Gratuity fee

[Maralv33]

I just got off a 7 day MSC cruise and made friends with some.of.the staff. They mentioned that MSC does not share the gratuity with them.

[Maralv33]

Just now, Maralv33 said:

I just got off a 7 day MSC cruise and made friends with some.of.the staff. They mentioned that MSC does not share the gratuity with them.

Can someone confirm this 

[IsanTom]

45 minutes ago, Maralv33 said:

Can someone confirm this 

I wouldn't be surprised!

[morpheusofthesea]

1 hour ago, Maralv33 said:

I just got off a 7 day MSC cruise and made friends with some.of.the staff. They mentioned that MSC does not share the gratuity with them.

From what I understand the mandatory gratuities go to pay the crew salaries. Those that manage to get these gratuities removed, the cruise line is forced to make up. Even the OBC one has that one is able to designate to specific staff is NOT 100% guaranteed to go entirely to those specific staff and will be pooled. This is true of every cruise line.

[Maralv33]

4 minutes ago, morpheusofthesea said:

From what I understand the mandatory gratuities go to pay the crew salaries. Those that manage to get these gratuities removed, the cruise line is forced to make up. Even the OBC one has that one is able to designate to specific staff is NOT 100% guaranteed to go entirely to those specific staff and will be pooled. This is true of every cruise line

The fee is very deciving they should not call it tips and gratuity

[morpheusofthesea]

21 minutes ago, Maralv33 said:

The fee is very deceiving they should not call it tips and gratuity

 I was unsure about a lot of things, so I went in search of information and found this university study on tipping. The common feature of all forms of tipping is the voluntary and discretionary nature of the tip: the consumer is free to choose how much to tip, if at all. This definition excludes service charges, imposed gratuities, and imposed tips which have nothing in common with voluntary tipping. 
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/23748777_The_Social_Norm_of_Tipping_A_Review

Tipping in advance was traditionally the way most people used to tip, to insure promptness and most service providers actually respond best to this form of tipping. Especially useful when one is competing for the attention of over-worked short staffed service providers

[Bgwest]

3 hours ago, morpheusofthesea said:

From what I understand the mandatory gratuities go to pay the crew salaries. Those that manage to get these gratuities removed, the cruise line is forced to make up.

Your observation “the cruise line is forced to make up” is interesting. 

Isn’t it the responsibility of the cruise line to pay their employees?

 

I pay the salaries of my employees and have never asked my customers to directly contribute to those salaries with a line item charge on my client invoices. 

What am I missing?

 

 

Edited June 5, 2023 by Bgwest

[emmas gran]

This is the second post about tipping/gratuities in a couple of days, however MSC does it it must work. I have just done a 7 day Norway cruise and met crew from 4/5 years ago, I never discuss their salary or tipping with them!! If the OP is new to cruising they may have met a crew member looking for additional tips.

 

 

Edited June 5, 2023 by emmas gran

[morpheusofthesea]

6 hours ago, Bgwest said:

What am I missing?

Not missing much. Perhaps "forced" is not the proper word. Here is another poster's post on another social media site. 

"ElGofre

•2 mo. ago

Ex-crew here, although i wasn't part of the crew who received gratuities.

The simple explanation is that most of the service crew are guaranteed a certain wage per month, partially paid for by the cruise line and partially via gratuities, and if the amount of gratuities received during the cruise aren't enough to reach that guaranteed amount, the cruise will make up the shortfall. My understanding is that the maths is done so that if everyone on board the ship sailing at it's usual sailing capacity leaves their gratuities turned on, the amount in the pool will be enough to cover that wage for everyone. In the event people do overpay, it does indeed mean the crew get paid more-(If) the cruise line don't take a cut or reduce their contribution, then crew's pay does increase."

This gentleman used the word "guaranteed".  "Guaranteed" gives one the impression of "backed by the full faith and credit" of some sort of agency?

