The new tipping dilemma...a possible solution

[the2ofus]

I'll offer a possible scenario for your consideration:

 

Ina Quandry has cruised solo on HAL many times and has always tipped for good service. On this cruise under the new tipping rules she has encountered a dilemma.

 

Her cabin steward Soso has been less than mediocre. There were lint and crumbs on the carpet when she first entered her stateroom. (She paid single supplement by the way.) The ice bucket was missing. She also needed a few hangers. She found her steward, introduced herself, asked for the hangers and ice bucket and headed for the Lido, confident that in true HAL fashion everything would be perfect when she returned to her cabin. Sadly, upon re-entering her cabin she found that nothing had changed. She then went to the front desk and asked that her cabin steward be reminded of her needs.

 

After dinner in the dining room, attending the show and meeting new friends in the piano bar she returned to her cabin. She found that still nothing had changed. Exhausted after a day of travel she went to bed. Next morning, after breakfast and after her morning walk on Lower Prom and picking up the daily trivia form she returned to her cabin to find the bed very untidily made up, no ice bucket, two hangers lying on the table and no sign of the application of a vacuum cleaner.

 

She contacted the Housekeeping supervisor and made her wants and needs known, saying that the cabin steward must be new on his job and she did not wish to cause him trouble but that he needed more instruction. No, she was told, he was an experienced steward. He would be reminded to do a more thorough job. Throughout her seven-day cruise her carpet was never vacuumed, the bed making improved minimally but the bathroom also showed signs of being neglected.

 

By contrast, her dining room steward Teguh and his assistant Rudi were among the best she had ever had on a HAL cruise. Teguh remembered her food allergy and each night pointed out to her the menu items that contained the offending food. He recommended the menu items he thought she might enjoy most, even bringing her two soups when she could not decide on one. He offered to bring a second serving of fish when she raved about the flavor and the sauce. Learning that she loved fresh raspberries, she found that he brought her an extra dessert that featured raspberries, even thoughg she had chosen the chocolate tulip that night.

 

Rudi also was exceptional, making sure that her glass of milk was beside her place as soon as she was seated and placing the hot tea with lemon immediately after her main course was cleared, never needing a reminder. Her water glass was always full, her chair was always pulled out to seat her as she arrived. Both men were busy but never acted as though any request was too much bother. Both enjoyed interacting with their tables, and took photographs as requested throughout the cruise. Even during her lunches in the Lido, if they were on duty they sought her out, carried her tray, brought beverages and chatted with her.

 

Ina's tablemates were appalled by her stories of the poor service of the cabin steward, as none were experiencing less than exemplary service from their own stewards. Ina stated that her cruise questionnaire would reflect her displeasure with the housekeeping supervisor and with Soso.

 

At the disembarkation talk, Ina learned that she had the option to allow the $10 per pax per day gratuity to remain on her final bill to be split among all who had served her directly or behind the scenes. Alternatively, she could remove the charge from her account and tip individually but those who received the tips would be required to pool what she had given them so that all employees would benefit. She could also leave the charge on her account and tip extra to those who had served her well.

 

What to do, what to do.....Ina Quandry worried and fretted. She had never been one to reward poor behavior and Soso had obviously been counting on his behavior having no consequences. On the other hand, she would gladly tip Teguh and Rudi above and beyond what they might receive under the "mandatory tipping" system.

 

Ah...the solution hit her like a bolt out of the blue! She removed the tips from her shipboard account.

 

As she approached the dining room on the last evening she met her tablemate Mrs. Generoso as arranged and passed two envelopes to her. Once seated at the table she continued to interact as always with the two stewards, who continued to give the same wonderful service, although they undoubtably had "The List" of those who removed their tips.

 

Toward the end of the meal Mrs. Generoso thanked the stewards for their service and gave them their tips, saying it was in addition to what they would receive from the HAL tipping charge. She then offered them each an envelope with their name on it, saying that she was so impressed with the great service they had provided to Ina Quandry that she wanted to tip them in addition to what she had already given on her own behalf. Both ladies smiled happily and left the dining room.

 

The following morning before leaving the ship Ina Quandry found Soso where he was working in the corridor preparing cabins for the new guests. She pressed a $5 bill into his hand, smiled sweetly and said she hoped he would continue his effort to improve his service as it had not met her expectations during her cruise. She smiled as she disembarked knowing that Soso would have to share the small $5 with the pool, while her dining stewards could enjoy the rewards they richly deserved.

[WindyCity]

Excellent suggestion! I LOVE IT!:D

[Opinions]

However. the dining room stewards will have to explain to their supervisor and their fellow workers why their sevice was so poor that a passenger removed the tips from their account...The tip pool has suffered and the dining room stewards can't really tell about the money they received.

[drdaddy]

That is actually pretty cool. 2 questions. You need to have a tablemate who is willing to do this (shouldn't be a problem except if you at a table for two). Also, if this becomes an "extra" tip, do they still have to pool this?

[the2ofus]

I expect that there is a place to indicate your reasons for removing the charge from your account. There is also the questionnaire that expresses her dissatisfaction with her cabin steward and the hskpg. dept.

 

As a former manager of an agency with many service workers, I can tell you that if 99% of the feedback on an employee is positive, the one negative does not raise red flags, just is filed in case there is some change going on with that employee - therefore the DR stewards should be home free. The amount of the tip to the cabin steward should raise additional flags about him however. Besides I believe all the other folks at the table left their tips intact. (Since I wrote it, I can make them do anything! Ah, the power of the pen!! :D ) So there is no reason to think service at that table was subpar.

