I thought about this thread today when we went to pick up food for takeout. First, their phone was continually busy and they have no parking so we had to park three blocks away and walk and order in person. Then there was a tip screen. I said, “is there a tip when I’m picking up?” and she took off the tip screen. I was feeling annoyed.
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We took sandwiches and Nothing Bundt Cake with us to our favorite brewery yesterday for Father’s Day. I did not tip for the sandwiches or bundt cakes which we ordered ahead and picked up. I only gave a small tip at the brewery as you have to stand in line for your drinks and bring them to the table yourself.
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Interesting about restaurants adding credit card fees and service charges. I’m also in Ca and I know of only one place that adds a fee. That place also doesn’t refill your ice tea which annoys me. We have a few spots that only take a card, no cash.
What is interesting is that when and who to tip is still unclear. I don’t tip my mail carrier as I have no clue who they are. My husband does tip his mail carrier at his office.
I enjoy my hair stylist and I’ve on occasion tipped her more than 20%. On one recent visit she had a huge auto repair bill and I gave her $50 to help. She hadn’t asked nor did she expect it. She went to school with my youngest and I know it’s expensive to live in our area.
Recently back from Italy and we didn’t tip at restaurants. We usually paid with ApplePay and never did a tip option come up. We did tip at one hotel that had a tip box at the counter. We tipped at the end of the stay as the tip said it went to the van drivers and housekeepers.
We were in Ireland for a week and except one place, no where did they ask or expect a tip. Only at one restaurant they gave us the machine with the tip %ages listed that we could pick. In most of the other places, they just punched in the total into the machine and held it out for us to tap our card - no tip mentioned !!
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I played in a $10,000 per foursome charity golf tournament this week and each foursome got 1 caddie. We were in golf carts so the caddie didn’t carry any bags. He would give us an aiming point on the tee then run forward to wave us on when it was safe to hit. He spotted our shots, read our putts and cleaned and kept track of our loose clubs around the green. He was a nice young guy.
Towards the end of the round my coworkers and I decided to pay him $50 each for a total of $200. After the round I drove my cart to my truck and my coworker’s truck to drop off our golf bags and change shoes. We caught up to the caddie at the clubhouse and paid him $100 for the 2 of us. On my ride home I got a text from one of the other coworkers who said they paid the caddie $200 and we each owed $50. LOL! Poor communication can get expensive.
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We were there two years ago and tipping at restaurants is very optional. Their credit card machines are not even always set up for tipping - half the time when we asked if we could add a tip when paying with a card we were either met with pure confusion or a negative. The other half the time, generally at the more expensive restaurants, they were very happy to say yes.
So if we had some cash, for “regular” restaurants we’d leave a few euros if we had smaller bills (currency, not checks) otherwise we’d skip the tip guilt-free. The general advice we read was that at fine-dining restaurants you should tip, otherwise to consider it optional.
One notable experience was at a 2-star restaurant, around $300/person for lunch, a French couple next to us left no tip at all. So I guess tipping really is quite optional even at nicer places.
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I hope that lunch was outstanding and included some fantastic wine!
It was amazing, one of the best restaurants we’ve ever eaten at and easily equal to 3-star places we’ve visited. Definitely the best restaurant we visited during our entire 3-week trip.
It was Santa Elisabetta at the hotel Brunelleschi. The wing with the restaurant is the oldest building in Florence - it used to be a women’s prison, I believe. Service was wonderful and the staff were fully deserving of a generous tip. The hotel is pretty great too!
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I missed a bunch of this thread, so sorry if it’s been asked before. What’s the etiquette for tipping for Taskrabbit?
I recently purchased an ikea piece and ikea had said taskrabbit could assemble it for $55. Well, no one accepted the job and taskrabbit kept saying they were trying to find me someone. But I could use their “elite” service and lo and behold, there were plenty of people willing to do the work if I used one of the elite guys. So, I did. It ended up costing me $60 an hour for the guy, and taskrabbit charged a service fee of $20 an hour, so a total of $80 an hour for someone to assemble the piece.
When I received the receipt for payment, there was a spot for tipping… 15%, 20% and one more. I didn’t think I was supposed to tip because I already paid the guy $60 an hour.
What do you guys think? Tip, or no?
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A hard no if the guy gets to keep the $60.
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That’s what I’m thinking. I’m assuming he keeps the full $60 since Taskrabbit itself charged me $20 an hour for “administrative..”. But the Reddit threads by an overwhelming majority said you should tip.
We’ve tipped when using services like that.
We need to remind ourselves that tips are discretionary. Not mandatory.
I just returned from vacation in England and Portugal and enjoyed not being robbed blind on tipping. In fact, one night I tipped 10% at a very nice restaurant and was told that tips are usually more like 5%.
I’m tipping less than I used to. I hit the no tip screen whenever I need to. I do not care at all if people think I am cheap. Maybe I’m on a one person campaign.
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But did the guy keep all of the hourly rate, or did he have to share like uber?
FWIW, I tend to generously tip uber drivers because I’ve often found that they are getting paid way too little, when you take into account it’s their car that’s having the mileage pounded on it.
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Honestly I don’t remember! It’s been several years now.
I tip bc most of the drivers have interesting stories. Always tipped cabbies in the past. Selfishly, I want to keep my 5 star rating. I think that helps when ordering a car.
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@BKSquared -you have a 5 star rating? Mine was a 4.98 and then slipped to 4.94. I’m bummed. And yes I tip very well.
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Geez, I didn’t know we got rated. I’m a 4.76, what the heck? Maybe it was the time there was a miscommunication and the guy couldn’t find us. But even in Poland, I always tipped, which is not expected. Huh. Oh, well.
I looked it up, and apparently you can get dinged for minor things, like slamming the door too hard.
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I have a question. If you know that your wait person or hotel housekeeper is making $30 an hour, will you still give a tip? Would it be 20%? I don’t know if I would leave anything in a hotel (LA just passed a bill that would mandate the $30 an hour to hotel workers.) I certainly would not leave 20% on a restaurant bill.
Housekeeping was never tipped based on percentages of whatever. A $1 bill per night was customary for a Holiday Inn kind of a room a while ago. But only if the room was freshened up, of course. Nowadays it is more like $5. Higher end hotels - possibly more.