Gratuities increase effective Nov 1

[catsmit]

1 hour ago, smokeybandit said:

Put it in the cruise fare so we don't have to care.

 

From what I have read over the years that came from the horse's mouth, they don't want to do that because all those funds would become taxable income to them.

 

aka - Accounting & advertising gymnastics

 

Their fares would no longer be advertised as cheaper than the rest.

 

Edited October 8 by catsmit

[NateUpNorth]

16 minutes ago, Realrunner said:

I don’t pay for a service until I get that service.  I should not be labelled anything if I decide to do things differently 

No labelling here, merely a description of options people choose with a view to considering an interesting mathematical equation on RCL's part.

[Another_Critic]

1 hour ago, lovesthebeach2 said:

Ours too….😉

 

Maybe I'll see you onboard.  🙂

[FamilyCruiserUK]

Absolutely no surprise royal are increasing gratuities. They will continue to increase them for the foreseeable future as long as the majority of people keep paying them. Its a win win for royal tbh as they are in effect giving the staff a pay rise with little outlay from royals profits. Granted they will as i believe make up the short fall as not everyone will pay graturities, however the vast majority they know will pay them. 

[smokeybandit]

4 minutes ago, catsmit said:

 

From what I have read over the years that came from the horse's mouth, they don't want to do that because all those funds would become taxable income to them.

 

aka - Accounting & advertising gymnastics

 

Their fares would no longer be cheaper than the rest.

 

There'd surely be some accounting gymnastics they could do. Stranger things have been done.

[Tatka]

1 hour ago, catsmit said:

Inquiring minds would like to know.......

 

If Royal Caribbean is truly distributing 100% of the gratuities collected from the passengers, why do all the crew members BEG for 10s on the survey?

 

They get promotions, bonuses... demotions etc.

[lovesthebeach2]

3 minutes ago, Another_Critic said:

 

Maybe I'll see you onboard.  🙂

We will probably be at schooner at some point every day…there’s always something going on there.

[Another_Critic]

1 hour ago, bjlaacjlc said:

We are with you since they started the ridiculous cycle of raising gratuities and prices and reducing services.  From now on we tip who, when and how much we want directly and never bought into lets tip everybody from the dishwashers to everybody else by the amount we say BS.

 

I have been doing the opposite.  Standard daily gratuities and no longer giving extra (unless I ask for something that is not normally provided).

[Another_Critic]

2 minutes ago, lovesthebeach2 said:

We will probably be at schooner at some point every day…there’s always something going on there.

 

Do you look like your avatar?  😄

[Realrunner]

9 minutes ago, NateUpNorth said:

No labelling here, merely a description of options people choose with a view to considering an interesting mathematical equation on RCL's part.

No Labelling, so what’s the removal crowd then?  That’s Labelling first class, and has no place on cruise critic

[bjlaacjlc]

18 minutes ago, catsmit said:

 

From what I have read over the years that came from the horse's mouth, they don't want to do that because all those funds would become taxable income to them.

 

aka - Accounting & advertising gymnastics

 

I'm a CPA, for more years than I care to admit, but there's no way including "gratuities" in the fare would ever be taxable as long as RCL is actually paying them out to the crew as income. 

 

If they were completely included in the fare their income would go up X amount of dollar's and there expenses would go up by the same figure which results in zero taxes. They don't even need to go that route, carry it as a separate line item like port fees and taxes and make it mandatory.  

 

Either way there's zero effect on taxes.....unless of course RCL is not paying it all out?

 

 

[catsmit]

4 minutes ago, bjlaacjlc said:

 

@bjlaacjlc

 

If you're a CPA then you know that Royal cannot roll "gratuities" in cruise fare. It would become classified as something else - a fee, so to speak which would be taxable which they could then offset as wages or such paid to their employees......assuming they pass along the "collection" from the passenger to the employee.

 

Gratuities are by definition - voluntary AFTER a service is offered and completed.

Fees on the other hand are mandatory.

[HicksRA]

Nickel and dime, nickel and dime - Jason’s agenda. 
I’ve got one more 5day to suffer through with Royal and I’m done. 

[bjlaacjlc]

7 minutes ago, catsmit said:

@bjlaacjlc

 

If you're a CPA then you know that Royal cannot roll "gratuities" in cruise fare. It would become classified as something else - a fee, so to speak which would be taxable which they could then offset as wages or such paid to their employees......assuming they pass along the "collection" from the passenger to the employee.

 

Gratuities are by definition - voluntary AFTER a service is offered and completed.

Fees on the other hand are mandatory.

We're talking the same thing here, the bottom line is there's never taxes because there's always an offset expense or its classified as non-income, a payable so to speak.  If you familiar with accounting then Debit Cash on payment by customers credit Accounts Payable Gratuities, it never hits the income statement. 