Edited June 5, 2023 by morpheusofthesea

[Maralv33]

15 hours ago, morpheusofthesea said:

From what I understand the mandatory gratuities go to pay the crew salaries. Those that manage to get these gratuities removed, the cruise line is forced to make up. Even the OBC one has that one is able to designate to specific staff is NOT 100% guaranteed to go entirely to those specific staff and will be pooled. This is true of every cruise line

The fee is very deceiving they should not call it tips and gratuity

[PTC DAWG]

Re crew gratuities..when in Rome…y’all get the point? 

[Maralv33]

I just have an issue that cruise companies call it a service fee gratuity free. In hotels and restaurants that fee that is collected is distributed among the staff. In that case just raise your prices and be up front with your fees. I feel that the major of passengers feel that this fee went to the staff that served them. Mist passengers never tio their servants because they paid a gratuity fee

[4sallypat]

That is why I tipped my room steward and MDR waiter for their wonderful service in Euros on our last day.

[skipsaur]

4 hours ago, morpheusofthesea said:

Not missing much. Perhaps "forced" is not the proper word. Here is another poster's post on another social media site. 

"ElGofre

•2 mo. ago

Ex-crew here, although i wasn't part of the crew who received gratuities.

The simple explanation is that most of the service crew are guaranteed a certain wage per month, partially paid for by the cruise line and partially via gratuities, and if the amount of gratuities received during the cruise aren't enough to reach that guaranteed amount, the cruise will make up the shortfall. My understanding is that the maths is done so that if everyone on board the ship sailing at it's usual sailing capacity leaves their gratuities turned on, the amount in the pool will be enough to cover that wage for everyone. In the event people do overpay, it does indeed mean the crew get paid more-(If) the cruise line don't take a cut or reduce their contribution, then crew's pay does increase."

This gentleman used the word "guaranteed".  "Guaranteed" gives one the impression of "backed by the full faith and credit" of some sort of agency?

 

So basically the DSC doesn't really go to the employees, it's just reducing the amount of salary the cruise line has to pay their employees. ADDITIONAL tips above the DSC MAY go to the employees, but only if they aren't cancelled out by DSC that gets removed.

 

For example,

Say the cruise line guarantees $1000/month as wage. They put up $500 up front. They say the other $500 will be covered if everyone pays the standard DSC. BUT if no one pays the DSC, the cruise line will pay a second $500 since they guaranteed employees $1000 to begin with.

[Maralv33]

I actually felt good paying this fee thinking that it was going as a tip to the staff

 

[skipsaur]

8 minutes ago, Maralv33 said:

I actually felt good paying this fee thinking that it was going as a tip to the staff

 

I think the whole point of tipping is to make tippers feel good about doing it and the recipient to feel extra rewarded and motivated. But there are plenty of places in the world that don't need it provide good or even excellent service, both sides are satisfied, and the exchange of tips isn't necessary.

 

Don't get me wrong, in a place where tipping is the norm, I'll still do as the Romans do. But workers earning a good wage and taking pride in providing excellent service without tips is my preference. Then no need for all the confusion and misunderstandings and bruised feelings around tips!

[morpheusofthesea]

6 minutes ago, skipsaur said:

I think the whole point of tipping is to make tippers feel good about doing it and the recipient to feel extra rewarded and motivated. But there are plenty of places in the world that don't need it provide good or even excellent service, both sides are satisfied, and the exchange of tips isn't necessary.

 

Don't get me wrong, in a place where tipping is the norm, I'll still do as the Romans do. But workers earning a good wage and taking pride in providing excellent service without tips is my preference. Then no need for all the confusion and misunderstandings and bruised feelings around tips!

Yes. In a more perfect world.

[morpheusofthesea]

24 minutes ago, Maralv33 said:

I actually felt good paying this fee thinking that it was going as a tip to the staff

 

That is the point. The US government decided a few years ago to ask taxpayers to send their taxes "Make payable to United States Treasury" instead of the more feared "IRS", making us feel more patriotic in paying our taxes..

[emmas gran]

We in UK don’t have the option of included or not Gratuities are included in the fare!

[morpheusofthesea]

It is still never out of fashion to show compassion with a tip.

