[cerveza_fiesta]

my rule around here is 15% for anything served to me by another person. I always make sure to do it in restaurants, bars and clubs because people get pissy if I don't.

Hotels, generally no, unless I have some extra bills before checkout, then I leave a few bucks for the maid.

Always tip cabbies, because it makes their day since they don't get tipped a lot

Any restaurants / bars I visit often I always overtip. It makes the servers remember me and I get 100% better service.

[caladanbrood]

In clubs? Like, just over the bar??

[cerveza_fiesta]

yup. I think its kind of expected around here. Everybody I know does it anyway.

[caladanbrood]

Bizarre. I mean, I can understand if it's a cocktail bar or something and it's a really complicated drink to make, but what if you're just getting a round of beers?:confused:

[cerveza_fiesta]

same. I usually don't tip much in that case. If it happens to be a $4.50 pint I'll leave the 50 cents. If I'm getting a round that costs 18 bucks, I'll leave the $2 coin.

Meh, its not a big deal to me at all, and the waiters rely on that as income plus (this being a university town) are mostly students that get paid pretty shittily salarywise, so I don't mind.

[Dag]

Here in Austria, it is custom to give a 10% tip to:

-the waiter/waitress (those who bring your food and drinks to the table - never in self-service restaurants);
-taxi drivers;
-food delivery service (i.e. for pizza and all those unhealthy things people usually start to crave for in the middle of the night);
-the hairdressers.

The tip is hoped for, but if you leave none, nobody will get excited about it. I tip always, except when the service is really bad or the taxi driver misjudges my natural blondness for blindness and takes me for an extra ride around the block.

How much you leave under the pillow in a hotel here - that depends on the hotel, the length of your stay and the service you have received, and is also hoped for, but not necessarily expected. 10 to 20 Euro are considered to be a nice tip.

For Christmas or at the beginning of the year, we usually give larger tips (some 20-30 euro) to the mailman, the cleaning lady, the newspaper delivery, the janitor... and all other people who regularly work in our appartment buildings, to keep good relations.

And that's about it. It is not obligatory to give a tip anywhere and no one will get insulted if you don't give it, but it is considered to be a polite way of showing that you have appreciated the good service that you have received.

[Dag]

Sorry for double-post, but I found this article in FT on Saturday:

US waiters give European tourists a tip as gratuities fail to fit the bill

[Morgoth]

Dag;268862 said:

Sorry for double-post, but I found this article in FT on Saturday:

US waiters give European tourists a tip as gratuities fail to fit the bill

as I'm not planning to register there, would you be able to copy and paste the whole thing here?

[Dag]

Morgoth;268889 said:

as I'm not planning to register there, would you be able to copy and paste the whole thing here?

Errm... It should be in the free access area... I simply googled the title from the memory... :confused: But, here it is:

Quote

US waiters give European tourists a tip as gratuities fail to fit the bill
By Joshua Chaffin and Christopher Grimes in New York
Published: March 1 2008

New York restaurant owners may be welcoming the crowds of European tourists taking advantage of the weak dollar to descend on their tables, but the city's waiters are taking a dimmer view of visitors' notorious reluctance to tip.

European tourists have come to the US in record numbers since the dollar started to plunge sharply against the euro last year.

But, even though one euro is worth more than $1.50 compared with $1.30 a year ago, waiters and bartenders say many Europeans remain hesitant about tipping the traditional 15 per cent to 20 per cent of the bill.

Whether this is because they are unaware of the custom or opposed to it is probably irrelevant to waiters and bartenders, who are paid just a few dollars an hour and rely on tips to pay the rent.

"They have money to spend and they order great bottles of wine, but there's a flipside," a sommelier at a top Manhattan restaurant said. "It's hurting people's livelihoods."

Bruce Flynn, a UK native who has operated restaurants in New York and Florida, agreed. "This has been a problem for a long time, but it's so obvious now because so many people are coming over," he said.

Many restaurants have resorted to printing reminders at the bottom of the bill, along with a suggested gratuity. But the problem is thornier at upscale eateries, where such displays might be considered tacky.

Miami faced a similar dilemma in the 1990s when it became a popular draw for European tourists, according to David Kelsey, president of the South Beach Hotel and Restaurant Association.

"Being a waiter [in Europe] would be a profession, and would be paid for accordingly by the restaurant. Here, it tends to be something you do while you're waiting to be discovered, or in school," Mr Kelsey said.

This time round some restaurants in Florida have confronted the issue by printing a euro symbol on the bill.

While waiters grumble about getting "stiffed", managers seem to welcome the foreign invasion amid a slowing economy.

