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What To Tip
By JD Bluefield | April 18, 2008
Tip Reference List: After posting Who To Tip, I put together this quick reference list of my tipping habits and standards, but never got around to posting it. Last night at a restaurant, someone asked me “what to tip”, so I felt this was a good opportunity to dust this topic off again. Everyone’s opinion on the standard for tipping will vary, especially if you work in one of these service industries, but I generally start with 15% for standard-good service and move up or down depending on the treatment. So here there are in a nutshell:
- Food Service
- Tip in a jar: $0 (If it goes in a jar, its optional)
- Barista: $0 (Starbucks/Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf)
- Restaurant Take-out: $0 (No service given, no tip needed)
- Pizza/Restaurant Delivery: $2-3 average. $5 if really fast or large order.
- Bartender/Club Waitress: $1-2 per drink depending on complexity. Beer bottles, $1 max. Want better service down the road, start off higher.
- Host/Maite d’: $5-20 for special treatment, they hold a birthday cake for you, better seating, etc.
- Waiter/Waitress: 15% +/-
- Buffet: At least, $1 per person, because someone has to clear those plates and wipe your mess. If you order drinks or got other services, consider moving closer to the standard 15% range.
- Grooming
- Barber/Hairstylist: 15% for a standard cut. (Where I go, its only $16 for a cut, shampoo, condition and style. So for a good job I’m more than willing to drop $4-5, which is 25-30%).
- Travel
- Room Service: $5
- House Keeping: $2-5 per night. (I’ve had things go missing at low to standard level chains, so unless its an upscale hotel, I’ll usually leave the “do not disturb” on the door knob for the entire stay and leave tip at the end.)
- Airport-Shuttle/Bellman/Porter/Skycap: $1/bag, but I usually carry it myself.
- Taxi Driver: 15%.
- Valet: $2-5… depending on how nice your car is and how much you car about it.
- Holiday Tipping
- Mail-Carrier: $15-20, but non-cash ( Per Federal Law, they aren’t supposed to accept cash.)
- Newspaper: $0 (I don’t get one, and who read news on paper anymore?)
- Garbage Collector: $0 (We have automated trash collection, one guy driving and one guy operating a robot arm. The days of underpaid garbage collectors doing filthy, unwanted jobs are gone.
- Babysitter/Housekeeping/etc.: One week’s pay ( I don’t have such help, but I hear that is the going rate. If you need to trust someone with your home or family, you better be willing to pay for that service.)
- MISC
- Handy Man: Optional
- Gas Attendant: Optional
- Grocery Loader: Optional
- Movers: Optional
- Washroom Attendant: Optional (I consider this extortion by the way! On the other hand, if you take some cologne or a mint, throw him bone)
As I said in Who To Tip, my basic rule of thumb is to tip when you’re provided an “extra” service above what is standard or when you expect good service in the future. If you’re receiving the standard fare that everyone else is receiving (i.e. the same size coffee the previous guy got, standard sub-sandwich), there is no reason to tip.
So far that was “Who” and “What”, next is… “How”. Not “How To Tip”, but “How To Calculate Tip”!
Topics: Calculators, Engineered Living, Travel |
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