Excursion Tipping

[Budget Queen]

Ohhh I thought they were talking about the person that meets you from the tour company... Wow today I am having trouble reading posts haha

 

It "could" be, but cruisetour is in the post, I am assuming for a reason. :)

[mmbcater]

Thanks for the info-just today my friend and I were discussing this! My husband is in the service industry and tends to over tip-but I did not know how to address the helicopter and float plane amounts. Now we have a pretty good idea on what to tip!

[ORV]

What about when the Pilot is the company owner? Or the guide is the company owner? What are your feelings on this?

[thelmalouise-n-thekid]

What about when the Pilot is the company owner? Or the guide is the company owner? What are your feelings on this?

 

Glag you ask this, I was wondering as well.

[bearbait]

What about when the Pilot is the company owner? Or the guide is the company owner? What are your feelings on this?

 

Everyone of these people are trying to make a years worth of wages in just a few months. Tip if you'd like. Most of these pilots have other people working with them that help fuel up, clean up and tie the plane down. All the pilots that I worked for over the years split their tips with the other crew members.

 

From my years working with tourists I'd have to say, any tip is appreciated regardless of the amount.

[CowPrincess]

I agree with bearbait. I used to have a company, and staff. Whenever I (the owner) rec'd a tip, I'd give it all to my staff. Without them, I would not have been able to do the work that earned the tip ;)

[flounder315]

I always always always tip!!! The better the service the better the tip, works for the restaraunt industry. But I don't think that works for excursions. I think tipping 10-15% for a $450 flight seeing tour is a bit high. That would be $45-$67.50 per person. So a family of 4 will be tipping $180-$270 for the tour. On top of already paying $1800 for the tour for the family of 4.

[Budget Queen]

What about when the Pilot is the company owner? Or the guide is the company owner? What are your feelings on this?

 

I don't care who owns the company, if I have a great tour- I always tip.

 

I hear this comment as well, "sometimes" to excuse tipping. General comment only, but first hand in my case.

[Silvertrees]

As you don't generally tip in Australia, we struggled with the whole tipping concept while in the US. I spoke with a number of family and friends (some who had worked in the cruise industry) before going to try and work out what to do because as you can see its confusing for those that are used to it so imagine if its not part of your normal process.:confused:

 

We went for the prepaid option on the ship but then gave extra to our dinning room waiter and his offsider and our cabin attendant. This was becuase they provided us with what we thought was excellent service above what we expected. We were surprised that some guides or service providers just expected a tip and really didn't do anything for it they just expected it.

 

This is the standard we applied for our whole trip. We decided on the amount of tip based on the service provided and if it was below what we expected then we didn't tip and if it was above what we expected (as it was many times) we tipped well, or I thought so. We kept a close eye on what others did as a guide as well and I was surprised by the amount of people from the US that didn't tip, which made it harder for us. We gave our Denali bus driver a large tip as she was amazing and kept us entertained and informed all day. Inversly one helicopter pilot go zero as he hardly spoke to us and didn't really provide any additional service.

 

The other thing that complicated issues was when a number of places automatically added the tip to the bill. This was a trick for new players. luckily I was advised to keep an eye out for this as you could end up double tipping. Coming from Austrlaia I found the whole tipping thing interesting and I went with the advice I was given -

 

Dont worry about a %, tip what you are comfortable with, reward good service and don't pay it if you feel they didn't earn it.

[tigger_ag]

I don't think it's a matter of tipping vs. not tipping. It seems there are a lot of us newbies either cruising for the first time or cruising for the first time to Alaska and the excursions are very high and we are at a loss as to what to consider a good tip (even in terms of percentage).

 

I agree tipping 10% to 15% on an excursion that has cost my husband and I $750 or more (I can't even fathom it for a family) just seems crazy to me, based on the sheer number. I say this because that $150 or more tip would in some instances pay for another excursion for one or both of us. The other thing that instantly pops into my head is that I'm not sure if I will be that comfortable carrying that much cash with me, as we typically don't carry much cash with us. The less expensive tours, I am not struggling at all with in being comfortable with no less than a minimum of 10% to 15% tip, but it's the really expensive tours like flight seeing that I am having a really hard time wrapping my head around that percentage. I am not saying they don't deserve it, as I have no way to justify that thought with this being not only our first cruise ever, but also our first flight seeing tour ever. It's just a hard pill to swallow when you look at a tip as a minimum at 10% to 15% of the amount you spent. I guess what makes it harder for me is that my husband works in the service industry and even now in instances where we have gotten service (or I guess lack of service is a better choice) that really doesn't deserve much of a tip, it's hard to leave less than the standard. (It has to be pretty bad for me to not leave a tip and if that happens, my last stop is going to be having a chat with the manager and in certain cases a follow-up with the corporate offices, but I've also been known to talk to a manager when I receive absolutely wonderful service that I think needs to be acknowledged).

