Tipping etiquette when traveling can be a complicated and controversial subject. The more you travel, the more confusing it all is. I’ve addressed the topic of tipping in airport lounges, and in this post I thought it would be interesting to address the topic of tipping in hotel club lounges.
Continue reading: Should You Tip In Hotel Club Lounges?
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
The argument in favor of tipping is always that the worker has a low base pay and needs the tip in order to make a living wage. The catch is that I never know how much an individual actually earns, so I make it a habit of always asking how much the worker gets paid. Then, based on my own personal judgement and on a single interaction with the worker, I make the determination of how much that person should actually earn. In most cases, I provide a small gratuity to them. In some rare instances, I judge the person to be overpaid and request a refund to balance the scales.
If someone tips in a lounge, they quite simply have a tipping problem.
Stop tipping for the sake of tipping lol. If they need tips to get a living wage, maybe address the actual problem of the employers wanting to pass on the cost of labor to the customer rather than inflicting tipping on everyone else.
Also, what sort of BS is this "If you go to a restaurant in the United States and don’t tip (assuming service is decent) you’re being a cheap jerk who doesn’t care about how others make a living".
No. Just because one country has been conditioned from birth to tip for absolutely anything, does not mean everyone else is being a 'cheap jerk'. The problem lies with the country that considers it acceptable for commercial organizations to pay so poorly that its employees cant live on their salaries. Fix the local problems first.
As a general matter, no.
But no one should be fooled. When you are around a few nights with the same attendant, a $2 tip on a glass of wine or bourbon on the rocks often leads to a more generous pour the next day.
And if I have a multiple night stay and come to recognize a good server who makes my $1000 or $2000 stay more pleasant, I inquire if they will be around at the end of my stay and leave something (which is certainly a tiny percentage of the total stay cost) at the end of the stay. I do try to make sure that person has a shift when I do so.
I tend to tip at most hotel lounges particularly for Breakfast where I leave a couple of dollars. When staying several
Nights at same hotel it goes a long way. If
Nothing else your remembered with a smile.
I agree, but how do you suggest that I "address the actual problem of the employers wanting to pass on the cost of labor to the customer".
Apart from taking time to buttonhole the general manager at every property where I stay, the only way to manage that is to "retrain" the industry by refusing to tip and hoping that all of North America falls in line with me. Such seems passive aggressive.
In my experience, club attendants generally get tipped only in their role as "bartender". I assume that if those tips plus their base wage were poor, they would first seek reassignment at the property, or move on altogether, especially in a labor market where service oriented workers remain in demand.
Often I will have guests meeting in my suite. Honesty and tips have insured the lounge manager to bend the rules regarding bringing in extra people occasionally, but I always ask first. And 10 to 20 depending on the spread.
As an influencer with a lot of viewers.
Please don't be part of the problem encouraging this broken system by guilt tripping people into giving tips.
Readers, you are not the jerk. You, along with the restaurant employees are victims of this system you enable.
"If you go to a restaurant in the United States and don’t tip (assuming service is decent) you’re being a cheap jerk who doesn’t care about how others make a living."
Exactly why the whole system is broken. People confuse bribe as tips. They are the enablers.
Just look at the other comment about receiving generous pour.
That's defrauding the establishment.
There is no argument in favor of tipping.
It's not your job to ensure someone makes a livable wage.
It's the job of the idiots you voted for.
Unless of course, you believe that democracy is also broken and we need a different governing system, say dictatorship?
You do realize that even wait staff in several states (e.g. CA, WA) earn tips on top of a mandatory minimum wage ($16-20 in CA). Thus, at least in those states, they are in the same position as other non-tipped minimum wage earners.
Even in states with tipped wages, employers are required to make up the difference when tips don’t amount to minimum wage. Realistically, there is a lot of unreported wage theft though with employers just firing employees if they can’t make minimum wage with tips. So in those states I still tip.
But in states like CA, I don’t tip anymore unless I feel service was exceptional.
"there’s no denying that the US approach to tipping has spread around the world" - That's absolutely not the case, it's just that some employees and businesses learned that Americans are easily fooled into giving them extra money for nothing. The tipping rules are the same they always were, if anything in Europe it's sort of fading away recently, unless you're identified as an American.
As for tipping in lounges, it's the same as tipping everywhere else except restaurants: Only for an extraordinary service. I usually give tips to some of the guys working at Conrad Istanbul's lounge at the end of my stay as they're really going above and beyond, but apart from that I really don't see what would I tip for.
And besides, the tipping culture enables employers to offer lower wages arguing that the staff makes up for it with tips. Except that tips provide far lower protection than actual wages (they normally don't count towards social security schemes, they are not guaranteed if the business is slow, etc.), ultimately making these employees much more socially vulnerable.
Not when you ask first without expectation. ( I always offer to pay and this is dismissed by the manager. ) Then the tip is offered in GRATITUDE for the accommodation in hospitality.
Or the manager already knows that either the GRATITUDE goes into their own pocket or the establishment.
I rest my case.
Exactly why system is broken.
Exactly why people are confused.
I recall every lounge serves made-to-order item.
They always ask me what beverage do I want.
So you're suggesting we can happily go to any restaurant in CA and give zero tips.
We wouldn't receive any retaliation in current and future visits.
So let's start with asking the restaurant to remove the automatic gratuity for party of 4 and give em ZERO?
