topic Re: Tipping etiquette? in SmorgasBoard

Tipping etiquette?

Math_Rocks — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 18:55:10 GMT

So I found the place to take DH for a surprise romantic getaway but I'm not very experienced on tipping, especially for a B & B. And I'm still trying to figure out if I can swing a couples massage in our room so I would need to know how to tip for that. I'm counting pennies for this one so I really need to have a good idea ahead of time. Help anyone?

Re: Tipping etiquette?

marty56 — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 20:13:30 GMT

DW is a Massage Therapist and most likely the people doing the couples massage work for a company that pays them a flat fee. When DW used to work at massage heights/Massage Envy, the charged people $50 and hour for the massage but only paid her $15. She depended on tips. If you pay $50 and hour per person, that I would give the therapist at least a $10 tip.

Re: Tipping etiquette?

Math_Rocks — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 20:44:33 GMT

Marty,

Sounds like I found the right person for one of my questions! 50 minutes for both is $150 or 85 minutes for both is $220. And I looked again and it is NOT in the room; its about a block away from the B & B at a dayspa. Now what do you think for tip?

Marty & all,

Still need to figure out what to expect for tip at a B&B.

Thanks! Thanks! Thanks!

(Even though I am planning this as a present for DH, I feel like I'm getting a present just getting to plan it. We NEVER get to get away. We have a hard time being consistent with a once-a-month date night. So, part of me wants to go "all out" but I am trying to prioritize and be reasonable. Okay, not really reasonable - that would mean not spending the money at all. Trying to not go nuts!)

Re: Tipping etiquette?

marty56 — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 13:09:43 GMT

If its a dayspa, the 50 minute massage would be $75 each of which the therapist is probably getting at most $30 and $40 for the 85 minute massage. Therefor I would tip at least $10 each for the 50 minute and $20 for the 85 minute each. If you are getting a deep tissue massage to help with sore muscles or trigger point work, I would increase the tip amount since its harder for the therapist to perform it. Also if you are getting other services their, the therapist may have to split the tip with the other people so I would ask them and change the tip amount accordingly. Enjoy your massage and your getaway.

Re: Tipping etiquette?

Paxx — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 15:23:10 GMT

Whenever you receive a service such as this or whenever you go out to eat, get your hair cut etc. All these people make very little off the amount you pay for the service.

I use to be a waiter and to my surprise, many people don't know how little the restaurant pays their servers. I know you're talking about a massage and not eating out but the two are comparable - they are two professions that rely on tips to make their money. Marty provided an example for the therapist but here is an example of a run of a mill server. The restaurant pays their servers far less than the minimum wage. When I use to wait tables I made a whopping $2.50. Like every other employee the government takes it's share for taxes, Medicare etc so by the time they get their pay check it's almost nothing. I remember getting around a $50 check for a 40 hour work week. Just imagine that for a second. I worked with servers who would let their weekly checks accumulate for weeks before going to cash them because the dollar amount was so small.

Point is 15% of any service is generaly a good enough tip. What people don't realize is in a type of profession where you receive tips as your main income vs a paycheck you can actually lose money by performing a service if you don't get a large enough tip. The government will tax you whether you receive a tip or not and it's based off the total amount charged.

Re: Tipping etiquette?

laz98 — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 22:38:04 GMT

@Paxx wrote:
Whenever you receive a service such as this or whenever you go out to eat, get your hair cut etc. All these people make very little off the amount you pay for the service.

I use to be a waiter and to my surprise, many people don't know how little the restaurant pays their servers. I know you're talking about a massage and not eating out but the two are comparable - they are two professions that rely on tips to make their money. Marty provided an example for the therapist but here is an example of a run of a mill server. The restaurant pays their servers far less than the minimum wage. When I use to wait tables I made a whopping $2.50. Like every other employee the government takes it's share for taxes, Medicare etc so by the time they get their pay check it's almost nothing. I remember getting around a $50 check for a 40 hour work week. Just imagine that for a second. I worked with servers who would let their weekly checks accumulate for weeks before going to cash them because the dollar amount was so small.

Point is 15% of any service is generaly a good enough tip. What people don't realize is in a type of profession where you receive tips as your main income vs a paycheck you can actually lose money by performing a service if you don't get a large enough tip. The government will tax you whether you receive a tip or not and it's based off the total amount charged.

i know that waiters/waitresses depend on tips most (if not all) of the time, but i'm not going to tip people well if a) they did a crappy job, or b) for doing the bare minimum. i almost never leave without tipping a person, but if someone is rude or ignores our table all night, they are definitely shooting themselves in the foot.

this topic is a heated discussion in our area, where most of the jobs are customer service & a lot of people DO depend on tips.

