How much do I tip the parking garage attendant for parking / bringing our car around, and when do I tip him? What about chambermaid service when I stay at a hotel — how much do I tip, and when? The bellhop when s/he brings my bags up to your room? Restaurants — how much, and does it change depending on what circumstances? What about my mail carrier and trash collectors (ahem, excuse me, sanitation engineers) during the holiday season?
So many moments where I’m expected to tip someone. And oftentimes I leave feeling like a fool for not tipping enough, or even for overtipping. HELP!
Ah, here’s a good web resource: Tipping.org.
(I know, the name makes me think of tipping outhouses or cows out there in a pasture, but stay with me please.)
Tipping.org makes it easy to find out how much to tip, and how to tip them as well. There’s also information for tipping in countries other than the United States. Its organization (once you find the Tips button) makes it easy to find what you need to know.
Here’re the answers to my questions above, according to Tipping.org:
- Parking garage attendant — $1, except under some circumstances. But it doesn’t say WHEN to tip the attendant. I’ve heard that you tip him/her as the car is brought back to you, not when the car is dropped off.
- Hotel chambermaids — a minimum of $5 PER NIGHT, but “consider $7-9 a night.” Again, the site doesn’t say when — I usually do one big tip at the end of the stay (following what I’ve heard elsewhere), but maybe that’s not fair when there are more than one chambermaid that cleans my room during the week.
- Hotel bellhop — $10 for bringing you to your room with your luggage, or $5 for opening and showing you your room.
- Restaurants — 15% to 20% to the waiter. But lots more information on the Tipping.org’s restaurant page.
- Mail carriers — during the holiday season, no more than $20 (due to federal regulations covering gifts) plus a letter of appreciation.
- Garbage collectors (which is the term Tipping.org uses) — $15-20 per person.
Ok, let’s see … I’ve been overtipping my parking attendants and bellhops, on the money when tipping chambermaids and waiters, and sometimes undertipping my poor bellhops (I’d been doing $2-3 per bag). And I’d better start tipping mail carriers and garbage collectors — perhaps that’s why my mail and trash service are always so poor just after the holidays. Hmm.
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Thanks for a great resource! :)
Good blog! FYI DPHHers:
bartender
10-15% of bar bill
http://www.tipping.org/tips/restaurant.html
To go along with what Shane said…
My brother has been a waiter for many years, and when I asked him what to do in the case of poor service (leave a smaller tip, leave no tip at all?), his recommendation was to still leave a minimum 10% tip and then ask to talk to the manager - let it be known what the problem was, and what you would have liked to see be done differently. This helps the establishment to learn how to improve their service for the next customer.
Bear in mind that waiters and bartenders do rely on those tips to make up the difference in wages (which tend to be on the low side). Just walking out without leaving a tip doesn’t help the situation, and they did provide you with service, as poor as it might have been.
By the same token, if you got an excellent waiter/bartender who went out of the way to offer you great service, consider tipping a bit more than average (16 - 20%) and again let the establishment know how pleased you were with such service.
These people work hard - they’ve got to memorize orders, make sure the right person gets the right order, stay on their feet and keep a smile on their face all day, and deal with all types of customers (some who can be downright rude).
When someone asks me what my brother does, I hold my head up high and respond proudly “he’s the head waiter for one of the better restaurants in my hometown.”
How does one tip a “sanitation engineer”? I am never home when they come and I am not leaving an envelope with money on top of the trash! And why tip them? Do we then end up tipping everyone who does any kind of service for us? All kinds of delivery people from flowers to furniture to appliances as well as package delivery people? Why tip mail carriers? Today, few people get mail delivered to their houses - most of the mail goes to clusters of mail boxes. my mail is delivered by someone in a truck and I couldn’t identify my mail carrier. It would be so much easier if people got decent wages and tipping was not necessary. I am curious to know if people like bartenders, wait people, delivery people, hair dressers, etc, would rather forego tips for a decent wage, or if they feel they will earn more money through tips?
I was thinking the same thing. We haul our trash and recycle bins all the way down the end of our road so we never see the workers. Our mailboxes are at the end of the road as well so we never see our mail carrier. Do I still tip them…if so, how? (For those who are wondering, I live in a rural area.)
