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Since I live in the USA, tipping is quite common and expected since many in the services industry make very little money (restaurant servers especially, legally they can make below minimum wage base salary). Basically, if you have a job catering to customers, you should expect tips unless you screw up or have a poor attitude, etc.
So, in your country / area, do you tip people? I'm planning trips to Japan, Spain, England, Ireland, France, Germany, Russia, Morocco, and China eventually, so if you have perspectives or live there, or have traveled there, it'd be a big help.
Specifically, the following services I'm curious about:
- restaurants
- car valet service
- hotel maids / cleaners
- bartenders
- barbers
- coffee shops
And, finally, if tipping is expected, what amount is reasonable? Any base rules on when you should / should not tip if your country does have tipping? For example, in the USA, if the server is nice, helpful, and speedy, you give them 15-20% of the bill as a tip (unless it's below $7, in that case I just give $2 flat rate). Valet typically I give $10 since I have a nice car, but if I have an econo-box, should I still?
I have been to some of those places. Do as you please, variety is acceptable--but never tip in China. It's considered an insult, or worse yet, if you try to leave a tip, the employees will humiliatingly run you down in the street trying to return the money you left behind. Just don't.
Nowhere in the civilized world will you find the kind of subsidized minimum wage tip scam that exists in the US. Russians will take a tip but don't expect it. Western Europeans will accept tips but anything exceeding 10% would be unusual--they get paid a living wage for their work and most Europeans don't expect their base wages to be paid by the patrons.
International hotels and their attendant services; valets, salons, spas, bars and cafes may be a bit of an exception. Totally high end stuff where wealthy people congregate and the servers expect to be in on the cut. Other than that, tipping expectations around the world outside of the US tend to be very very modest.
Tipping is getting more and more common in the UK but it didn't used to be. Many years ago, my husband - who is English - went to the US and didn't leave a tip at a restaurant. The waiter came running out after them and asked what was wrong with the service. They said "nothing, why?" and he said "well, you didn't leave a tip!". At that time in the UK, tipping was not customary in restaurants so they didn't realize they were supposed to.
But these days, it is definitely becoming more and more expected. We usually tip in restaurants in the UK unless the service was bad or there's already a "service charge" added to the bill (how cheeky is that?). I don't think the average percentage is quite as high as in the US though. Something more like 10-15% should be good. If you tip much more than that, some servers may even try to refuse it - we gave a server a big tip at Christmas time because we frequent there and sort of know him (and he knows us). He was very insistant that we overtipped him and he only accepted it when we told him to consider it a Christmas gift.
I'm pretty sure you shouldn't feel obligated to tip any of the other services you mentioned. Tipping in those services does happen but it's not quite as "expected" as it is in restaurants. Even bartenders will not expect it - that was a weird one I had to get use to when I moved here. I was used to tipping bartenders as sort of like a bribe to get served quickly next time you go up for drink. But there's none of that in the UK.
In Ireland, you generally tip in a sit-down restaurant with waiters, about 10%, unless it says "service included" on the menu. You'd usually tip the hairdresser a few euro, and would tell the taxi driver to "keep the change". You'd never tip delivery drivers, labourers or similar, though people coming into your home for work (carpenters etc) would usually expect a cup of tea.
In Finland tipping is pretty much unheard of. The service sector people get paid crappy wages, but it's still just not part of the culture. It might even be taken as an insult. The taxis are a little different (if you happen to get one, most times it's near to impossible), so i usually ask the driver to keep the change.
Since I live in the USA, tipping is quite common and expected since many in the services industry make very little money (restaurant servers especially, legally they can make below minimum wage base salary). Basically, if you have a job catering to customers, you should expect tips unless you screw up or have a poor attitude, etc.
So, in your country / area, do you tip people? I'm planning trips to Japan, Spain, England, Ireland, France, Germany, Russia, Morocco, and China eventually, so if you have perspectives or live there, or have traveled there, it'd be a big help.
Specifically, the following services I'm curious about:
- restaurants
- car valet service
- hotel maids / cleaners
- bartenders
- barbers
- coffee shops
And, finally, if tipping is expected, what amount is reasonable? Any base rules on when you should / should not tip if your country does have tipping? For example, in the USA, if the server is nice, helpful, and speedy, you give them 15-20% of the bill as a tip (unless it's below $7, in that case I just give $2 flat rate). Valet typically I give $10 since I have a nice car, but if I have an econo-box, should I still?
In Europe, I never tipped. But only because I couldn't afford to lose one dollar. Me and my sister only had an extra $400 with us to share from a total $4,000 trip and in France, that goes by fast. Alot of the other students that came along brought like $1,000 extra and more. We didn't have the kind the money to go giving out big tips like that. But even before going, my teacher said it was customary to tip, I didn't like the idea.
Idk why but I really do not enjoy tipping in Europe. I generally do not enjoy tipping ANYWHERE. Because to me, I'm in an expensive country and I'm on a tight budget trying to save money. Why should I have to give out $10-20 bucks on a little miniature lunch like in France? I remember my sister tipped about 8 euros on the table after the whole tour went to a restaurant for dinner. I was shocked and bewildered. First of all, everyone had already left outrageous tips on the table. We could have just sneaked out and saved money. I mean, that could have paid lunch for tommorrow! Not even forgetting the fact that the in the $4,000, we paid for the dinner. I would have left like 5 euros tops? Idk, maybe I'm just a young cheapskate and don't know any better but you have to understand I REALLY love to save money. I barely ever tip in my own country. The most I have ever tipped is like $.75. My other family members tip outrageous sky-rocket tips. I thinik they're insane.
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