Tipping tips

[mailechan 0]

So out of curiosity, I was wondering what people tip when they come to Otakon. And I'm not talking about at restaurants. I'm talking about all the other people out there who work to make our stay decent. How much do you tip your floor maid? How much do you tip the driver who takes you from the airport? How much do you give the poor schmoe who makes sure no one breaks your brand new bokken and posters as you wait for your mom to pick you up?

My rule of thumb has been:

Floor Maid: $2/day for the first person in the room, and $1/day for each extra person, and $2-10 for any special requests. (I don't tip for engineer help, though--and they never expect it.) I also leave any of the unopened snacks and drinks that I've accumulated over the weekend for them to help themselves.

Bell boy: $5 if he takes my bags up to the room, $10 if he unloads them from the car, waits for me to get checked in AND takes them up to the room. Going home, I usually tip $10 if he comes to the room, loads them up on the cart and brings them down and helps pack them in the trunk, or $5 for taking them downstairs.

Airport van drivers: $1 or $2 if they have the A/C on.

Bag holding service: If it's only for an hour, I do $1/bag. If it's for more than an hour (when you check out at noon, but still go to the rest of the con) I tip as much as $5-$10

Sometimes, though, I don't leave money as a tip. There was one bell boy who was lamenting that he had to work during Otakon, because he'd wanted to attend, but he needed the money. I tipped him a freebie poster and shirt I got in the dealers' room. Boy I got fantastic service from him the rest of the weekend.

[Usagi.Hoshino 0]

I think it was so cool of you to tip him with the t-shirt ^^! I'm changing hotels each day so I guess the only tip I will have will be the late check out one ^^ how much was for food? I forgot ;_;

[The INfamous MC 24]

20% Tip on food.

[Usagi.Hoshino 0]

Thanks ^^

[SailorV 0]

I'm glad to see someone really thinks hard about tipping. I hate people who don't tip properly. I especially hate the excuse "Well, I didn't have enough to tip 20%!" Well then, it looks like you didn't have enough to go out in the first place. I tip 20% when eating always, and usually round THAT up!

[ota_retired 6]

Whenever a large group of us go out to someplace nice, it's always a buck or two a person, $3 if you ordered like 4 refills or needed special attention on something. Usually it ends up being about right, if not a bit over.

Good tip, or no tip. That's what I always say.

[Ghola 0]

I generally tip 15% on food, 20% on liquor.

If service is bad I won't tip at all.

Mind you I'm pretty tolerant and it has to be really bad for that to happen. Which is something to keep in mind during the con. about 30k extra people show up in town, and while a lot of places put on extra staff sometimes that's not enough.

[bayp 0]

Let's see.

For hotel maid service, I don't think I've ever left a tip unless my room has gotten exceptionally messy for some reason. For bell boy-type service, what I tip depends on how fancy of a place that I'm staying -- but 99% of the time I'd rather just cary my own bags.

Airport van drivers I usually tip $5.

Bag holding service? I've never used one so there's no "usual amount" there.

Restaurants, normally I'll leave 20% if they do a great job, 15% for "normal" service.. less if the service is poor.

[Maria Tolentino Goldstein 0]

Let's see.

For hotel maid service, I don't think I've ever left a tip unless my room has gotten exceptionally messy for some reason. For bell boy-type service, what I tip depends on how fancy of a place that I'm staying -- but 99% of the time I'd rather just cary my own bags.

Airport van drivers I usually tip $5.

Bag holding service? I've never used one so there's no "usual amount" there.

Restaurants, normally I'll leave 20% if they do a great job, 15% for "normal" service.. less if the service is poor.

[mailechan 0]

Really? $5 for airport vans? Then I think I'm going to up my tip for them when I use them this year.

I just see so few people tipping at the convention that I wondered if people actually tipped at all. I was talking to a bellboy one afternoon, and he said that he has worked for four years and was only was working Otakon weekend that year because he needed the money, and that he never expects good tips from Otakon members. He said that he had little expectations from the younger crowd anyway. I found that a bit insulting, but I could see his point in that a lot of Otakon's members are young, and have had little experience with tipping outside of eating establishments, unless it was from the other side of the coin.

Having worked as a waitress before, I know how hard most of them have to work, so I am usually generous with restaurant tips. And I know a few housekeepers and how much tips they were given are appreciated.

[bayp 0]

I was talking to a bellboy one afternoon, and he said that he has worked for four years and was only was working Otakon weekend that year because he needed the money, and that he never expects good tips from Otakon members. He said that he had little expectations from the younger crowd anyway.

[.Schala. 0]

I usually handle my own bags. What I hate is when the bellboys are very forceful about taking my bags after I decline their offer, and they expect a tip. Like they just stand there looking at me with this face that just screams "MONEY PLEASE!!"