LOL yes usually we do not tip our mail carriers or garbage collectors because they are federal employees, they are very well paid and soliciting is not allowed anyway. Maybe some towns where garbage collectors are not part of the government job. I have never heard tipping your garbage collector or your mail carriers! Then again, I live in the city, federal jobs. I worked for the city and they forbid us to collect or accept any tips or gifts!
Yes this blog is very much needed! I’m sorry to say the deaf community lacks knowledge on how to tip. I am speaking in general sense, during DPHH in my city, many restaurants and bars refuses to allow us to have DPHH because our community DOES NOT TIP!!! They were too cheap to tip.
Not everyone but restaurants I always tip 20% while, parking attendents who bring back my car $2.00 or $3.00 dpending where I am at. Also tip department store employees who carry your furnitures to your car from the stockroom!!! $2.00 to $5.00 depending size of the pick-up of your furniture.
Car-wash who dry your car after you are done, I tip them $2 to $3.
Bartenders - I tend to tip $1.00 every drink I order, if it is 5 drinks then they get $5.00. If I based it on 10% and my drink was 3 bucks to 5 bucks I tip .50 cents? LOL no I tip 1.00.
Deafies, during DPHH TIP your servers!!! they need to make a living.. usually bartenders and waitresses do not meet the minimum wage status because tip is part of their hourly wages. Also if you take over a booth during DPHH to eat dinner, and when you are done eating, LEAVE the booth!! go to the bar. Waitresses rely on availability to earn tips for the night. That’s another issue DPHH in my area faces because many deafies sit int he restaurant for hours where the waitress serves the same customers for 4 hours for 1 tip. Which they moan and groan during DPHH busy work for them and no or very low pay that night. Shouldn’t be like that.
I used to deliver pizzas to predominately African American areas. One stereotype we share with black people is being poor tippers. Having our own standard of time is another one. CPSD, Colored People Standard Time, in their case. I understand that they still use that particular acronym.
In reality, how well they tipped me tended to depend on their actual socioeconomical level. Generally, well-off people tip well, and tipping seemed a foreign concept to poorer people. I think it’s true for all races- I doubt the trailer folks are known for generous tipping.
What I’m curious about is, since deaf professionals have decent paychecks, is their tipping on par with their hearing counterparts? Guess we’ll never know for sure. We can’t ask bartenders, DPHHs in DC attract a lot of Gally students, thus skewing perceptions. :)
I always make sure I tip at least 20% ($1 minimum) to waiters and bartenders. Just trying to do my part to combat the stereotype. So yeah I’m annoyed with students who don’t tip at all. If you can’t afford to tip, you can’t afford to go out.
I STRONGLY DISAGREE about deaf people being poor tippers. Whose fault??? Both hosptiality industry and parents of deaf youngsters and educational facilities of the deaf!!!!
The world of restaurants and lodgings and personal groomings (hair stylists and manicure person and spa massauers) did not embrace our own language, American Sign Language (ASL) or engage us in rapport development as the service provider and customer relationship. If the hosptiality industry really want our tip money, then embrace us in our own language. Those people do learn various spoken languages or assign someone who really fluent in customer’s spoken language. Too many individuals with the hosptiality industry really are not literate in English.
Too many times, waiters and waitresses and servers fail to inform us what is the special of the day. That is total failure of rapport development on the part of restaurant servers!!!! That’s how the majority of deaf people do not tip at all or undertip.
Parents of deaf youngsters and educational facilities of the deaf FAIL to provide the social equitette classes how to do proper things at restaurant or as a customer to show appreciation or deal with gratiuty tax, etc.
My deaf mother always tell me the importance of good tipping at the restaurant to get an excellent service or will not get it. My former alta mater school never provide classes or take students to the restaurant about the proper social equitette espeically tipping.
Why didn’t the educational facilities of the deaf and hosptiality industry work together to educate the future deaf customers about the real necessity of good tipping??
Many Asian countries never count on generous tippings or feel insulted when we do.
My deaf mother always made the homemade Black Walnut cake during the Xmas time and left it in the mailbox for the rural mail carrier. Ever she done the cake during the city living. The wife of mailman always write to my deaf mother and beg more for her Black Walnut cake.
Tipping the newspaper carrier, too. My father always give the $50 saving bond to young newspaper carriers during the seasonal time. So our family could get newspapers first before the rest of neighborhood.
I usually tend to overtip most of time. My deaf mother always scold me for being too generous with people from the hosptiality industry.