 

So far, we have received nothing but excellent service from all of the vendors we have booked with, which we will also take into consideration with our tips. What will we do with flight seeing trips? I honestly don't know yet. We will leave a tip for sure, but the amount in this case for us hasn't even really been decided yet and is more than likely something we are going to toss around quite a bit I'm sure.

[ronrythm]

I always tip.

Do you tip at the grocery store? At the movie theater? McDonald's?

If not, how do you decide who gets a tip and who doesn't? Seriously, what is the criteria?

Ron

[bearbait]

Do you tip at the grocery store? At the movie theater? McDonald's?

 

If not, how do you decide who gets a tip and who doesn't? Seriously, what is the criteria?

Ron

 

At grocery stores where they have a traditional bag boy(girl) that pushes your buggy or carries your bags to your car I'll tip a dollar or two.

 

The criteria is the amount of personal service rendered. I guess if you want to tip the movie people or the cashier at McDonalds you can.

 

As for a family of 4 on a flightseeing excursion I'd suggest that a tip of $20.00 would be very well appreciated.

[rachelfran]

.We gave our Denali bus driver a large tip as she was amazing and kept us entertained and informed all day..

 

Do Denali shuttle drivers get tipped?

 

 

 

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[Canard]

At grocery stores where they have a traditional bag boy(girl) that pushes your buggy or carries your bags to your car I'll tip a dollar or two.

 

And just to point out how confusing this is for those of us from places that don't routinely tip, I was in a Florida supermarket last year and had a member of staff pack our shopping for us and push the trolley to our car - something that just does not happen in the UK. And it was bucketing down with rain when he was loading our shopping into the trunk, so I felt he had gone WAY above and beyond what we would expect, so went to give him a tip. And he said that he wasn't allowed to take it - it was company policy. So now I'm even more confused than usual about who to tip in the US and who not to!

 

Having said that, I always try to tip what I think is a fair amount whenever I'm in the States, but I do sympathise with those posters saying that for higher cost excursions, tipping a percentage does start to become difficult and a flat fee may be more appropriate.

 

I remember seeing a dilemma posted in a magazine once where they asked people what they thought about the following scenario if you were eating in a high end restaurant. You have a meal with wine and it comes to $100 a head and service was great, so you have no problem tipping $20. But what if you had treated yourself to one or two really expensive bottles of wine that cost as much as the meal or more? The bill is now over $200 per head, but the wait staff have not done any more work (opening a cheap bottle of wine is the same as an expensive one), so do you tip $20, $40, or somewhere inbetween? What was interesting was the range of answers given in the magazine from staff including travel guides, restaurateurs and food critics were all so different, that there was no consensus.

[KruisinKath]

I bookmarked a few threads on tipping last year when I was looking to get my tipping estimate down for my budget. In my opinion, people gave some excellent, actual dollar ranges based on the length of tour in this one (including Denali shuttle drivers, Rachelfran!):

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1659750&highlight=tipping

 

As always, tipping is a very personal thing, but as one who tips but has not done excursions before (only 2nd cruise-1st one was looong ago and free), this was very helpful to me in determining my tipping budget for Alaska.

 

Hope it's helpful.

[rachelfran]

I bookmarked a few threads on tipping last year when I was looking to get my tipping estimate down for my budget. In my opinion, people gave some excellent, actual dollar ranges based on the length of tour in this one (including Denali shuttle drivers, Rachelfran!):

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1659750&highlight=tipping

 

As always, tipping is a very personal thing, but as one who tips but has not done excursions before (only 2nd cruise-1st one was looong ago and free), this was very helpful to me in determining my tipping budget for Alaska.

 

Hope it's helpful.

 

Thanks - that's helpful but also illustrates the ranges ... As I've said- my husband is a tour guide in NYC and many do not tip or tip very little ($1-$2).

 

Unfortunately, there is a lot of miscommunication or no communication between tour operators and the actual tourist so sometimes the traveler thinks a tip is included or that tour guides get paid enough. Most are freelance with no benefits or job protection. They pay all their own taxes and social security so any extra you can spare is appreciated.

