Tipping in the US
 

I've asked this in someone else's thread but thought I would repost here for answers please!

I will be travelling to the US in september for the first time from Australia, where we don't really tip at all... could anyone provide some guidelines on approximate amounts to tip? When we were in Vietnam earlier this year we really went overboard with the tipping...

Waiter in a restaurant?
Maid cleaning the room in your hotel? (and where do you leave this?)
Someone who takes your bags to your room?
A tour guide on a group day trip?
A tour guide on a personalised day trip?
Fast food restaurants?

Here's my 2c (or was that supposed to be 15%)

Waiter in a restaurant?
The answer to this is the most standardized of all your questions. 15% is considered low end of the norm, 20% high end. If you pick a number somewhere from 15-20% you won't really be under or over tipping. For smaller tabs I generally increase my %, since 15% of a $10 tab doesn't go very far. For larger tabs, especially where alcohol drives up the price I'll err towards the lower end, often just flat 15%. Never less, unless service has been deficient.

The rest can vary greatly depending on personal practice.

Maid cleaning the room in your hotel? (and where do you leave this?) - as to where to leave it, these days it's common to find an envelope or tag with 'this room made up by INSERT NAME' conveniently in your room. Sometimes I'll leave a couple of $ at the end of my stay, sometimes I don't. Others can chime in with their experience and expectations of what I must or must not do.

Someone who takes your bags to your room? Usually only at higher end hotels, and I only use the service when traveling with family and numerous bags. $1/bag big bag is ok, no need to add $1 for each little bag they throw on the cart.

A tour guide on a group day trip?
$5-10 per person

A tour guide on a personalised day trip?
$10-$20/person

Fast food restaurants?
Usually $0, but sometimes I just throw the loose change into a tip bucket.

Tip jars are showing up everywhere these days. My rule of thumb is that if I am just using counter service - ordering and picking up myself - then no one gets a tip.

This can be a very controversial topic especially when the reply comes from some one who is dependent on tips. First start with the fact that TIP is short for " to insure promptness" and go from there.I generally tip a waiter or waitress ten to twenty percent. Ten percent for just doing their job and no more. Fifteen percent for going a little further as with good recommendations, very prompt service and not serving me food that is obviously not the way I ordered it and twenty percent for outstanding service. No tipping at fast food restaurants however.
General rule is one dollar per bag for a bellman and for maid service possibly two dollars per day left on the dresser at the end of the stay and only if I don't have to call down for clean towels, more Kleenex, etc.I cannot help you witha tour guide in the U.S. as I have never used one.Anyway, don't allow your self to be intimidated. Remember, tips are earned, not deserved. OBoy that comment will generate some controversey!!

re: tip jar, I usually only throw the remaining change in, or will tip a buck or two if my order was a real pain in the ass for the workers.

Of all the things you've read here so far, I think the most "different" will be twelveoaks "10-20%" for a waiter or waitress in a table-service restaurant. I personally tend to tip 15-20%, but I don't know anyone who tips less than 15% unless the service is deficient (in other words, I think 15% is the "norm" for "just doing their job and no more").

Tip jars - I usually ignore them if they're at the counter where I do all the work!

Maid service in a hotel - same as J62.

Bags - hardly ever use a bellman anymore (because I never have more than one bag, and that bag has wheels), but if I do, generally $4 or $5 regardless of the number of bags.

US Tipping--

Waiter/waitress in a restaurant: 15% minimum, 20% is not unusual, more is appreciated, based on the total check amount (no, not the total minus tax). Less than 15% is cheapskate-ville unless the waiter was really mean or really, really bad. On rare occasions (usually for parties of 6 or more) it may be already added to the bill -- check first. Normally, the tip is NOT included on the check in US restaurants.

Maid: $1.00 per day, especially if you leave any notes with special requests. I usually leave it on the bureau with a "thank you" scribbled on a small piece of paper if there's no envelope left for this purpose.