I would not tip someone, who intentionally cheat me on my restuarant bill or something like padding the bill and hope that I did not notice. I dealt with several waiters and waitresses and managers for their refusal to correct the restaurant bill until they realize that I could not be fooled by anything.
Most of the time, waiters and waitresses complied with my concern about being erroueously billed for what I did not order or mixed up with someone’s bill.
We really do not have to tip bartenders if he or she simply open the beer bottles. Mixing drinks surely take someone’s talent to make a good drink.
Many hearing people usually complain about bartenders nowaday for not thanking customers for their tip money.
We, deaf people are no different from hearing people’s lack of good tipping or proper tipping scale.
I never forget about the well-off and wealthy people in DC for lousy tip or no tip during my days as the Domino Pizza delivery person last 20 years ago.
To my own surprises, many impoversished African Americans tipped me very well or too much tippings. I had to tell them that I don’t accept their tip money due to their extreme poverty. Those people refused to let me go without their tip money. I had to improvise and tell them that I will bring extra pizzas at no cost for them next time. I did keep my words. Many customers specifically asked for me.
Many pizza delivery person did not open the pizza box to show the customer what the pizza look like. That is the rapport development with customer!
I would generously tip when the restuarant server bring me something and did not charge on the bill.
Many restuarant servers nowaday hardly bring a glass of water. Some resturant servers try to prod me to order something expensive and ignore my original request. I simply walk out and express disappointment.
Handful of people think that I could be easily manipulated or pushed around. I am no doormat!
Being a thoughtful and nice person which do not give people the right to see me as an easy target. I would fight back for my customer rights if I am being treated in such a disrespectful or shabby way.
My apartment maintenace person refuse to take my tip money when come to non-apartment related stuff like installing the water filter container for the kitchen sink and shower head. That is against their apartment policy.
Robert L. Mason (RLM)
I do not agree with you about who is to blame. Really blaming deaf children’s parents or school faculty does not solve the issue about tipping. Once you are told how the system works, it’s up to you to not tip or tip. Many say why tip? what for? with that attitude is the reason why many deaf like you and Mark M who complain about tip system do not tip bartenders or waitresses. If you do tip, it’s unfortunate the american system is to tip people whether we like it or not. If you dislike tipping then don’t eat in the restaurant, if you dont want to tip parking attendents then park your own car, if you dont want to tip delivery people: pick it up yourself.
Many times I have said please tip when we all go out to eat together, I get this excuse all the time “oh they did not serve us right” or “they didnt say thank you” Remember THEY SERVED YOU, YOU SAY THANKS!
honestly you are saying Rich people are bad tippers while African Americans are good tippers. That’s another issue of profiling. Same reason why we say deaf people bad tippers, hearing people better tippers. I used to deliver long time ago, I had african americans that never tips me at all while white tips well but it is not always true but yes I do agree with you RLM about one thing, poor people are better tippers only based on my experience, I deliever to people that seem to be living OK or struggling tip well while those who have huge houses tip nothing up to 1 bucks or demand exact change. Problem is rich people do not understand the feeling of what it is like to need tips to make extra cash. Poor people know better what delivery people feel. People who deliver need much tip as they can get, if they were living comfortably they would not be delivering pizzas or foods unless they find that entertaining.
*sigh* Over the years, I have thought about the American culture especially when it comes to tipping tips and the waitress salary. We, American should be ashamed for allowing this to happen. Let me explain my perspective.
Why do we automatically accept the fact that waitress’ salary in general compromise of low hourly wage plus tips? Think about this while keeping in mind that the rest of the world are not like U.S.A. Waiters are paid well in Italy. Waiters are paid well in Canada. Same with most of Europe and other countries. Why not here?! There are guides out there for international students to read and learn about american culture: how to tip here in U.S.A. and it specifically say that waitress normally earns low salary and expect to earn tips to make a living. I say “ugh!”
I just picked (out of so many good info out there) to give you an idea what’s appropiate way of tipping tips in other countries.
I am for better salary for waitress and big change in the customary way of how american usually tips.
Big tips to foreign people may mean something else that could offend them. I learn that the hard way when I was in foreign country.
Then move out of the good ol’ U.S. of A. At least you’d save money on tips! Or appeal the congress and change the law of no tipping law!
You’re all heart, RLM.