[the2ofus]

Dr. Daddy,

Good questions.

Since there are others on your corridor with the same cabin steward, you might want to share your idea with them. Since cash is anonymous, you might just stop by another pax" dining table and hand their DR stewards the envelopes saying you had observed them and thought they did a superior job. Who's to know?

 

In all the rush, do they really have the chance to write down who gave them how much or does it just go into the biggest envelope they receive. Of course the tips from people on "The List" go into another pocket so there is no mixup.

[LAFFNVEGAS]

I still think this is a lot of worry and work to enjoy a week on a cruise. I agree I do Not Like this new tipping policy but I Do Not see it changing. With that said, I still plan to leave the $10.00 per person, per day on and if my Dining Room Stewarts or Room Stewart does an exceptional job I will tip them extra. If they did not do a good job, Oh well, I have over paid before in life and at least they did not get as much as they would have if they did an excellent job. DH does not like the idea that the "behind the scenes people are getting tipped" these are not normally positions on land that get tips and they are actually paid well compared to most of their home countries, considering that they are also receiving Room and board and travel for that matter. He would prefer we take it off for that reason only but I think again it is too much work and I don't want to stiff those who do deserve the tips. I am just considering it part of the cost of our cruise.

[cruzincurt]

Hmmm... after you complained about your room steward I wonder where your toothbrush might have visited.

 

Unless it is really serious, I would wait till the end of the cruise and fill out the comment card with the steward's name.

 

I think this whole auto-tip stuff came about from people who thought "the service tip" was included in their cheap cruise fare when it was common to tip on every other cruise line, or those who just have to charge every penney they spend to their credit cards so they can get their "points". I look at it as just another cost of the cruise.

[the2ofus]

Laffnvegas-

Actually, I would agree that the whole process of opting out of the tipping is too awkward and just leave things alone, except that it is a disincentive to those who work hard and an incentive to those who just scrape by.

 

Seems the most fair and best method would be to allow a passenger to ask to have a cabin steward or other employee removed from the distribution list for the that one passenger's tips, with a note to the employee advising them of the fact. (Probably with a little enclosure to see the personnel manager also, so that corrective action can be begun.)

 

Certainly service will deteriorate if HAL continues to hew to this policy of enforced tipping regardless of service. You and I and our cruising compadres are the ones who will suffer in the long run.

[Jacqueline]

Celebritie's system allows for adjusting each amount up or down for each person who has served you. So it would be easy to give zero the the room steward and bump up the waiters. There are seperate line items for each person who is tipped. This sounds like the best system.

[Cracker Ken]

Yes - I agree regarding the tipping procedure with Celebrity. It works fine. To start with, they don't have (and perhaps HAL no longer has) a pretentious published policy that "Tipping isn't required" even though it really is expected. I won't go into all that, as it has been hashed about over and over. On a cruise with X, towards the beginning of the cruise, we got a card. It listed the persons who customarily receive tips, and it also listed the average tip for those individuals based on the AMEX standards. There was a blank for each person where we could list what he was to receive per day. We simply gave everyone the average or customary rate, except for the asst waiter, which got a little more (they work hard to, so I like to see them getting close to what the main waiter gets). Near the end of the cruise there is a deadline to get this turned in. Anyway, you get cards that can be given to each of the persons so they will know you tipped them on your shipboard account. Also, if you want to, you can give them some extra cash, which they keep. Or, you can opt out and pay totally in cash, should you wish, your choice. Basically, their tipping policy simply allows you to put it on your charge account if you wish. It works well, and HAL would be well served to examine it. All of this complicated mess that HAL has instituted is obviously causing a lot of problems, and pretty much caps the various workers on how much they receive, while cutting their pay, allocating money for travel, making them pay for uniforms, etc.

 

First thing you know, things will evolve to the point where there is going to be a large number of workers just like "Soso" on these ships.

 

Ken

[Jacqueline]

After having sailed the major cruise lines in the last two years, I really feel that there are some elements on each which are so clearly superior. ANd others which are so maddening.

For example, on X with excursions there is no box to request or cancel . You have to go in at the limited hours offered. This is just so dumb !

[HeatherInFlorida]

I still think this is a lot of worry and work to enjoy a week on a cruise. I agree I do Not Like this new tipping policy but I Do Not see it changing. With that said, I still plan to leave the $10.00 per person, per day on and if my Dining Room Stewarts or Room Stewart does an exceptional job I will tip them extra. If they did not do a good job, Oh well, I have over paid before in life and at least they did not get as much as they would have if they did an excellent job. DH does not like the idea that the "behind the scenes people are getting tipped" these are not normally positions on land that get tips and they are actually paid well compared to most of their home countries, considering that they are also receiving Room and board and travel for that matter. He would prefer we take it off for that reason only but I think again it is too much work and I don't want to stiff those who do deserve the tips. I am just considering it part of the cost of our cruise.

I am so happy that someone finally said this. I couldn't agree with you more on every point you made. Bravo to you for putting it so well.

 

Also, Celebrity has it exactly right. Their tipping policy worked perfectly for us last year. And the smartest thing HAL could do is rip that page right out of Celebrity's book and be done with it.