Tipping at dinner (half board) in Switzerland?
 

I am having a fabulous time in Switzerland right now, hanging out in Wengen..what fabulous views here! I am staying at the Baeren hotel here and was wondering what the normal protocol for tipping was when you have the price of dinner included with your room. The dinner was wonderful so I left 5 francs on the table when leaving, but I did not notice any German speaking couples doing the same.. what is the usual procedure?

Certainly five francs is on the high side, in my opinion. But, most other residents probably leave nothing at all.

I stayed for business in the hotels in Switzerland and I normally tipped some of the personnel. These were my most people received tips.


Baggage - 1 franc per bag

Car parking - couple of francs when the car is parked or bringing the car back.

Waiters at the local terrace cafe - franc normally for a coffee and cake

Room lady - about 1 franc per day, usually paid at the end of the week.

Desk personnel get nothing. Ditto for the concierge, unless special services were provided.

I never took meals in the hotel, so I couldn't give you a good idea.

Remember that the service waiters are already getting about 13% of your meal costs. Certainly this will be spread with the busboys and dishwashers, etc. but that's on top of a decent salary.

But if you're having a good meal and it's rememebering, five francs isn't too much.

Blackduff

I am no authority concerning this so take it lightly but considering you are so happy with the dinner and everysthing, I think you are doing fine leaving CHF5. (Isn't this for the party and not per person? but it doesn't matter anyway). It's no obligatgion so if the German leave nothing, don't be too concerned. I don't think there is no "must to do". What my Swiss friends do vary too. Some leave some tips(CHF5.00 is slightly on generous side per meal) , some don't (not necessarily being skimpy but don't think too much about tipping). In any case I'm sure the servers appreciate your gesture.

I'm still interested what Swiss experts say.

> I don't think there is no "must to do".

I don't think there is ANY "must do".

Hi whitey,

As kappa says, there is no real rule about this --

But I feel most comfortable giving a personal tip at the end of my stay. I hand it to the room manager, the person I've seen directing all the wait staff. I tell that person that I really enjoyed the service, and to disperse the tip. I guess I leave something like 10 chf for a week's worth of half board. (Sure hope it got distributed!!)

s

I have often wondered about this myself.
Two weeks ago as we were leaving Zermatt about dark, we opted to eat dinner at a hotel in Täsch.

The young lady serving us seated us in a plush corner of the dining room, gave us excellent, attentive service the whole time we were there, and generally was extremely pleasant and helpful.

She spoke some English, having visited in the US and Canada. That helped her be helpful to my wife who speaks no German at all.

At the end of the meal, I tipped her what was probably a little too much, but for the kind of evening she helped us enjoy, I felt like she deserved it.

Now slowpoke, slipshod at the hotel that we used in Stalden got nary a rappen.

I don't mind the tip being perhaps a little too much if the server has really done a splendid job and made my evening meal most enjoyable.

Also, I don't feel guilty if I leave nothing when the service was not worth a #@$#$@#$@.

I think you were perfectly correct, bob brown: with your generous tip to the young server you showed that her efforts were appreciated and you made her feel good :-) You should not do so for poor service. After all, this is on top of normal gratuities, and a salary with benefits.

Personally, I've noticed that higher extra tips are now left for service personnel. Maybe it's because my family and friends want to be treated nicely the next time they come to the restaurant... ;-) When gratuity charges were first added to the bills, people just "rounded up" with a little extra change. In other words, the change that was left to the next higher denomination.

whitey - We usually give a tip at the end of the stay. Enjoy the fabulous views!! And have a wonderful vacation.

We've stayed with half board a number of times and we are never sure what to do, but we do tip when we leave. Last year in Italy we tipped E5 each to two young men who had served us breakfast and dinner for 5 days. We hoped this was alright.

Thanks everyone, I hadn't thought about tipping at the end of the stay - that's what I'll do..

PS Thanks to everyone who has helped me plan this trip for the last 9 months....It's been fantastic!

Glad to hear you are having a great time. We were in Wengen in June and just loved it.

We also stayed half-board (at the Alpenrose)and weren't sure about tipping the first night as no one else seemed to leave anything. Fortunately, while I was asking a question at the front desk, someone who was departing left an envelope for the staff. So that is what we did.....left chf as a gratuity to be distributed to the staff with a note of thanks.

Enjoy!