Does FREE gratuities offer screw the staff?

[Pierlesscruisers]

41 minutes ago, keithm said:

Do you ALWAYS eat in the buffet? In most cases then the buffet staff would be sharing in the tips. Overall it's a huge pool & it gets spread among nearly all the staff(non mgt. of course) I do believe the bar staff are NOT included in the normal tipping pool, but share in that nice little "charge" you see when you sign the bar slip. I'm pretty sure that's only for bar staff, as not all pax drink.

 

And drinks purchased at the bars (alcohol & soda) all have the gratuity percentage added to the cost of the drinks.

 

Tom

[mobiandy]

Now here's a novel idea, why not just include an amount in the purchase price of the fare and distribute that as in the contract wage of the staff on the ship. Any 'free' gratuities is just a form of discount to make a cruise more attractive. Then there would be no more queues at service Desk getting them removed and if you want to sling another couple of bucks to your serving people it would be up to you. The system seems to work on ships working to/from and around Downunder and Godzone.  

[Daniel A]

I may be dense but I think I just understood the question OP was asking.  I think OP's question was when Princess is saying that gratuities are free does that mean there is no tip for staff coming from that booking?  Thus is the staff being screwed in order for Princess to offer a benefit to the customer?  I believe the answer is that Princess contributes the standard daily gratuity to the pool on behalf of the customer so the staff does not lose out on the standardized tips.

[Aus Traveller]

6 hours ago, Potstech said:

No where in there does it state tips given on one ship are then shared fleet wife. Certain members try to interpret things to meet their own agenda.

Sorry - several of us here don't agree with your interpretation of the statement on the Princess website that says "shared amongst those staff ...... across the fleet. 🙂

[Aus Traveller]

5 hours ago, voljeep said:

my question has ALWAYS been ... are those the ONLY people who share in the pool ???

 

of course not ...

Yes. The tips pool covers all waitstaff, stateroom stewards, buffet stewards, and housekeeping staff. It does not include behind-the-scenes staff.

[PrincessLuver]

21 minutes ago, Aus Traveller said:

Sorry - several of us here don't agree with your interpretation of the statement on the Princess website that says "shared amongst those staff ...... across the fleet. 🙂

 

Agree also....we have been told by multiple staff tip pool is fleet wide and Princess has also told us that 3 for Free is one one their best promotions and I know that not all people on the cruise are paying the same no matter what promotion they are on or not on!

[Kingofcool1947]

On 10/11/2019 at 10:00 AM, calvindoth said:

Does anybody know if the FREE gratuities offers means that the staff does not get the standard tip? Or does princess make up the difference?

No.

Yes.

[caribill]

12 hours ago, antsp said:

Certain members of cc don’t like what they read. This is from Princess.com. It’s obviously not a lie. 

 

Right. The Princess web site is always accurate with all information worded properly so it can easily be totally understood.

[antsp]

7 minutes ago, caribill said:

 

Right. The Princess web site is always accurate with all information worded properly so it can easily be totally understood.

I’ve spoken to someone I know who used to work for Princess, he was only at deck level and not part of the tip system. The tips are pooled fleetwide for the simple reason on some ships based at some ports the tip ratio can be quite low. ( Ships based in the UK and Europe on short itinaries have a very low tip ratio )The reason princess pool fleet wide is it would be unfair on crew based on those ships as there pay would be effected. 

 

[caribill]

Just now, antsp said:

I’ve spoken to someone I know who used to work for Princess, he was only at deck level and not part of the tip system. The tips are pooled fleetwide for the simple reason on some ships based at some ports the tip ratio can be quite low. ( Ships based in the UK and Europe on short itinaries have a very low tip ratio )The reason princess pool fleet wide is it would be unfair on crew based on those ships as there pay would be effected. 

 

 

And when I asked the person in charge of the ship's payroll about this one time, I was told that the tip pool is just for each ship on its own, no sharing with other ships.

[Thrak]

7 hours ago, mobiandy said:

Now here's a novel idea, why not just include an amount in the purchase price of the fare and distribute that as in the contract wage of the staff on the ship. Any 'free' gratuities is just a form of discount to make a cruise more attractive. Then there would be no more queues at service Desk getting them removed and if you want to sling another couple of bucks to your serving people it would be up to you. The system seems to work on ships working to/from and around Downunder and Godzone.  

 

I'm not sure but I "think" it's a tax issue. If Princess includes the "gratuities" in the fare upfront the US tax laws come into play and the staff loses. Most likely there is also some way that Princess loses in that scenario. I don't believe the company is all that worried about the crew but more about the bottom line. However, if it doesn't really affect the bottom line then I can understand them taking care of the crew - as long as they don't have to pay a higher wage and thus charge more to the cruiser which upsets the customer base. I don't think Princess wants to pass the cost on to the customer in that manner but prefers to charge a "gratuity" instead.

[Colo Cruiser]

18 minutes ago, caribill said:

 

And when I asked the person in charge of the ship's payroll about this one time, I was told that the tip pool is just for each ship on its own, no sharing with other ships.

This is what i have been told on numerous occasions.  

