Fixed that.
This day has been way too damned long. Either that or I was at the hospital for tooo damned long.
This day has been way too damned long. Either that or I was at the hospital for tooo damned long.
Tipping in US hotels- help
- Thread starter Ethros
- Start date
I am actually better at tipping OVER in hotels, as opposed to tipping in them.
Remember, though, that taxes are quite a bit lower in the USA than most countries. We have no value-added tax. Sales tax will generally run between 5%-10% depending on the state.
What about cow tipping?
^ Nope, missed that bit. 
It's actually been my experience that men get betters tips overall.
Anyway, I guess it's just because I've been in the industry, and that both of my parents have also been in the industry, that I feel as strongly as I do about tipping.
It's simply part of the cost of going out. I always start at 20% and tip more or less depending on the level of service I receive. I guess it can be inconvenient to people who don't want to do 5 seconds of math, but really, tipping shouldn't be that big a deal.
If your service is complete shit, let the tip reflect that. I've sometimes had service so bad that I didn't leave a tip at all, but I always try to start by assuming I will be tipping 20%.
That's ridiclious. If that happened to me I'd be tempted to do a Christoper Moltisanti reaction on him
I know that at my restaurant, if you have an average tip percentage less than 18% (the exact number varies, I've seen it as high as 19.5%), they pretty much pull you aside and tell you that you need to be a better server or else your tip percentage wouldn't be so low. If you consistently keep it low, they'll start taking away tables or skipping you in rotation so you have more time to devote to your tables to give better service and get your percentage up.
He had a habit of trying to make himself look awesome, so he said that to make it seem like his service warranted 50% tips all the time. We all knew it was bullshit, but we just let him do his thing.
Yikes. That's nuts. I'd say an 18% average is pretty good.
On the flip side, one of my friends used to work at a restaurant where any credit card tip larger than 20% had to be approved by a manager!
The majority of servers have a tip percentage around 19. The best have 23% or so (I will say that they tend to get a lot of people who request them when they come back. The normal person still doesn't tip quite that high).
I guess we're kinda helped by not having sales tax, so maybe money that would normally go there goes towards the tip.
I guess we're kinda helped by not having sales tax, so maybe money that would normally go there goes towards the tip.
When our bar eliminated sales tax (the owner decided he was going to pay for it instead), the check totals seemed a lot more reasonable, and I did notice that tips increased a few percentages overall.
When I say 'Meal' I mean the overall experience of food, service, etc.
I would add one qualification: If the server brings food that is not what you ordered (a friend of mine ordered a pasta dish with seafood alfredo and got a plate loaded with pasta, meat and marinara sauce and therefore got his meal at least 15 minutes after the rest of us got ours) or is not prepared as you requested, (if I order a cheeseburger without onions, it should arrive without onions), I think it's fair to reduce the tip accordingly since it is his/her responsibility to ensure that what is written on the ticket comes to the table.
30% in New York? Ouch! I'm going there in April.
I do as high as 25% around here at the restaurants we frequent.
You know, toll booth attendants should get tips. "Very smooth ride on your turnpike, my good man, here's a little something extra for you."
^Definitely, JiNX. It is the server's responsibility to ensure that you get what you ordered, and they should be paying enough attention to realize whether or not it's wrong. You should always make sure your server repeats back your order before placing it to make sure they have it right. At Fridays we had quite a few menu items with very similar names, and sometimes if you mishear your guest, you can end up charging them for the wrong thing.
I agree about repeating the order. I don't work in a restaurant, but I DO work at a copy shop where we have to take pretty sophisticated orders for customer projects. I know very well that I do not have the world's best auditory comprehension (I hear, but my brain doesn't always seem to give meaning to it), so it is very important to me to repeat the order back to make sure I understand it, and make sure that I ask questions if there's anything that doesn't make sense to me or where I am not entirely sure about the customer's wants.
I know that in some restaurants management seems to think it's a sign of weakness to write down the order and repeat it--but I disagree. I would rather you write it down and get it right, than try to memorize it, not understand it, and mess it up.
I know that in some restaurants management seems to think it's a sign of weakness to write down the order and repeat it--but I disagree. I would rather you write it down and get it right, than try to memorize it, not understand it, and mess it up.
I purposely didn't read any of the ot her posts, so as not to be influenced. My thinking is I paid for the room, that should be eno0ugh. I will always tip really, really generously if they give me a free room.
I will tip in restaurants because that has become such a cultural norm and is really expected.
I will tip in restaurants because that has become such a cultural norm and is really expected.