Re: Tipping etiquette?

Paxx — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 15:03:44 GMT

Well of course, you tip based off of the service you receive.

There is very little that merits a no tip however. The service would have to absolutely horrible for a no tip (or $1.00 tip which is just as much a slap in the face). He didn't get my refill as soon as I put my cup down is not a reason to forgo the tip.

Re: Tipping etiquette?

laz98 — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 00:27:15 GMT

@Paxx wrote:
Well of course, you tip based off of the service you receive.

There is very little that merits a no tip however. The service would have to absolutely horrible for a no tip (or $1.00 tip which is just as much a slap in the face). He didn't get my refill as soon as I put my cup down is not a reason to forgo the tip.

it is very rare that i will "stiff" someone. one instance that comes to mind is when a group of us went out for pizza (about 6 of us). our waiter had someone else come & take our drink order. that same someone else took our food order, & still another person came to bring us our pizzas. my gf even had to get up & ASK for a refill. that guy came to the table once the whole time, & we were there for almost 2 hours. it was ridiculous.

of course, it is up to each individual what they feel "merits a no tip."

Re: Tipping etiquette?

Anonymous — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 20:36:32 GMT

@laz98 wrote:
@Paxx wrote:
Whenever you receive a service such as this or whenever you go out to eat, get your hair cut etc. All these people make very little off the amount you pay for the service.

I use to be a waiter and to my surprise, many people don't know how little the restaurant pays their servers. I know you're talking about a massage and not eating out but the two are comparable - they are two professions that rely on tips to make their money. Marty provided an example for the therapist but here is an example of a run of a mill server. The restaurant pays their servers far less than the minimum wage. When I use to wait tables I made a whopping $2.50. Like every other employee the government takes it's share for taxes, Medicare etc so by the time they get their pay check it's almost nothing. I remember getting around a $50 check for a 40 hour work week. Just imagine that for a second. I worked with servers who would let their weekly checks accumulate for weeks before going to cash them because the dollar amount was so small.

Point is 15% of any service is generaly a good enough tip. What people don't realize is in a type of profession where you receive tips as your main income vs a paycheck you can actually lose money by performing a service if you don't get a large enough tip. The government will tax you whether you receive a tip or not and it's based off the total amount charged.

i know that waiters/waitresses depend on tips most (if not all) of the time, but i'm not going to tip people well if a) they did a crappy job, or b) for doing the bare minimum. i almost never leave without tipping a person, but if someone is rude or ignores our table all night, they are definitely shooting themselves in the foot.

this topic is a heated discussion in our area, where most of the jobs are customer service & a lot of people DO depend on tips.

I agree that minimum service does not deserve maximum reward....more like minimum wage. But if we consider that they make about $2.50 per hour, then I try to formulate that if they had a normal paying job in which they waited on me, like a check out person, how much time did I represent approximately. If I am in the restaurant for an hour, then I want to make sure I contribute to them making at least minimum wage, since that wage is not for anything of stellar performance.

Fast food places pay minimum wage. The service in fast food is generally bland, straight forward and hurried. If my sit down server acts this way, then I may pay them like a fast food worker. I don't require them to spend oodles of time or hang out at my table, but a cheerful dispotion, keeping my drink filled, checking in regularly and taking note of other needs will get them a nice "bonus" when it comes time for me to pay their tip.

And with that in mind, for those who are in service, I LIKE to pay well, I just want to be treated well. Service is a very discretionary expenditure...so give your patrons good reason to tip you well! And thanks for it!

Re: Tipping etiquette? and an update

Math_Rocks — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 23:14:24 GMT

Thank you, all, for the helpful input. All in all, I raised a little over $300 for our getaway (been selling books). A little over half of that will go for the B&B where there will be chocolate covered strawberries in our room (Yum!) and, of course, a full gourmet breakfast the next morning. Since I would need $180 with tip for the massages, I've decided its just not in the cards. (Literally! Both of our birthdays are in the next couple of days so I was half hopeful I might get some birthday money to "put me over the top".) I will take DH for a nice dinner the night that we are there and take him to a movie and a nice lunch after we leave. Truthfully, he may be almost as excited about a movie as a massage since, with our kids and our schedule, it is SOOO hard to ever go to the theatre. (But, man, it would have been nice to get a massage...)

Any suggestions for good movies out right now? I feel like I've been stuck in a hole and have no clue what's out right now.

