A traveler’s guide to TIPPING
By Elaine Glusac | ot long into the pandemic, Americans were eager to tip their front-line-working baristas and servers. But now that tip fatigue has set in — driven by the proliferation of payment tablets that suggest tipping for everything from a sandwich at a grab-and-go counter to an ultrasound — consumers are often bewildered by when and how much to tip.
N“This is the hottest topic in etiquette right now,” said Daniel Post Senning, co-author of “Emily Post Etiquette, The Centennial Edition” and the great-great-grandson of etiquette icon Emily Post. He cites inflation, the pandemic and the rush back to travel for the unease. “There’s growing anxiety and public discussion around tipping.”
Etiquette experts, academics and travelers offered guidance on how to tip when you travel.
Make 15% to 20% your restaurant baseline.
Tipping standards at restaurants vary widely around the world. In the U.S., the American Hotel & Lodging Association suggests in its “Gratuity Guide” leaving 15% of the total bill or up to 20% for extraordinary service.
“The minimum is 15%,” said Elaine Swann, an etiquette expert and the founder of the Swann School of Protocol in Carlsbad, California. “It can be increased from there based on the level of service received.”
Before the pandemic, tip averages in restaurants nationally had crept up to 18%, a standard that fell back to 15% more recently as inflation grew, said Amanda Belarmino, assistant professor in the hospitality school at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. “I don’t think consumers want to be stingy, but everybody’s budget is tight, and they’re trying to make trade-off decisions,” she said.
Despite expert advice, consumers may not have a choice. In many U.S. cities, tips are increasingly included in
the bill and often are well above 15%.
At a cocktail bar in LA recently, an $18 drink came to $24 after an 18% gratuity and an additional fee for employee health care. The bartender mentioned that the establishment includes tips in their tallies because it serves guests from foreign countries where tipping is not standard.
According to the Independent Restaurant Coalition, service charges benefit all employees, including cooks and dishwashers as well as servers. “The service charge model ensures that employee compensation is fair, reliable and not reliant on the diners’ experience or bias,” said Erika Polmar, the executive director of the coalition.
Don’t be afraid to say no.
Some tip requests should be denied, according to experts.
For example, when you’re ordering coffee or a sandwich from a counter and are presented with a payment screen including suggested tip amounts, “push past that awkwardness and push no tip,” Swann said. “Proprietors are offering a perk to employees, and they’re putting it on the backs of consumers to absorb.”
The growth of credit card payments over cash has made it harder to show appreciation via the tip jar, especially if you’re not carrying cash. If in the past, you would pay with cash and leave the coins, Senning advised rounding up on your credit card and doing the same thing virtually.
Stock up on small bills.
Travel offers many other opportunities to leave tips for service providers such as cabdrivers, bellhops and valets. Before she takes a trip, Swann goes to the bank to get cash, especially the $1 and $5 bills that are nearly impossible to withdraw from ATMs.
Most experts agree taxi or rideshare drivers deserve 15% to 20%, depending on the service and the cleanliness of the vehicle.
Airport skycaps and the bell people at a hotel should get a few dollars a bag, based on service, and perhaps more if the task is onerous, like handling golf or ski bags. Valet parkers should get $2 to $5 at drop-off and pickup.
And if you only have larger bills, Swann added, it’s perfectly fine to ask for change back.
Remember hotel housekeepers.
Etiquette experts say hotel guests should leave $2 to $5 a night for the housekeeper each morning. The American Hotel & Lodging Association recommends $1 to $5 a night left daily, preferably in a marked envelope making it clear that it is intended for the housekeeper. In its tipping guide, UNITE HERE, the labor union whose members include hotel workers, suggests a minimum of $5 a day; more for suites.
Not many travelers comply. Despite having the most physically demanding jobs in hotels, “hotel housekeepers are some of the least-often tipped employees in the service industry,” Belarmino said. “Unlike servers, who are often paid less than minimum wage that is then made up by tips, hotel housekeepers’ pay is not contingent upon tips. However, it is a courtesy to tip them.”
But in the age of optional room cleaning, which has become more common since the pandemic, the guidelines get murkier. “If you stay one night or if you choose to skip housekeeping, I would recommend tipping about $5 at checkout,” Belarmino said.
If housekeeping is available on demand, most experts recommend tipping each time the room is serviced.
Mind foreign tipping customs.
Customs regarding gratuities vary by country. On some trips abroad, guides with the tour company Abercrombie & Kent use orientation sessions to advise guests on when to tip in unexpected places — like bathrooms in Egypt — and provide travelers with small denominations in the local currency to do so. If you don’t come across guidance, make learning the culture of tipping abroad part of your trip planning by consulting guidebooks, tourism board websites and online sources like Tripadvisor.
“You have to look at two things: Is it expected and mandatory as it is here in the U.S. for many service jobs? And what is the social safety net like in that place?” said Pauline Frommer, the editorial director of Frommer’s, which publishes travel guidebooks.
In countries like Mexico, where wages are low, she advised tipping in restaurants as you might at home. In Europe, where servers are paid better, tipping is less important. On recent trips to London and Paris, she found bills with service fees included, often listed as “SC” for “service charge.”
“France pays its employees a living wage, unlike the U.S.,” said Janice Wang, an American living in France who runs a Facebook group for expatriates there. “Hence, servers, hairdressers and cabdrivers don’t need tips to live.”
Tip your guide.
Guide services come in many varieties — from a walking tour leader to a mountaineer who helps you navigate a rock face. Travelers might engage their services for a half-day trip, a two-week tour, and everything in between and beyond.
The tour company Intrepid Travel states on its website that “tipping is never compulsory, but always appreciated,” while also making the point that tips are a big part of a guide’s income, especially in the U.S. and Southeast Asia. On a multiday small-group trip in the United States, the company suggests tipping $7 to $10 a day.
CIE Tours, which offers trips in Iceland, Ireland, Italy and Britain, recommends tipping guides and bus drivers the equivalent in local currency of roughly $7 to $10 each per day.