Service Reward Scheme

[majortom10]

I don't mind the tipping but we are subsiding their wages, as their wages are pretty low without the tips. I would rather tips the good ones a bit more, much preferred the envelope system, this way they get their tips however they perform and I doubt that many cancel them.

 

There wages are only seem low to our standards do a quick internet search of wages in countries where staff come from and they are very highly paid and are classified as well off when they get home.

[majortom10]

No, I preferred the old system of envelopes.

 

You can still pay with envelopes if that's what you prefer.

[bee-ess]

I wonder if this is to do with the new living wage and P&O recouping the higher wage bill by upping the gratuities. I'd guess a lot of the staff are 25+. A full cruise creates a lot of extra daily 50p's...! Just a thought.

 

Are cruise staff covered by the new living wage, I didn't think they earned anywhere near the living wage.

[GLYNAGP]

I think you will find that the employment rules of the country where the ship is registered apply to the Crew . I've just googled Ventura and she is registered in Bermuda. I then googled "Minimum wage in Bermuda " and the answer I got was "There is no minimum wage in Bermuda"

[terrierjohn]

I don't agree with any kind of tipping. It's too selective. As mentioned before, why do we only think we should tip certain occupations.

In the case of cruise ship hotel staff the tips go to those staff who only receive a small wage, and are the ones who traditionally received tips, and this geneally results in very good wages.

The remaining members of the hotel staff are salaried but only the senior staff members are likely to do better than those receiving tips.

[davecttr]

Whichever way you look at it, it is the passengers who pay the crews wages. IMO this subject is so toxic the only logical solution is to include the 'tips' in the headline price. However I suppose the bean counters at HQ will throw a fit as in their opinion increasing the headline price of a cruise by £5.50 a day will mean nobody will book and the company will go bust :rolleyes:

[GLYNAGP]

Whichever way you look at it, it is the passengers who pay the crews wages. IMO this subject is so toxic the only logical solution is to include the 'tips' in the headline price. However I suppose the bean counters at HQ will throw a fit as in their opinion increasing the headline price of a cruise by £5.50 a day will mean nobody will book and the company will go bust :rolleyes:

As you say Tipping is such a "Toxic" subject and opinions on the subject vary so much depending on which part of the world you come from.

I read a lovely comment once in some online discussion as to how much to tip in the USA and the comment was that you could be expected to leave up to 20%, to which a Finnish person commented that if you were to leave that sort of an amount on the table in Finland the restaurant manager would probably try and give it back as you left, thinking you had forgotten to pick up you change. One time we were in Esperance in Southern Australia and a very nice American lady asked the bus driver on the shore excursion where his tip box was to which he replied "Heck Lady you don't need to tip here we get paid a living wage in Australia".

 

So where I can I just prepay gratuities , service charge or whatever they choose to call it, pay it with the final cruise balance and forget all about it and the crew do know if you've prepaid so there is no embarrassments when you leave the ship.

[jeanlyon]

Nothing to do with the Living Wage. The staff are employed from India and other places, so it doesn't come into it. We always remove the auto tip and tip in envelopes just as we always have.

[jocap]

Although years ago, first class passengers on liners were expected to tip, I don't think those in steerage could give much.. :eek:

Today, the tipping rules on many ships go by American custom, where there are two types of earner- service workers and others. Service workers can get as little as $3 an hour in some states, but have to pay tax on expected tips. It's engrained in Americans now to tip in restaurants etc, from 15- 20%.

We've had tips returned to us in Spain, quite recently, and many times we've left £2 for the chambermaid in the UK, and returned to find it's just been dusted round....

[daiB]

Whichever way you look at it, it is the passengers who pay the crews wages. IMO this subject is so toxic the only logical solution is to include the 'tips' in the headline price. However I suppose the bean counters at HQ will throw a fit as in their opinion increasing the headline price of a cruise by £5.50 a day will mean nobody will book and the company will go bust :rolleyes:

 

 

Now here we are in complete agreement, Dave. Include the tip in the price and stop all this utter tripe about tips and tipping.

