Doug Stallings' No-Nonsense Traveler's Tips for Tipping
 

I'm posting this here because there seems to be NO way to respond to Doug Stallings' piece directly.

WHY, WHY is there no DON'T for not tipping in a no tipping country? China, Japan, Australia, New Zealand... Have you not read the discussions on the Asia board about this? (See http://www.fodors.com/community/asia...uided-tour.cfm) You are just encouraging a really bad American habit. And this whole piece is SO American-centric. No, you don't automatically tip 15% unless there's a service charge.You find out what the correct percentage is for the country you're visiting, and it's almost certainly NOT 15%. (And I hear that in New York it's now 20%, not 18%.)

I'm sorry about the caps, but I'm really annoyed that you made the situation worse, not better.

A shout of support here. America is the only country I know that has this overblown system of tipping. It's because service staff aren't paid properly I hear. It's sad that Americans believe that their system applies all over the world when in fact it's the exception.

You're absolutely correct that there are a few countries where tipping is not the norm, and I think that's a very good "don't" to add to my list. I'd also add a don't for much of the South Pacific, where tipping is actually considered an insultin some countries. But I still feel that these are the exceptions rather than the rule, which is why I also say that you have to do your homeowrk. My assumption is that people who do some research will find out that people generally don't tip in Australia and New Zealand.

And while tipping is technically banned in much of China (though definitely NOT Hong Kong), the trend is toward more people accepting and even soliciting tips.

"the trend is toward more people accepting and even soliciting tips." All the more reason not to encourage it! Did you read the thread I linked to? This is being pushed on foreign tourists by unscrupulous Chinese tour companies.

China is a very large country, three times the population of the US, why would you think of their practice as an exception? And if you add in the South Pacific and Australasia, that's a pretty large percentage of the globe.

Although I've lived in the US for over 30 years, I still find the practice of deliberately underpaying service staff, in the expectation that the customer will make up the difference, a horrible system.

Just wanted to add that we're working to turn on a comments feature for our blog---so in the future thursdaysd you'll be able to respond directly on the article.

For now, you can post here or send comments to Doug directly at [email protected].

For those curious about Doug's blog post, you can see it here:
http://www.fodors.com/news/story_3373.html

Thanks Katie - that will be a big improvement! I wanted to add a plug for Lviv's cemetery to the cemetery piece, but couldn't do that, either.

It's disconcerting to me when a Fodor's editor is passing on misinformation. People really do value what they assume to be "expertise" and might not bother to research any further, to find an accurate answer to the destination they are traveling to.

Thank you ThursdaySD for bringing this up! suze

Thanks suze. It's particularly annoying when the response to a correction is to say that you expect people to use other resources! Of course, Doug and I see this situation quite differently - this is the closer from his piece: "There, I just contributed to tip inflation all over the world, and I'm not sorry."

Sorry, sounds like an arrogant attitude, and is unfortunate that he is allowed to use his position at Fodor's to spread misinformation. I don't understand why he is not instead, more interested in learning and following the local customs of the places he visits. And telling people about THAT.