[Bgwest]

7 hours ago, morpheusofthesea said:

The simple explanation is that most of the service crew are guaranteed a certain wage per month, partially paid for by the cruise line and partially via gratuities

 

7 hours ago, morpheusofthesea said:

1 hour ago, morpheusofthesea said:

It is still never out of fashion to show compassion with a tip.

 

Partially paid for by the cruise line? I would submit that it is the responsibility of the cruise line to pay their employees. As I said once before, I pay my employees. Period. There is never a line item on the invoices I send to my customers asking/demanding them to subsidize MY payroll obligation to MY employees.

 

Using the cruise line model, I would partially pay my employees then invoice my customers for some percentage of my payroll cost and expect them to "make up the difference". Pure nonsense. How would any normal rational thinking person feel if they received an invoice from a provider with an "employee gratuity" line item included? How many here would simply line through and ignore such silliness? I know I would. 

 

@morpheusofthesea while you and I seem in nearly 100% agreement on our positions on most everything, I do have to quibble a bit with your use of the word compassion. I show compassion by acts and deeds along with contributions to worthy charities. A service provider is gainfully employed and is therefore never the recipient of our compassion. They are providing a service and if the service they provide is above and beyond, we show our appreciation by tipping individually. 

 

 

 

Edited June 5, 2023 by Bgwest

[DWBirdman]

Similar here. I liked RCs way of addressing this. They offered us the ability to add a "gratuity" when purchasing our vacation. They also informed us that we could forego that option and tip as we desired while on board. 
 

My entire family was quite surprised with everyone (including children) received a charge on their account for Hotel Services Charge. When asked about this charge and why it was being charged to children, MSC responded that the HSC was for all of those servicing our room, table, etc. 

This fee directly impacted my independent tipping as an additional $1000+ dollars was attempting to be charged to me post boarding. I had the kids charges removed. The cabin steward and waiter in the MDR lost out due to this tactic.

[Brighton Line]

Let's turn on the way back machine. In 1995 Royal gave envelopes to each cabin with hotel service crew positions on them. I got an envelope for Cabin Steward, Matradee, Head Waiter, and two Assistant Waiters. There was no DSC Daily Service Charge added to anyone's ship account. 

 

The start of the DSC, auto gratuities were justified that "most" passengers weren't leaving tips and now has it evolved into it isn't a tip but a revenue source for crew contracted pay?

 

ATMs,  and Television used to be free too. 

 

 

[pdmlynek]

Just got off MSC Magnifica. 

 

The final bill had a "hotel service charge" of 84 EUR.  The guest services desk explained to me that it was a 12 EUR/day "gratuity".  I told them, truthfully, that I already tipped my cabin stewardess 100 USD, and they agreed to take off the charge.

 

And yes, I agree with others: I dislike forced tipping.

[morpheusofthesea]

1 hour ago, Bgwest said:

fthesea while you and I seem in nearly 100% agreement on our positions on most everything, I do have to quibble a bit with your use of the word compassion. I show compassion by acts and deeds along with contributions to worthy charities. A service provider is gainfully employed and is therefore never the recipient of our compassion. They are providing a service and if the service they provide is above and beyond, we show our appreciation by tipping individually.

Poetic license. 

I got permission from a FB poster to repost this: "Recently I saw a Tik Tok by Captain Kate. She was giving out envelopes to her staff that a passenger asked her to do for them. One staff member opened the envelope to find $5. He went crazy with joy, you would have thought it was a $100. She received so many comments on why the young man was overly excited and happy for such a small amount. A few days later she did another Tik Tok with him asking him why his reaction was so grand. He said that he would have reacted the same way if it was only $1 dollar. He said with those $5 dollars he can buy rice, bread and a lot more stuff for his family back home. That video opened my eyes on tipping anyone who serves me and our family. Please tip extra by cash. The included tips are the bare minimum that are divided between many."

 Somehow the word "compassion" hit me, "appreciation" is also good.

Edited June 5, 2023 by morpheusofthesea