I remember at the end of last year, this bellboy at the Radisson insisted on moving my bags like 5 feet across the lobby. I was taking it out of storage. I told him I could handle it, but he did it anyway. Then he was like "We do accept tips btw." The only cash I had on me was enough for the tolls on the way back, so I told him "I'm sorry but I don't have any cash on me." and he gave me this really annoyed look and sighed and walked away. It was rude and completely uncalled for. This is why I like to take care of my own luggage. If I ask for your assistance, and you're polite, and very helpful, then fine, I'll tip you. But if you come up to me, BEGGING me for money, and refuse to accept my decline, then you have no reason to be rude to me. >.>

With that said, in 2005, the bellboy at the Radisson was very helpful and polite. He even chatted about some anime with me, said he used to watch some, and asked what Otakon was about. When we got to my room, he discovered that the room I was given was already occupied. Lol. So I waited in the hall while he ran down to get me a new room and keycard. I tipped him $5 I think.

When eating at restaurants, I usually tip 15-20%. I'm pretty generous when it comes to tipping waiters/waitresses because I know they get paid much less. And I know working with the public is really rough. Customers blame them for things they have nothing to do with. So I tip well, unless they're just very impolite and rude.

I usually leave $10-$20 for the hotel room maid. Depends on how many people are staying in the room and how messy we are. My friends and I are generally clean and pick up after ourselves. Sometimes I bring a big black trash bag to put trash in because the little trashcans in the room never seem to be enough. They're also useful for sticking dirty clothes in, since you don't want to put dirty/smelly clothes back into your suitcase with the clean ones.

[syntaxerror37 0]

For food I was always told its 15% if there is no table cloth, 20% if there is one. I go up or down depending on service/size of party, but always tip a minimum of $2.00.

[evilrob 0]

Stock etiquettes for tipping:

"At a restaurant: Offer up 15% to 20% of your total bill. Keep in mind that the amount you tip reflects the total price before any coupons, gift certificates, etc. Just because you get a discount, does not mean that your server did not serve up the full order. If you are part of a party of more than 8 people, you should offer an amount closer to the 20% marker, if not more, depending on the needs of the guests in your party. If, for example, one of your guests insists on getting the salad dressing on the side, extra bread, more water and no avocado, then you definitely want to compensate the server who extended service to include these extras.

Transportation: Whether you hail a cab or take a limousine, you best offer a gratuity between 10% to 15% of the fare. If the drivers are particularly rude or unhelpful, give them the minimum. But if they are attentive to your travel needs and help you in any way beyond the norm, remember and thank them with a 15% or larger gratuity. If you use valet service at a hotel, restaurant or shopping area, offer the driver 10% for the service, but never give change. Another guideline is simply offering the attendant a back or two for the parking and retrieval of your car. And if you're traveling through an airport, and utilizing the aid of skycaps, offer a dollar per bag and up that amount if the bags are particularly heavy or large.

At a Hotel: It is standard to leave the maid a few bucks for tidying your room. If you have additional needs such as more towels, soap, an extra toothbrush, etc. thank the maid with an additional dollar or two. When checking in and out of a hotel, remember the bellhop with a gratuity of a dollar per bag, unless, once again, you have particularly large or heavy bags.

Overall, think before you tip. You don't want to regret the decision to be stingy at a later date. Like when you're hair's a mess and you really need the stylist to squeeze you in for an appointment, but you left such a small tip last time, that she won't make the time to make you look amazing this time."

Personally, I maintain the notion that tipping a the reward based on service. I've read many articles from the employee side fussing and lamenting that they weren't given a tip because they expect the customer to give them a decent tip no matter how their service was. So. I stick to good service, good tip. If I eat half my meal without a drink because the wait staff doesn't feel bothered to check or give me a refill on their way past my table 20 times to serve the people around me, then the amount drops more so. Hotels are a little different. After leaving a tip in the room the first cleaning day, the next day's all relevant on how they did after the first day, because I like coming back to everything looking like housekeeping was on the job. So. *shrug* I'm old school on the issue. Give me good service, and I'll tip handsomely. Give me the bare minimum of service and then expect me to give you that extra 20 you see in my wallet when I go to pay, think again.

[alabaster 0]

I mentally start at 20%. As long as they competently produce my order and keep my drink topped off (I am a heavy drinker of water), it stays there. It's up to them to lose a tip.

[Pincer 0]

Honestly I never knew there was an unofficial rule to tipping house maids in a hotel. But, I've never made a mess in a room even with a group of people. But I will keep this in mind if the house maids do a good job in keeping us well stocked and other stuff.

I never use bellhops at a hotel unless we have a ton of crap to haul to the room (DragonCon in this example). I'll tip roughly $2 per bag I have, unless I have a big one then it goes up.

Restaurants, 15% is considered the minimum tip from what I was taught during a weekend seminar in college. If the waiter/waitress does a good job then it goes up. But if they stick to just the basics then it's the 15%. Crappy service, no tip! For fast food places, I don't tip because it's over the counter service. Now when it comes to like Starbucks and coffeeshops I will leave a tip since they make a variety drinks with endless variants.

Airport shuttles, definitely $5 for the trip. If it's a longer drive wherever I'm at then I'll do $10.