Tour guides in a group tour where you're with other people you don't know: anywhere from $1.00 to $5.00 depending on how they did.

Fast food joints: nothing. Often you'll see tip jars at the register at such places -- if you want to toss in the coins from your change, it's up to you. Not required, though.

Restaurants tip minimum 15% of cost without the tax - we usually leave 20% - more if servicce is special.

The same for taxis.

Leave the maid a couple of dolars a a day - we put in a envelope labled housekeeper if the hotel doesn't supply one.

Bellman a minimum of $2 and up for more than 1 bag.

Doorman $1 if he actually puts you in the cab - or has to go out in the street to search for one.

Don't do tours hear - but I would do a couple of dollars fr the massive group bus tours - a private guide I wold give 10-15%.

Fast food places nothing - yuo only tip for delivery of food to your seat.

Note this is for NYC. In some areas or smaller towns they may tip a little less.

You tip off the restaurant bill MINUS the tax?

I never heard of that one.

waiter - expects 15% of bill before tax. if the waiter is friendly, excellent, otherwise just makes me enjoy my meal, he gets 20% or more. it's rare it's less than 18%.

bellman- $2 per bag.
valet parker $1-$2-$5 for getting you your car, depending on the speed and the type of place it is.

maid- i kinda of still don't get this as maids are paid minimum wage, and it is their job, but $2 per pillow per night. at a resort i ask the front desk how they want it. if it is a simple check in check out hotel, these days you're supposed to leave it each night of your stay. i find that inconvenient and think the maid staff gets less overall (i'll usually leave $20-$25 for a stay of 4 or more nights with turn down service, but if i had to do it day by day they'd get less!)
you leave the bills by the phone/ on the table they will see first thing. also, don;t leave stray coins in an ashtray or dish, this could be misinterpreted.

tour guide - i don't take guided group tours, but if the personalized tour cost $50-$100 and you had a nice time, i'd tip at least 20%.

no tipping at fast food restaurants!

starbucks, etc. there are tip jars it's at your discretion. if your bill is 3.78, they get the change in my book. not obligatory.

in the long run i feel better giving someone a little more than i do counting pennies.

i thought tips stood for "to insure proper service," btw.

and all these trips to oz and new zealand and i had no idea no one expected a tip...no wonder i find people so nice there! i'm paying them!

kerikeri :)

Great website vic.

I like this one

Supermarket
bagger $1 or more per bag

and this one

Pilots: 50-$100 or more per pilot.


ROFLMAO

That last one was heavily edited by me.... some of you will get it.

SusieQ- all of the above is right and reasonable. Tip in restaurants 15% minimum (using the total bill less the tax- tax usually being somewhere in the 5-8% range). It should also be noted that if you are "comped" something (your dinner is cold when it comes out and the manager cuts the cost of your meal in half to compensate you for that), you are expected to tip on the full amount you would have paid for the meal.

The important thing to remember is that the US laws regarding wait staff are unique. The FEDERAL minimum wage in our country is $6.55/hour right now. But "tipped" employees are only guaranteed $2.13/hour. This is because the government "assumes" that their tips will make up the difference. Now, some State laws override this and have a State minimum that is higher. You can look those up if you wish, but the general rules above apply.

So, keep that in mind- that wait staff depend on those tips to earn a decent salary. This by no means indicates that you should tip someone who has provided really poor service. (In that case, I would leave 10% and ask to speak to a manager.) But 15% is standard for good service, 20% for excellent service.

And last poster was right about watching to see if they have added the tip to the bill- this will only happen if you are 6 or possibly 8 people- and it will be posted on the menu that the tip will be included in your bill.

Can't wait to read your trip report! Always interested in reading how folk from other country feel about our country. :) Welcome!

I tip on the pretax total by doubling the tax in my high-tax state, and adding a dollar or so if the service is good. A lot of people do this.