Richard Coraine, operations chief for the Union Square Hospitality Group, which includes the Union Square Café and The Modern, said that up to 15 per cent of his nightly guests are from Europe.

"I would say they are the lone bright spot right now," Mr Coraine said.

The Financial Times Limited 2008
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/75125a9c-e707-11...00779fd2ac.html

[caladanbrood]

They print those "suggested gratuities" on bills over here. It's frankly a bit ridiculous.

It still simply comes down to what I think is a differing definition. In America, it's seen as a right for any service, in europe (or the UK at least) it's seen as a reward for something special.

[Shinrei]

Got a $2 tip on a $44 dollar bill tonight. When I mentioned this to my coworker he told me the story from his Saturday night.

A table spent $200 and tipped him only $9, a 4.5% tip. Well, $9 is $9 except, we (as does any restaurant in the US) tip-out to the bar, bussers and in our restaurant the sushi chefs. The tip-out is based on sales, not actual tip received. So, after tipping 1% to the sushi chefs, 1% to the busser and 2% to the bartenders, he was left with a $1.00 tip.

After doing the math, I realized I ended up with the same 0.5% tip as him, making my tip from that table a lovely 22 cents.

Like it or not, this is the tipping system in America, so all you non-americans, if you visit america, remember this please (chalk it up to culture if you will).

[Terez]

Wry;256640 said:

(and yes i have seen Pulp fiction )

Wasn't it Reservoir Dogs?

I've worked as a waitress making less than $3 an hour for 14 years. Bad tips are frustrating. I haven't noticed a particular problem with Europeans, though...some Europeans don't tip, some tip quite generously. I did have this German couple one time that brought their dishes up to the bar when they were done....that was kinda weird...and as much as that action displayed ignorance of our cultural practices, they still tipped...

[Optimus Prime]

We had someone very rich come in the other day, I can't say who because its a security thing, but let's just say he's worth A LOT and tipped...

very little

[Zanth13]

Xander;272234 said:

We had someone very rich come in the other day, I can't say who because its a security thing, but let's just say he's worth A LOT and tipped...

very little

So plan you revenge for next time they visit... perhaps put pepper juice in the free lotion

[Optimus Prime]

I was going to poop in the top of their toilets in their villa and laugh hysterically during their stay

[Flawed]

Xander;272234 said:

We had someone very rich come in the other day, I can't say who because its a security thing, but let's just say he's worth A LOT and tipped...

very little

Thats why they are rich.

" Money talks. ooooooooooohhhhhhhh! Money talks. Dirty cash i want you dirty cash i need you ohhhh! "

[Cougar]

Flawed;272273 said:

Thats why they are rich.

" Money talks. ooooooooooohhhhhhhh! Money talks. Dirty cash i want you dirty cash i need you ohhhh! "

Really showing your age with that reference Flawed you handsome devil.

I remember the Sultan of Brunei leaving a £10k tip at a restaraunt years ago(it was on the news) for a particularly good waiter but when you worked out what he [the sultan not the waiter] earned a day it was the equivalent of the average worker leaving 12p or something similarly crap.

[Flawed]

Cougar;272293 said:

Really showing your age with that reference Flawed you handsome devil.
.

* Doff's Hat *

I have a similar story concerning the old Sultana of Brunei. ( SP )

A friend of mine works in an airport on the runway and old rich boy features was walking over from his car to his private jet with all his body guards etc.

My mate noticed his wallet had fallen out and was on the floor so he rushed over and shouted for him to stop. There was a bit of cuffuffle as the bodyguards thought he was about to closeline the Sultan but it all worked out in the end when my mate showed him that he had dropped his wallet.

Well the Sultan nodded his thanks and grabbed a fistful of notes from his wallet and gave them to my mate. It was all foreign currency and stuff but when he went to a currency exchange the next day to get it changed up it came to about £6500.

Fair enough that's a drop in the ocean to the chap but he didn't have to do that now did he.

My mate certainly wouldn't of expected anything for his honesty.

Handsome

[Aptorian]

That's like 70-80.000 danish kroners. That's around 2,5 years worth of the student money the government pays me for studying...

Shit...

[Thelomen Toblerone]

I cant believe your bastardly good government pays you to study. We have to pay. And we have no choice but to pay through a system that ensures we pay lots of juicy interest, too.

And I especially can't believe the Danish government is mad enough to pay you, Apt. How would the good bacon loving citizens o Dane-land like it if they knew their tax money was funding the theft of wheelchairs and consumption of vast amounts of Carlsberg?