tipping for private Chauffeur tour
 

I'm needing some help trying to determine how much to tip our chauffeur for an upcoming 8 day trip to Ireland.

I don't have the transportation cost of the trip just the total trip price which includes transportation and hotels.

We are a family of 4. I was thinking 50 euros per day, but thought I would post here to get your feedback

Thanks in advance

>>I was thinking 50 euros per day<<

€50 . . . per day? Is this for a coach holding 45 people?

If you are talking a car and 2 or 3 passengers . . . €10 per day would be generous. You could round up to €100 for the 8 days but that is a lot.

50 euros per day for a family of 4 ...total 400 euros for the 8 days.

What are you really doing? It sounds like you have booked a luxury private vacation that includes a private chauffeur daily, but for some reason, your travel agent has not broken out the charge of the driver for you? I've just never heard of a packaged tour that includes a private chauffeur for a week, but maybe there is. I agree with janis, 100 euro for the week sounds fine. I don't really understand if you are thinking of tipping 400 euro to this driver? Just sounds incredible to me. This is presuming they or the company that they work for IS being paid something already for this service.

I will admit I personally may tip a driver/guide about 10 euro for a day trip when I'm part of a group, so they are getting maybe 75-100 euro total for the day. And I understand you are four people or so but the driver isn't doing that much work for the fact that there are 4 people versus 1.

>>total 400 euros for the 8 days.<<

That is ridiculously too much - honest. This is a TIP, not his salary. €100 TIP (remember - it is only a gratuity) is MORE than generous. Europe is not like the US where we tip every time someone sneezes and 20% for mediocre service.

<<I was thinking 50 euros per day>>

That is "American thinking" and totally out of place in Europe. Whether it's a bus coach tour or a private driver, anything beyond 10€ a day is excessive.

Who's to say the driver will even earn a tip? It's not obligatory here and only given for exceptional service received. €50 would be plenty, if you feel it's deserved.

We had a driver for 7 nights, 8 days in Scotland for our private tour for 8 people driving from Inverness to Skye, Harris and Lewis, Oban, and back to Inverness. A tip was much debated. In the end we gave a tip of 120 L and the driver thought it was so generous he drove us to the airport the day after the tour ended for free.

>> In the end we gave a tip of 120 L and the driver thought it was so generous he drove us to the airport the day after the tour ended for free.<<

Exactly -- (£120 = about €135 for the OP's benefit) and that was for the same time frame for a group twice the size and most likely a much larger vehicle and even the driver thought it was excessive. He obviously was very appreciative, but even @ £100 he probably would have been gobsmacked.

Tipping in the USA is a special case -- We have a crazy tipping culture - tip everyone for everything. Don't drag our customs to other countries.

Just an update after reading the Conditions for hire a 15% standard tip or more is to be paid to the driver directly.

This would be roughly 900 euros at the end of the 8 days....

Well, sorry, but that's insane. Find another solution.

What's the difference pay a Service Fee at restaurants or cafes of 15-20% and paying Service for a private chauffeur? Are we "insane" for paying the mandtory service fee/tip at restaurants too? What's the difference pray tell??? Maybe the driver does depend on that for his wages - some bus tours I've seen have that policy too. Price similar services/tours to see what they charge.

Wonder how they make sure folks pay that much after tour is finished?

>>This would be roughly 900 euros at the end of the 8 days....<<

Does that mean the driver is charging nearly €7,000 to drive you around for 8 days??? That is insane. I doubt that is the situation at all. A driver is not tipped on the cost of your accommodations, entrance fees, etc. Merely on his individual services.

PAL: >>Are we "insane" for paying the mandtory service fee/tip at restaurants too?<<

£900 is most likely 15% of the bill for the entire itinerary. So yes that is nuts. The driver is tipped based on HIS services, not for the hotel etc.

<<Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater >>

PalenQ #2 on the cliché standard response list of about 10. yawn.

Sounds like that driver may well depend on the 15% service charge (about $130-40/day; not outrageous for all-day service IMO) for his/her wages or the company would not make such a demand, which I too find outrageous and odious as I do mandatory service charges and even tipping at places like restaurants - all costs should be the responsibility of owners who should pay staff decent wage out of the take.