[boaterette]

One thing I have a hard time wrapping my brain around is 10 to 15% is a good tip for inexpensive tours but should only be 2% or so based on what people are saying here for more expensive tours. Do the tour guides on more expensive tours deliver 13% less service? I just don't understand the philosophy people seem to have.

[Budget Queen]

One thing I have a hard time wrapping my brain around is 10 to 15% is a good tip for inexpensive tours but should only be 2% or so based on what people are saying here for more expensive tours. Do the tour guides on more expensive tours deliver 13% less service? I just don't understand the philosophy people seem to have.

 

A thought to perhaps consider- A lot of the expensive tour costs in Alaska are for transportation- boats, planes etc. The guide is a "part" of the overall fees you pay. There was a time reference earlier, that I look at. More is deserving by the guide for an all day outing, vs a couple hours.

 

Basic, that seems to be acceptable, is $10/20pp for 3/4 hours, maybe $5pp for a couple hours.

 

Of course with something like a fishing charter- it should be more- with the assistance with the fishing- arranging your processing/transferring etc.

 

I do see those $1/2 tippers- sorry, but that is just plain undertipping. Flame away.

[tee_harbor]

Carnard said: And just to point out how confusing this is for those of us from places that don't routinely tip, I was in a Florida supermarket last year and had a member of staff pack our shopping for us and push the trolley to our car - something that just does not happen in the UK. And it was bucketing down with rain when he was loading our shopping into the trunk, so I felt he had gone WAY above and beyond what we would expect, so went to give him a tip. And he said that he wasn't allowed to take it - it was company policy. So now I'm even more confused than usual about who to tip in the US and who not to!

 

My friends from other countries can go on and on about the Americans and their tipping! LOL! Usually businesses will post signs saying that tips aren't necessary or cannot be accepted. For example, most Americans tip at the Starbucks' coffee shops, and there's a tip jar on the counter. However, the outlets which are located in grocery and big box stores do not accept tips, so there is no tip jar and thus no way to do it.

 

rachelfan said: Thanks - that's helpful but also illustrates the ranges ... As I've said- my husband is a tour guide in NYC and many do not tip or tip very little ($1-$2).

 

Unfortunately, there is a lot of miscommunication or no communication between tour operators and the actual tourist so sometimes the traveler thinks a tip is included or that tour guides get paid enough. Most are freelance with no benefits or job protection. They pay all their own taxes and social security so any extra you can spare is appreciated.

 

And this is why non-Americans go crazy. For first world countries, their service people are paid living wages with benefits. This situation doesn't even occur to them.

 

I assume NYC is a year round tour business. In Alaska, because our season is only a few months long, very few people are making their entire annual living wage off being a guide, driver or pilot. They are primarily college students (Usually from out of state with no to little knowledge of our culture or history.) or locals doing part-time, seasonal work; SAHM's, retirees, our own kids off school, or second jobbers. IMO, there's less urgency for the tips than Rachelfan's husband, but of course, it all adds to the kitty and is greatly appreciated.

 

The drivers and pilots often shift to similar jobs in warmer climates, so do have a year round salary.

[rachelfran]

A thought to perhaps consider- A lot of the expensive tour costs in Alaska are for transportation- boats, planes etc. The guide is a "part" of the overall fees you pay. There was a time reference earlier, that I look at. More is deserving by the guide for an all day outing, vs a couple hours.

 

Basic, that seems to be acceptable, is $10/20pp for 3/4 hours, maybe $5pp for a couple hours.

 

Of course with something like a fishing charter- it should be more- with the assistance with the fishing- arranging your processing/transferring etc.

 

I do see those $1/2 tippers- sorry, but that is just plain undertipping. Flame away.

 

Tipping for time & service makes a lot more sense than cost of service - no matter where you are or how much the tour cost ... My husband tips and I book the service and he usually has little idea or doesn't remember what we paid for it. I can easily see tipping $20 for a service that cost $149 and one that cost $450.

 

 

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[frugaltravel]

Most are freelance with no benefits or job protection. They pay all their own taxes and social security so any extra you can spare is appreciated.

 

As much as I might sympathize with them, these are absolutely no reason to tip someone. Many people pay their own taxes/social security, etc. because they are "self-employed" or "contractors." The reason to tip should be based on the service provided and nothing else. Maybe what you wrote came across differently than what you thought, but I had to respond since I disagree with such motivations for tipping.