 

Even if they included it in sales there's always an offset expenses which by definition will result in zero income taxes.  Read my other post, I now tip directly to those who serve me...all I'm pointing out is that there is no way its a tax issue for not including it in fares.

[yogimax]

22 minutes ago, bjlaacjlc said:

I now tip directly to those who serve me..

How do you determine the amount of the tip?

 

Will the total you tip on a cruise be more or less than $36 a day for a couple?

 

Asking for a friend.

[neverbeenhere]

I have a reasonable number of corporations as clientele, none of them are international cruise lines, so I have little knowledge how they would handle "gratuity/tips" added to the fare price in the various parts of the world.

 

I hate rising prices as much as the next guy, but as hard as I try, I can't get my income to decrease.

[catsmit]

7 minutes ago, yogimax said:

How do you determine the amount of the tip?

 

Will the total you tip on a cruise be more or less than $36 a day for a couple?

 

Asking for a friend.

 

Generally, the total tip is divided unequally between the cabin attendant, MDR waiter, MDR assistant waiter, other dining (i.e., Windjammer personnel who remove your plates and utensils from your table) and who you will discover upon a closer look are assistant waiters from the MDR) and other (behind the scenes) housekeeping.

 

Your cabin attendant and MDR wait staff generally garner roughly 50% of the total per day per person.

 

As someone already posted, you can remove the gratuities and tip those directly you find have earned your gratuity by providing an exemplary service.

 

[cruzsnooze]

The suggestion is made and the passenger still can reduce them at guest services. I personally don't prepay for service prior to receiving them. I also tend to reduce them to $10 PP PD which is what I believe trickles down to crew after RCI takes their admin fee and distributes across the entire fleet which includes countries that don't ask for gratuity.

[RCLcruiser2012]

4 hours ago, JT1962 said:

They should include the amount for gratuities as part of the total cruise price listed, like they recently did with taxes & port charges. It would make it much simpler for the cruise line and the passengers. Those that want to give extra for service above and beyond could still do so.

I feel like we are all obligated to tip a second time..... We normally do but I don't like the feeling like it's expected. We don't tip twice on land...

[DaKahuna]

3 hours ago, catsmit said:

Inquiring minds would like to know.......

 

If Royal Caribbean is truly distributing 100% of the gratuities collected from the passengers, why do all the crew members BEG for 10s on the survey?

 

The ratings help them with promotions, extra time off, free shore excursions, and getting future contracts. It has nothing to do with daily gratuities. 

 

[DaKahuna]

23 minutes ago, cruzsnooze said:

The suggestion is made and the passenger still can reduce them at guest services. I personally don't prepay for service prior to receiving them. I also tend to reduce them to $10 PP PD which is what I believe trickles down to crew after RCI takes their admin fee and distributes across the entire fleet which includes countries that don't ask for gratuity.

 

So if you think RCI is taking a cut of the gratuities and you reduce yours to $10 do you think that RCI is not taking a cut of that.  

 

All of my research and discussions with crew and officers tells me that you are wrong in your assumption. If you go to guest services they will show you the breakdown, which has also been published on CC many times, of where every penny of the gratuities go and believe me, not of it goes into RCIs profit.  It all goes back to the crew members. 

 

[PhillyFan33579]

3 hours ago, chfenton said:

I bet it will continue to evolve and gratuities will be included in cruise fare at some point in the future.  It already is for Star Class cabins and I'm sure those employees are still getting their share so I'm betting they will do it for other/all the cabins at some point as well.

I don’t see that happening any time soon. If RCI included gratuities in the cruise fare, it would be considered revenue that would be subject to taxation. Additionally, assuming RCI would not cut the amount of money going to crew members, they would have to raise the cruise fare to not only include the gratuities amount, but also increase it to cover the additional taxes that would result from this change. But if a significant number of people remove gratuities in the future, I could see this change happening. 

[NateUpNorth]

1 hour ago, Realrunner said:

No Labelling, so what’s the removal crowd then?  That’s Labelling first class, and has no place on cruise critic

I can see from your posting history this is a topic nearer and dearer to your heart than mine and you've taken great personal offense to a general statement. I'll respectfully indicate no offense was intended to you specifically, or any that remove gratuities. However, if I may - if you continue to post so vociferously about your feelings towards tipping, don't be surprised if you do in fact get "labelled", especially around here. A little looking around and you will see all kinds of evidence of this. Hence the popcorn emoji appearing as the only message in one of the first posts. Perhaps this topic, or even the internet, is not the place for you?

I will leave you to it, please don't feel the need to reply as I have no interest in continuing to expend time on a perceived slight where none was intended. Apologies.

[cruisinfanatic]

Wish we could use OBC to prepay tips

[lovesthebeach2]

2 hours ago, Another_Critic said:

 

Do you look like your avatar?  😄

Yes….. I assume you look like yours too 😂