However I think the safest way to avoid dirty looks from servers is to tip 15 percent minimum on the total amount. There are some places where it is expected that tips are calculated at 15% of the total bill.

In most cases it's only going to be a few dollars difference anyways.

As for tipping in restaurants, depending on what the tax is in the area where you're eating, you can usually just double the tax amount to figure out the tip amount. That's what we do here in L.A. Our tax is 8.25%, so when the bill comes, we just look at the tax amount and then double it since tips should be 15-20%.
Traditionally, tips were to be added to the UNTAXED amount,but these days it's expected to be added to the total/taxed amount which can really add up.
I threw myself a huge birthday luncheon and paid for all 38 guests and the bill came to $750. Well, the tip was added to the taxed amount which made a huge difference in price than if it had been added to the untaxed amount. Happy Travels!

I used to leave a tip for housekeeping at the end of the stay, but others on this forum have convinced me to leave one daily. I just leave it on the desk, or any other obvious place.

With tour guides, it varies depending on the size of the group and length of the tour. If they mention "showing your appreciation" or "gratuities are appreciated" more than once, I may not bother at all. Typically, those are the ones that weren't that good anyway. But, for those who are outstanding or exceptional, I'm very generous.

I usually put a maid tip on top of a pillow. No way that can be mistaken or missed.

I usually put a maid tip on top of a pillow on the bed. No way that can be mistaken or missed.

Hotel maid - daily, as they do change throughout the stay. I try to leave between $2-3 per day with a Thank You note. I usually leave it on the desk.

At a busy nightclub - if there are 3-4 of you and order simple cocktails or just beers then $1-2 per order is sufficient. OTOH, if all of you order some different fu-fu:-D drinks, then tip $1 per drink.

We live in the Philadelphia suburbs and the norm here for tipping a waiter/waitress is 20%. I do not know anyone who leaves lower than that. 15% was 10 years ago, but not today, that would be considered an insult to the wait staff. And, at our favorite watering holes which we go to quite frequently, we will even leave more than 20%.
dave

Please don't feel compelled to leave tips for your hotel maid. A very small percentage of hotel guests actually do this.

Of course you should feel free to tip if you want, whether because you've asked a special favor or left the room a mess or have a sense of pity for the maid (as most of the posters who tip here seem to), but it's really not the norm.

what brian said.

I agree with AA and tip maids daily...$2-5. IMO they are the most appreciative of tips in a hotel...as opposed to doormen or bellmen..that have come to expect frequent tips.

As to whether you tip on the pre-tax or the after-tax amount:

First of all, I agree that the difference is small. If you want to completely ignore the difference because it's so small, feel free.

The main point, however, is that the U.S. IRS calculates the tips it expects servers to report as income, based on the pre-tax level. In other words, the IRS assumes that a server in Delaware (no sales tax) will make the same amount of tips (assuming, or course, that they make the same amount of sales) as a server in New York (large sales tax).

The IRS expects that you will tip the same amount to both servers. So I do.

Re: TIP (from Wikipedia)

The word "tip" is often inaccurately claimed to be an acronym for terms such as "to insure prompt service", "to insure proper service", "to improve performance", and "to insure promptness". However, this etymology contradicts the Oxford English Dictionary and is probably an example of a backronym. Moreover, all of these backronyms incorrectly require the word "insure" instead of the correct "ensure".

Anyone out there naive enough to think that servers claim all of their tips on their tax return?

These days some servers have to claim all of their tips.

I have a friend who works as a bartendar. The cash register/computer system calculates all of her sales. If the customer pays with a credit card (as most do, it has access to actual tip data). If the customer pays in cash, the computer assumes an 8% tip (which is low, but not many people pay in cash these days).

Needless to say her income is captured pretty effectively by this system, it appears on her W2 and she pays taxes on alomost everything she makes.

Not like the good old days when I was a waitress in college and could claim $10 a shift when I was making $100....

Waiter in a restaurant? 20% on total bill (unless the service was really horrible).