Re: Tipping etiquette?

Anonymous — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 08:19:35 GMT

@laz98 wrote:
@Paxx wrote:
Well of course, you tip based off of the service you receive.

There is very little that merits a no tip however. The service would have to absolutely horrible for a no tip (or $1.00 tip which is just as much a slap in the face). He didn't get my refill as soon as I put my cup down is not a reason to forgo the tip.
it is very rare that i will "stiff" someone. one instance that comes to mind is when a group of us went out for pizza (about 6 of us). our waiter had someone else come & take our drink order. that same someone else took our food order, & still another person came to bring us our pizzas. my gf even had to get up & ASK for a refill. that guy came to the table once the whole time, & we were there for almost 2 hours. it was ridiculous.

of course, it is up to each individual what they feel "merits a no tip."

In my book, people that don't tip.... how can i put it without offending.... well they're just plain rude.

You probably don't realize it, but every restaurant operates differently. I prefer one server to interact with the table the whole time, but different management calls for different scenarios.

That pizza place splits the tips between all those people. So they all provided you with service, and you stiffed all those people. They do tipshare, and a food expeditor, drink refiller, hostess, order taker (server), etc all had tasks delineated to them, meaning the server probably had 15 or 20 tables, whereas a typical server would have 4 or 5. I've seen many restaurants like this.

If I get crappy service, I leave 15%. If the server is adequate and I never need anything without being attended to promptly, I leave 20%. If they chat me up and are above and beyond typical service, I leave 25%. If I just get below par service, 10% is a stiff in my book, but I won't leave less than that. Your pay should depend on your effort, but sometimes servers are overwhelmed. If you've never served you have absolutely no idea how stressful it can be.

Message Edited by thrasher865 on 11-13-2009 12:19 AM

Re: Tipping etiquette?

laz98 — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 21:18:45 GMT

thrasher865 wrote:

In my book, people that don't tip.... how can i put it without offending.... well they're just plain rude.

You probably don't realize it, but every restaurant operates differently. I prefer one server to interact with the table the whole time, but different management calls for different scenarios.

That pizza place splits the tips between all those people. So they all provided you with service, and you stiffed all those people. They do tipshare, and a food expeditor, drink refiller, hostess, order taker (server), etc all had tasks delineated to them, meaning the server probably had 15 or 20 tables, whereas a typical server would have 4 or 5. I've seen many restaurants like this.

If I get crappy service, I leave 15%. If the server is adequate and I never need anything without being attended to promptly, I leave 20%. If they chat me up and are above and beyond typical service, I leave 25%. If I just get below par service, 10% is a stiff in my book, but I won't leave less than that. Your pay should depend on your effort, but sometimes servers are overwhelmed. If you've never served you have absolutely no idea how stressful it can be.

you are certainly entitled to your opinion, as am I. but unless you know how this particular restaurant operates, i don't think you can judge me by the scenario you detailed. & as a matter of fact, i have worked in a restaurant. i hated every minute of it

Re: Tipping etiquette?

marty56 — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 12:46:37 GMT

I will always leave at least 10% even if the service is bad. My reason is that the server could be having a bad day or something else could have happend. I am not always giving my job 100% and I would hate if my pay got lowered as a result. We are all human.

Re: Tipping etiquette? and an update

Anonymous — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 23:13:27 GMT

@Math_Rocks wrote:
Thank you, all, for the helpful input. All in all, I raised a little over $300 for our getaway (been selling books). A little over half of that will go for the B&B where there will be chocolate covered strawberries in our room (Yum!) and, of course, a full gourmet breakfast the next morning. Since I would need $180 with tip for the massages, I've decided its just not in the cards. (Literally! Both of our birthdays are in the next couple of days so I was half hopeful I might get some birthday money to "put me over the top".) I will take DH for a nice dinner the night that we are there and take him to a movie and a nice lunch after we leave. Truthfully, he may be almost as excited about a movie as a massage since, with our kids and our schedule, it is SOOO hard to ever go to the theatre. (But, man, it would have been nice to get a massage...)

Any suggestions for good movies out right now? I feel like I've been stuck in a hole and have no clue what's out right now.

Hey Math_Rocks -

Here is an idea. Get some nice candles, scented oils to go with those chocolate and strawberries, and then give each other a nice massage! Costs virtually nothing and is oh so much more rewarding, IMO

Anyway, have a great tim

Re: Tipping etiquette?

Lel — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 21:05:35 GMT

Couple Busted for Refusing to Pay Tip