 

Metz, old fellow.

 

Metz.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums mobile app

[CCFC]

Australian cruises include the tips, so many didn't have it in their nature to tip that they always took them off.

[sueandphil]

Hi Phil

Missed meeting up on Adonia ,miss you again,on Britannia after you .So please look after her and have fun .

We have no notification yet .

 

Hi yes sorry about that, For the first time I was feeling a little green on the first sea day:(:( and we missed the meet. Didn't realise it was that rough :eek: :eek:We really enjoyed that cruise with a great itinerary and a lovely little ship. Britannia will be in safe hands and we are back on her for the third time in October (22 night trans Atlantic) :):cool:

[BandBlady]

Hi yes sorry about that, For the first time I was feeling a little green on the first sea day:(:( and we missed the meet. Didn't realise it was that rough :eek: :eek:We really enjoyed that cruise with a great itinerary and a lovely little ship. Britannia will be in safe hands and we are back on her for the third time in October (22 night trans Atlantic) :):cool:

 

Oh that word transatlantic !! First time ever Andrew had to have a night off .

Yes it was a great cruise ,could have stayed on longer .

I presume Sue had the clothes rail in operation last week .

Have fun anyway .

[Ataraxia]

If the tips go through the Carnival books then extras will have to be taken off leaving less for the staff. I am sure the staff receiving the tips will want as little a paper trail as possible.

[john watson]

Now here we are in complete agreement, Dave. Include the tip in the price and stop all this utter tripe about tips and tipping.

 

Metz, old fellow.

 

Metz.

 

 

On the face of it this seems like an excellent idea. Unfortunately, in my opinion the majority of customers are very price sensitive. The aforesaid policy would put P&O at a distinct disadvantage in comparison to say US mainstream cruise lines who advertise fares at a rock bottom rate making your tip inclusive cruises very expensive. These guys will then hit you with an 18% or more service charge plus auto-grats on top for your convenience. Their business strategy will be a market winner particularly with new cruisers who may book one or two cruises before they realise they have been cleverly misled.

 

Regards John

Edited May 1, 2016 by john watson

[davecttr]

On the face of it this seems like an excellent idea. Unfortunately, in my opinion the majority of customers are very price sensitive. The aforesaid policy would put P&O at a distinct disadvantage in comparison to say US mainstream cruise lines who advertise fares at a rock bottom rate making your tip inclusive cruises very expensive. These guys will then hit you with an 18% or more service charge plus auto-grats on top for your convenience. Their business strategy will be a market winner particularly with new cruisers who may book one or two cruises before they realise they have been cleverly misled.

 

Regards John

Does making the cruise £5.50 per day more expensive really make it very expensive ?

 

Advertise a 14 nighter at £77 more and emphasise that there is no need to tip, that should attract peoples attention ;)

[Balaena]

I think it is really simple. Rather than having the option of opting out of the tipping scheme, we should be given the option to opt in. This way folk who do not like the personal tip, i.e. envelope, would be able to fill in a tick box form which deducts £5.50 a day from their on board account. They could also be given a badge to wear which says 'I've opted in'.

Simple, job done.

Bal

[Josy1953]

Does making the cruise £5.50 per day more expensive really make it very expensive ?

 

Advertise a 14 nighter at £77 more and emphasise that there is no need to tip, that should attract peoples attention ;)

 

I agree £77 on the cost of a cruise is very little this is the reason why I can't understand why people are moaning about paying. Advertising no tips would certainly be attractive to those who don't want to pay tips. I believe that there are several cruise lines that already do this and are still filling their ships.

 

Would they even need to increase the headline price by the full £77 though because as we are aware of on this board there are people who currently pay nothing so P&O know what %age of the current tips are paid all that they need to do is to extrapolate that % and divide the total by the number of passengers.