Maid cleaning the room in your hotel? (and where do you leave this?) - $1-$2 a day, on the pillow or in the provided envelope

Someone who takes your bags to your room? usually $5.00 - 10.00 depending on the # of bags (we stay in hotels that are $200 - 300 a night - probably less for a cheaper hotel)

A tour guide on a group day trip? Depends how big the group is (10 or 50) and how well they did and the price of the tour, length of the tour (8 hours or 3 days?).... I have given $5.00 to $50.00 depending on the circumstances - I usually ask others on the tour what they are tipping...


A tour guide on a personalised day trip? If they did a great job, I usually give 20% of the tour price.

Fast food restaurants? Nothing or perhaps spare change if there is a tip jar

I never leave a tip of less than 15%. If the service has been poor - or the staff surly - I make a complaint to the manager. And have stiffed really bad staff - and told them why I was doing so. Just be sure not to penalize them for someting not their fault - that is, the dish is poorly prepared.

But you do have the right to expect prompt and couteous service for your 20%.

Susie--Are you thoroughly confused now?

AND, note that the ONLY ones who have to claim (i.e., are monitored and tips estimated)their gratuities this way are those who make less than the U.S. minimum wage, on the basis of expectation of tips. (So, feel free not to tip for things you have paid through the nose for already!)

WOW - so much information...

Thanks everyone, I think I have it now - 15-20% on after tax amount, a couple of dollars for the maid each day, a couple of dollars if they take my (extremely overloaded) bag for me. With the current exchange rate it's not so bad from our end!!

Look forward to seeing your wonderful country in September!!

Susie, almost correct.. 15-20% on the BEFORE TAX amount. :)

(or like several others here, to figure out the tip easily, double the tax on the bill. Here in my city, the tax is 8.25%, so works out well to just double it.)

There's absolutely no need to base a restaurant tip on the amount of food PLUS sales tax. The server has nothing to do with the tax, after all.

In California it's easy to calculate restaurant tips, as the sales tax is somewhere around 7.5%. So just double the tax to get a ballpark figure for the tip.

Hotel housekeepers are not well paid and do a job that can be unpleasant. We usually tip at least $2 per day each day, as maids can change during the course of a stay. If there's no envelope provided, leave the money on a pillow.

Just one comment. I enjoyed hearing once again that TIPS stands for "To insure prompt service" -- but that is so meaningless. If it were true, one would tip when one sat down. Do you know anyone who does that? I don't.

And I am appalled that anyone would seriously consider tipping only 10% even for just so-so service in a decent restaurant!

And also, tax isn't necessarily the same across a whole state. Here in Los Angeles County, it's 8.25%, however, down in Orange County, about an hour down the freeway from me, it's less.I was just shopping there last weekend and didn't notice the percentage on my purchases. But, I thing it's in the 7.75% range which is why I try to buy my high end items down there when I'm out shopping at South Coast Plaza Mall in Costa Mesa.
Better yet, shopping/eating in Hawaii(Honolulu) is even better as their tax is still in the 5%/plus range.
So,if you can,try to find out the tax rates for the different areas you plan to go to if you're going to do any big shopping. I go crazy at, for example, Louis Vuitton in Honolulu as the prices are lower than here in L.A., plus the tax is also lower. Happy Travels!

susieQ, my two bob’s worth, from another Australian.

Don't forget the taxi drivers, who I think also expect something like 15% plus $1 per bag handled.

At first we forgot about the maids and then felt bad about that, as waiters and bartenders in the US can do very well despite their miniscule hourly wage. Mds have to get by on a small hourly rate in the absence of tips.

But if you talk to Americans you won't find perfect consensus in all areas. One well-travelled lady of my acquaintance told me she never tips maids; a hotel receptionist told me she hardly ever tips cabbies "because they're so rude and incompetent around here".

