian flags on their backpacks, American hockey players are saying 'eh' and 'aboot' (which I don't think I've ever heard anyone say - maybe the Amish) to pretend they're the best hockey players in the world!!

Now, if they can't speak English at all, they're undoubtedly ours since they'd be from Quebec or an immigrant.

I will cop to the extra 'u's' and changing 'e' and 'r's' - we got that from our motherland - and no, that's not the U.S. But we did copy which side you drive on - or how else could we get to Disneyland!

And no offence taken - having lived next door to the U.S. all these years, we have developed pretty thick skins. And not just in winter.