>>Sounds like that driver may well depend on the 15% service charge <<

Depend on tips? And just how did you deduce that? That isn't how the hospitality industry works in Europe (which you would supposedly know)

Because IMO otherwise no company would also pay the chauffeur a decent wage and demand that such a large tip be paid to him/her (guides are often independent contractors who are not full-time employees of company who bid for the job even at times I understand - and there are more than a few group tours that operate this way and state so in the brochures. Very important point if the chauffeur depends on that tip for his/her wages and no one - even you - can say whether or not that is so for sure.

I do find the whole US tipping culture being brought to other countries annoying, it's not how it's done in many other places. However, it sounds like the OP has more money than they know what to do with so let them give the guy his monthly salary in tips and make his Christmases all come at once. He'll be talking about these crazy Americans for years to come.

If the chauffeur is not being paid the minimum wage then he needs to take that up with his employer. If his wages are being topped up with cash and not subject to the usual taxes & insurance contributions then I'm sure Revenue would like to hear about it.

<<otherwise no company would also pay the chauffeur a decent wage and demand that such a large tip be paid to him/her...>>

Where on earth did you get the idea that the company (or anyone) DEMANDED a tip? The OP never said any such thing. It helps to read, Pal.

It would be interesting to know what company the OP is using. Of course, the numbers being suggested are insane.

PAL: >>otherwise no company would also pay the chauffeur a decent wage and demand that such a large tip be paid to him/her<<

The OP said that per the terms and conditions, the driver will get a a 15% gratuity - not€900 . . . It seems the OP jumped to the conclusion that 15% is €900 based on the total amount of the tour. I think there is a major miscommunication somewhere.

For our driver we paid 120£ because there were 8 of us and it was easy to do the math. 15£ each x 8 people = 120£.

The my friends' American outlooks, it seemed really cheap to each tip only 15£ for an entire week. I pointed out that our documents said nothing about tips, and when we queried the tour company, they said, "sure, you can tip the driver, " and offered no guidance.

The driver dropped us at our final hotel and we gave him an envelope with the tip. The next day we ordered a taxi to take us to the airport, and who should arrive but our driver. He saw the call come in for a group of our size at our hotel and knew it was us, so he took the call. At the airport, when we tried to pay him for the fee, he said there was no charge because we had already been so generous.

To the OP: What are your costs?

900E is 15% of 6000E. So to derive 900E as a possible tip, you need 6000E in costs (Janis's math is a touch off). Is that the number you're working from?

The next question is: what does the 6000E cover? Does it cover airfare, hotels and driving? Does it cover hotels and tour only (which seems expensive but perhaps not if you're doing some Abercrombie & Kent level tour)? Does it only cover the dude driving you from place to place (which would be remarkably expensive)?

If it covers airfare and hotels, then you cannot possibly proffer a 900E tip to the driver as a rational amount - you'd be tipping him for the work of your pilots and hotel staff and the pilots put in a lot more training and work to do their jobs well (and more depends upon them).

If the 6000E covers hotel and tour only (aka land tour), then you need to excise the hotel costs from the amount of "cost" attributable to the driving tour. If you're paying 6000E for the land tour, then you should (1) have your hotels ID'd already, and (2) be able to calculate their rack rates for the room(s) you will utilize. Take the rack rate out of the 6000E cost. [Don't concern yourself that the tour company gets lower rates than the rack rate, that's part of their profit and not part of the driver's payment.]

Are any meals included? More importantly (since tourist hotels in Europe frequently, if not usually, include breakfast) - are any lunches and dinners included? If so, estimate some money for that. Lunch for a family of four can run 40-60E for casual sit down, dinner would be double that. These are back-of-napkin numbers only (not meant for reliance for any budgeting you're doing). If the restaurants have been disclosed, you can determine the costs yourself.

After doing that math, you derive the (rough) price of the driver for the 8 days. And that could be your baseline for tipping. But using the aggregate total of the whole trip when just a portion of your costs are dedicated to the driver means you will be overtipping by a ludicrous amount.