tipping on coach tour..

wannaberichbtch

Regarding tipping, I think of it in terms of how long I need to work to cover this, for instance I would not want to work a whole day to give a guide and driver a tip for 1 weeks work. Additionally a good guide will earn their tip by giving you local information on restaurants etc that will save you money, if they just recite facts in a monotone way and dont interact personally they havent earnt a tip

dzug1

aliasojo wrote: »

On that point we will have to agree to disagree.

Well yes we'll disagree. When visiting a country you need to be mindful of its customs. Not tipping in the US is the equivalent of say walking into a Greek Orthodox church service in beachwear.

If you can't afford to tip you can't afford to visit the US.

aliasojo

dzug1 wrote: »

Well yes we'll disagree. When visiting a country you need to be mindful of its customs. Not tipping in the US is the equivalent of say walking into a Greek Orthodox church service in beachwear.

If you can't afford to tip you can't afford to visit the US.

I didn't say I wouldn't tip. :rolleyes: My objection is being told what to tip.

violetta

Beenie wrote: »

Tipping is an absolute nightmare. We were on a coach tour and the recommended tip was close on £9 per day for the two of us. We thought it ridiculous but the tour leader was adamant that it would end up with a nasty situation if we didn't pay up. Our bags would be left behind and all that sort of nonsense. Everyone grumbled but was bullied into paying the recommended sum. It left a nasty taste in the mouth.

That kind of intimidation should be stood up to by the whole coach full of people - the courier deserved no tip at all for that kind of behaviour, and reporting to the holiday company on your return with strongly worded complaints. Tipping the amount you, and you alone, feel is appropriate should be a happy and voluntary thing in recognition of a great time and the courier going the extra mile for the coach party's comfort and enjoyment.

mich_city

dzug1 wrote: »

Well yes we'll disagree. When visiting a country you need to be mindful of its customs. Not tipping in the US is the equivalent of say walking into a Greek Orthodox church service in beachwear.

If you can't afford to tip you can't afford to visit the US.

that isn't the issue, have already stated I dont mind tipping at all.. but the amount they recommend seemed pretty steep to me.. given that the total of all the optional tours will be well over $400 each (there are even more that we dont want to do) to ask that on top is a bit much - IMO

to be intimidated into coughing up with the threat of your bags being off loaded is very naughty I think!

costapkt

They will probably earn comission for any extra trips you book.
Also if you stop at diners on trip they usually get a backhander from these places as well, for it being a regular rest stop. Nice work if you can get it!!!

violetta

costapkt wrote: »

They will probably earn comission for any extra trips you book.
Also if you stop at diners on trip they usually get a backhander from these places as well, for it being a regular rest stop. Nice work if you can get it!!!

I am sure the courier receives a backhander from the restaurants he/she recommends - ours actually mentioned the morning after the evening in Sonora that the proprietress of a restaurant he recommended (Bannys) had told him she was so busy with the business he sent her, she had run out of food!

It occurred to me that the only reason he would be talking to her at the end of the evening was to collect his backhander!

[Deleted User]

You really do have to grit your teeth when running the driver/courier gauntlet at the end of a tour. I asked someone very approachable and experienced on the 11 day foreign trip and she said that she always paid £5 and that was that. So we paid £5 to each driver. End of

I think we have been too generous in the past in paying double that but no way on earth would I pay what titan suggested on our tours. Most people take envelopes with them anyway. Its a shocking thing this tipping and certainly the titan couriers get paid properly so unless we get extremely high service on our next titan tour, we will not be tipping at all

PolishBigSpender

Maybe it's just my Polish attitude, but if a tour guide started demanding a large tip - I'd give him a tip - straight on the end of his nose.

Tips are earnt, it's as simple as that.

harz99

Very interesting thread; we sometimes tip 10% for good service and sometimes nothing at all, depending on where we are in the world and how we feel.

In 2007 we did a 4 week tour of China with Wendy Wu Tours; the National Guide who accompanied us collected £45 each of us for the tips for all the porters, waiters, local guides etc. on the whole trip. We knew this would be the way when we booked from the company conditions. She also got the equivalent of £20 each at the end of the tour from us for a job well done. Had that been in the US we would probably have given her double that if the circumstances were the same.

We have been on two cruises recently where an upfront agreement to tips of $12 pp per day has been charged to us. At least that is shared between the whole crew and probably equates to around $500 per person over 14 days for what is a considerably harder job than that done by your average coach crew. I actually like this system as it does reach everybody behind the scenes as well as those you interface with.

I think we need to consider how the labour market works in each country and do accordingly; okay maybe the workers should unite and force the employers to pay a proper wage - but these people still have to live today, and very few other countries (even in Europe) have a National Minimum Wage to fall back on.

Finally, my own experience of US travellers is that by and large they tip far too much and far too frequently, hence the over inflated expectations we read about in the posts above.