[Mysticalmother]

Tipping =toxic subject.....couldnt agree more! So I really dont want to get into the debate about should you or shouldnt you...at the moment , people do what they think is right...so be it.

What does slightly concern me however about including tips in the base price (which in principle I agree with ) is that will that then lead to some people still tipping on top of that, and so perpetuating the debate? In a way this happened when they introduced the "auto tips" ( or service charge/hotel charge/ gratuties - whatever you call it) ...and then people started tipping on top of that. So now even you pay your auto tips at the moment , it seems that further tipping has become the expected norm. When will it stop? Would staff actually refuse extra tips if tips were included in the price? What happens on other lines who do include all tips?

 

And 4 years on the trot now I have been caught by an increase in tips just before we sail, with PandO (cunard once) giving very short notice of that increase. Its not the amount but the principle of such short notice...so by including tips in the base price, this wouldnt happen....would it?

[terrierjohn]

Does making the cruise £5.50 per day more expensive really make it very expensive ?

 

Advertise a 14 nighter at £77 more and emphasise that there is no need to tip, that should attract peoples attention ;)

I once had an interesting dinner conversation on Princess with a retired US high level bean counter about this topic.

His view, as an ex financial VP, was that if tips were included in the cruise price it would result in a trebling of the current amount, due to the need to add corporate overheads and other wage costs to the base tip.

So be very careful what you wish for, far better to let sleeping dogs lie.

[GLYNAGP]

I once had an interesting dinner conversation on Princess with a retired US high level bean counter about this topic.

His view, as an ex financial VP, was that if tips were included in the cruise price it would result in a trebling of the current amount, due to the need to add corporate overheads and other wage costs to the base tip.

So be very careful what you wish for, far better to let sleeping dogs lie.

John, I think you have a very valid point . Do what I do wherever possible, prepay them, that way there paid with the final balance prior to sailing then forget about them and enjoy the cruise. As for paying more on board, if you don't feel it warrants it , don't do it .

I just wish P&O gave you the option to prepay I certainly would

Glyn

[davecttr]

I once had an interesting dinner conversation on Princess with a retired US high level bean counter about this topic.

His view, as an ex financial VP, was that if tips were included in the cruise price it would result in a trebling of the current amount, due to the need to add corporate overheads and other wage costs to the base tip.

So be very careful what you wish for, far better to let sleeping dogs lie.

 

You increase the base salary of an employee by a certain amount and that incurs an additional 200% mark up for corporate overheads and wage costs :eek::confused::confused:

 

It amazes me how Thomson fill their ships with tips included and you get good service and happy crews. Plus they make a profit :confused:

Edited May 2, 2016 by davecttr

[Millers]

My biggest gripe is not neccesarily the tipping, but being told We are taking this out of your account and this is what we are taking. So it's more a point of principal, hence why we always take it off and tip what we want, a more democratic way of doing things.

[terrierjohn]

You increase the base salary of an employee by a certain amount and that incurs an additional 200% mark up for corporate overheads and wage costs :eek::confused::confused:

 

It amazes me how Thomson fill their ships with tips included and you get good service and happy crews. Plus they make a profit :confused:

That's perhaps why Thomson's brochure price is higher than most others, except Saga, and that is ocean view vs balcony on more modern ships.

I do realise that most people don't pay brochure price but its a good datum point for comparison.

[Mysticalmother]

What does slightly concern me however about including tips in the base price (which in principle I agree with ) is that will that then lead to some people still tipping on top of that, and so perpetuating the debate? In a way this happened when they introduced the "auto tips" ( or service charge/hotel charge/ gratuties - whatever you call it) ...and then people started tipping on top of that. So now even you pay your auto tips at the moment , it seems that further tipping has become the expected norm. When will it stop? Would staff actually refuse extra tips if tips were included in the price? What happens on other lines who do include all tips?

 

Sorry for quoting my own post, but I would be really grateful if someone who has been on eg Thomson or another line where tips are included , could possibly answer my question?

Thank you.