(Later we had occasion to discover just how incompetent when our driver flatly denied the existence of the Oakland Airport/Coliseum BART station. Having already used it, though, I felt myself on firm ground and argued just as flatly, but found ourselves at an entirely different station anyway. As it was on the same line we decided to quit while we were behind. I mention this experience as one of the few where we undertipped.)

We refused to tip only once, in the Old Faithful Inn at Yellowstone. It was the end of the season, our waitress could hardly be induced to acknowledge our existence, everything moved at a snail's pace and the meal was very ordinary. Earlier, at the Fairmont in Lake Louise, Canada, we’d cursed ourselves for tipping the sluggish, unfriendly and offhand waitress in the Saloon. But these were very much the exception, and as a rule tipping in the US is not an option. While the custom can grate, you must remind yourself that people need those tips to pay the rent.

While the system may offend an Australian's egalitarianism, it tends to produce faster and more professional, if not more friendly, service. The typical waiter's cameraderie is somewhat more manufactured than we're used to.

When it comes to large American organisations like airlines, as a rule you can expect brisker and less personal service, and a pronounced aversion to bending the rules by even a millimetre. This is probably due to the stress caused by corporate downsizing more than anything – I’ve been told that service in this area is not what it was.

Be polite and friendly yourself, but keep in mind that the waiter has no interest in being your mate. Americans tend to be more demanding of service personnel, and less forgiving of mistakes, than us, although they do get pushed around terribly by their airlines. Australian waiters often see visiting Americans as picky and even rude, but it's just a culturally determined different mindset. You, I’m sure, will find ordinary Americans welcoming and kind people.

I might mention that we're as travellers we're in the budget-with-the odd-splurge category. That being the case we learned pretty quickly that it pays to be self-reliant and limit the number of hands that grasp eagerly for your luggage. Packing light makes this easier to manage. One can certainly swan around like Lord and Lady Muck and let the peons carry one's bags everywhere, but it will cost.

Enjoy your trip - it's a great country to visit.

"If it were true, one would tip when one sat down. Do you know anyone who does that? I don't"

It seems to me that there are more and more restaurants (not fine dining, of course, but BBQ joints, family places, etc.) where you order at a counter and then the food is brought to the table. In many cases, when you use a credit card is these places, there's a place for the tip. I realize that may just be the way the form is set up. But it irritates me. You are, in essense, being asked to tip before you've gotten any service. I feel like a jerk drawing a line through the tip portion. But I'm not going to tip <i>before</i> I've been served. Heck, the service may be so good that they deserve a <i>larger</i> than usual tip!

NeilOz- since I've never been to Australia, I cannot say what a &quot;typical&quot; restaurant meal costs. I can tell you it is a lot cheaper to eat in most American cities than in pretty much any European city I've been in. (i.e a plate of plain pasta with tomato sauce in Rome might be 13Euros ($20), in Dallas area, most perfectly fine Italian diners can get a good plate of the same thing for half of that.)

So, if restaurants are generally more expensive in Australia, then the tip to the American server shouldn't be too much of a hardship. It would be tit for tat. :)

sarge, I didn't say that tipping in the US is a hardship and in fact we did find American restaurant prices (disregarding the exchange rate) somewhat lower than their Australian equivalents.

Clearly, if US waiters received a living wage plus 0-10% tips as in Australia their employers would have to increase prices to cover the wages bill.

American visitors to Australia do often complain about &quot;sticker shock&quot; in restaurant prices. In part this may be a self-inflicted wound, as they assume they should tip 15-20%, as at home. Also the prices on the menu include our counterpart of US sales taxes. In addition, there's no stigma attached to bringing your own wine in most Australian restaurants, which makes a significant difference to the final bill.

Overall there's still a difference, but in my experience nothing like the Rome-Texas disparity you mention. I seldom order pasta in a restaurant because I prefer to have something I can't make just as well and easily at home, but I wouldn't expect to pay anything like US$20 for an ordinary dish like that here.