[Thrak]

4 minutes ago, caribill said:

 

And when I asked the person in charge of the ship's payroll about this one time, I was told that the tip pool is just for each ship on its own, no sharing with other ships.

 

Yes, they used to say that. The "new information" from Princess is that they changed their policy to share fleet-wide so that those in areas where nobody tips still get the benefit - of course at the cost of those in the area where tips are high.

[antsp]

So either this crew member is lying, payroll was lying or Princess.com is lying

 

logically though. Princess includes tips on Australian booked cruises.  Reason being high percentage of tips removed

On some ex Southampton sailings 80% of passengers are British. High percentage of tips removed  

 

the pooling system makes sense when you think about it, it stops crew

being ‘stiffed’ when working on certain routes. 

 

P and O now include tips as standard due to high removal rates

Edited October 13, 2019 by antsp

[Aus Traveller]

1 hour ago, antsp said:

So either this crew member is lying, payroll was lying or Princess.com is lying

 

logically though. Princess includes tips on Australian booked cruises.  Reason being high percentage of tips removed

On some ex Southampton sailings 80% of passengers are British. High percentage of tips removed  

 

the pooling system makes sense when you think about it, it stops crew

being ‘stiffed’ when working on certain routes. 

 

P and O now include tips as standard due to high removal rates

It is possible, maybe likely, that none of these sources was lying. It all depends on timing.

 

It wasn't that long ago that a spokesperson for Princess announced that they would be pooling all the gratuities fleet-wide to prevent the staff on a particular cruise losing some of their expected income when passengers on that cruise reduced their tips. From what I understand, Princess guarantees their service staff a certain income. The majority of this comes from the tips pool, but when the tips were kept to one particular ship, or to a particular cruise, the company had to make up any shortfall. By spreading the 'risk' fleet-wide, this is unlikely to happen. The system of having one large tips pool would make accounting much easier. The service staff get the same amount of remuneration every month (except for tips given to them personally).

 

BTW, Princess removed the auto gratuity on Australian-based cruises for Aussies & NZers on 1st May 2011. P&O Aust removed the tips 18 months earlier.

Edited October 13, 2019 by Aus Traveller

[antsp]

Makes complete sense, the info I got today was from an ex crew member but still in touch with dozens of serving crew. This info is upto date

[Aus Traveller]

3 minutes ago, antsp said:

Makes complete sense, the info I got today was from an ex crew member but still in touch with dozens of serving crew. This info is upto date

It might depend on what 'level' the staff are working at. They just get their pay every month and may not know if Princess is pooling the auto-gratuities fleet-wide.

 

I am just relying on the official announcement made on the subject.

[PrincessLuver]

8 hours ago, Colo Cruiser said:

This is what i have been told on numerous occasions.  

 

This makes absolutely no sense because as we all know crew members are leaving and coming aboard the ship at each port usually and are not necessarily on the full cruise each passenger is on so I think it would be a logistically nightmare for accounting trying to keep track of how tips would be distributed based on each cruise.....I stick with what I have been told by crew members and what Princess information I have read that tips are shared fleet wide in a pool.....makes much more sense.

[Colo Cruiser]

3 minutes ago, PrincessLuver said:

 

This makes absolutely no sense because as we all know crew members are leaving and coming aboard the ship at each port usually and are not necessarily on the full cruise each passenger is on so I think it would be a logistically nightmare for accounting trying to keep track of how tips would be distributed based on each cruise.....I stick with what I have been told by crew members and what Princess information I have read that tips are shared fleet wide in a pool.....makes much more sense.

Yes of course since crew have just only recently started coming and going from ships.

It is all very clear now.

I will stick with what I have been told.

[ohnonotmeagain]

So as I posted on the other thread about tips....what happens if you withheld auto gratuities, does that company pay?

[Colo Cruiser]

2 minutes ago, ohnonotmeagain said:

So as I posted on the other thread about tips....what happens if you withheld auto gratuities, does that company pay?

No the crew get nothing form you or the company if you remove the auto gratuities.  🙁

[antsp]

I 

1 minute ago, Colo Cruiser said:

No the crew get nothing form you or the company if you remove the auto gratuities.  🙁

The pool is reduced, the individual crew member who served the passenger does not receive any less as such, the entire pool across the fleet does. I’ve spoken to a ex crew member yesterday ( not in tip pool ) and all was explained 

[ohnonotmeagain]

1 minute ago, Colo Cruiser said:

No the crew get nothing form you or the company if you remove the auto gratuities.  🙁

Ah ,this is how hearsay works......I was told,the company makes up the short fall,not sure out of the pool or somewhere else!!!!

[antsp]

3 minutes ago, ohnonotmeagain said:

Ah ,this is how hearsay works......I was told,the company makes up the short fall,not sure out of the pool or somewhere else!!!!

This is correct, if a passenger doesn’t tip the crew tip pool has a shortfall, and that’s why it’s pooled fleet wide. Otherwise on some sailings crew would receive less pay, by pooling fleet wide it offsets the sailings when tip removal is a higher percentage.

Edited October 13, 2019 by antsp

[ohnonotmeagain]

So ......in theory,what happens if a LOT of people don't auto tip?