No as their is usually a sign up somewhere saying only residents of the USA are obliged to tip as the this more than covers the rest of you that don’t.
Oh I wish! Unfortunately servers still very much expect tips. So I can’t make you any such promises. But I’ve stopped tipping myself, willing to accept the risks. Someone has to. Why do waiters get tipped when supermarket cashiers don’t in CA? I hate tipping culture and given that the biggest reason for it got removed, at least in CA, I’m doing my bit 🙂
So the staff will only do their contracted job if they get tips. No tip = we don’t care
Why ? It’s the employers job to pay their staff. If I’m in a restaurant it’s not really the customer’s concern to start thinking about the background of the employees.
It’s typically American. Emotional blackmail. I’m in the service industry you must tip me as my multi billion dollar employer doesn’t believe it’s up to them.
When deciding whether to tip, my primary consideration is generally whether that person relies on tips to make a reasonable living
I have a completely different consideration. Is tipping customary? That's the only question I ask. If a majority of people in the situation I am in would tip, then I tip the customary amount.
If
Nothing else your remembered with a smile.
In non-tipping cultures, that smile means, "What a fool we can exploit for more money on his next stay!"
If someone else makes a cocktail for me then yes it’s customary for Americans to tip the bartender. Hilton Mumbai lounge this happened. The USD is strong there i didn’t mind splashing cash around and tipping it goes a long way for the workers.
Just be cautious in mainland China. In hotels that cater to westerners they understand we tip but don’t understand the tipping culture. I once had several hotel staff members mob around my taxi heading to the airport after checkout.
I think the bigger issue is having cash to make it happen. Start spreading the wealth and give cash tips and you might know what you get for a tip.
I truly have a problem with this approach and Americans’ approach in general. The sheer number of tourists visiting Europe now mean that more and more places where tipping was never requested now inform you that tip is not included. And I am not American.
I am American. It is my dream for the United Nations to convene and to decree that the concept of a tip is eradicated in modern existence.
Importantly for the very dumb people out there, I am not advocating that people who perform a service should not be paid for it. I am advocating that the payment for this service should be transparent, clear, and upfront. Not part of a web of unwritten rules, confusing expectations, and guilt trips.
Another one of these ridiculous articles. Totally agree with Joe Traveller. Tipping lounge staff, tipping cabin crew, tipping airline lounge staff, Americans being annoying and embarrassing. Just vulgar.
Go to Egypt to understand a policy of TIP EVERYWHERE. Every Egyptian hotel employee whether Sheraton, Marriott, etc has his hand out for the most trivial reasons expecting a tip. Most surprising to me has been there is absolutely no shame in hounding guests for tips.
I became completely jaded with the notion of tipping when I found out about a classmate who was clearing nearly 200-300 every weekday night she worked, tax free, simply from being a female around men who can expense their meals. Weekends were a completely different league in terms of her take home at the end of the night.
I cannot wait until it's abolished outright, where we're not asked to subsidize employee wages, and we see bartenders and servers up in arms because they can no longer make egregious amounts of money from some idiotic custom that should have met a swift and brutal death nearly 100 years ago.
I tip only as a form of dignified charity to those who may be in more need than others, and nothing else.
Bar keeps and flirty waitstaff can cry and complain all they want--no handouts for just looking pretty or doing your job. At this rate, we may as well tip anyone in any service industry; from your fast food worker, mailman, grocery store cashier, and soon to be self driving taxi vehicles.
Agree with Crosscourt and Joe Traveler. Seems you are having separate articles for all of these situations to fill content.
Yes, let’s just tip everyone for doing their jobs. Plane lands safely, tip the captain 20 bucks. Uber app works without crashing, tip the software engineer who wrote it 10 bucks. Check in to your hotel and get keys to your room, tip front-desk staff 10 bucks. Walk over to the elevator without tripping over garbage in the hotel lobby, tip cleaning staff 5 bucks.
'Tip Not Included'? Oh, pity about that.
My tip is to get another job where you'll be less screwed over.
Yup. We should all walk around with wads of cash in our pockets to tip everyone. And how does one fund all of this? Simple - start demanding tips yourself, of course. Open door for kind old lady at the store and then stare at her till she tips you two bucks. Stop your car to allow pedestrians to cross and ask them to toss in some spare change into the tip jar glued to the hood of the car.
This is the kind of transactional society America has become. Most restaurants in Europe only expect tips from you if you’re American. And no, it doesn’t get you any better service. And if it did, then it’s probably a tourist trap you wouldn’t want to be eating at in the first place.
You clearly have no filter in broaching sensitive and personal matters with strangers.
Most American thing ever to claim that your dreadful tipping culture is “happening in places it didn’t use to”. If that’s true, and it’s a big if, it’s still usually only Americans doing it.
I do not think I ever tip in lounges, but I will leave positive feedback to the hotel, including reviews and on social media (using first names, unless an email to the hotel).
I go to Egypt pretty regularly, and I don't tip very much. If you're asking someone to blatantly break the rules, sure, give them a tip. That seems to be fairly accepted. But at a hotel, just because someone asks, definitely say no. A lot of service industry workers thrive on visitors' ignorance, and their lack of understanding of Egyptian wages and economics.
Recently been to Mexico. There is a service charge on the hotel bill.
Why do I need to tip anyone in the hotel, its already included?
If the hotel doesn't pass it on, I can't fight that, then damn the hotel owners.