Hello everyone! Just a quick question here about tipping: I'm going to get a massage later today (much needed). Is it proper etiquette to tip the masseuse when they're done? If so, how much? What other people do you tip? I always tip waiters/waitresses, taxi drivers, and hotel maids. What other services do you customarily tip for?
I generally feel it's expected to tip for reasonable service at restaurents. For most other places, a tip from me would be whatever leftover change there is, so generally not much. After all, with a taxi, for example, you're already paying for the lift so paying extra on top of that just seems silly, while in the case of a restaurent you're paying for the food and tipping for the service, two different things in my opinion. But then I'm English As an example, on saturday night some friends of mine and I went out for a meal at a local restaurent. This was the night after my birthday, so we figured a reasonable meal followed by Episode 3 would make for a fairly entertaining evening. As such, I called ahead and booked a table for the early seating, when I was informed that we would need to be out by around 7:45 (our booking was at 6). No problem, over an hour and a half for a meal. However, the service started bad and went downhill. Our waitress' first comment to us was something along the lines of "right, you've got to get out of here in about 2 hours"... Not too polite. We'd have overlooked this if she hadn't been appalingly slow though. Took over 30 minutes to take our orders, returning several times because she hadn't written everything down correctly, asked us if we wanted starters and main courses brought out at the same time, then completely disregarded our request, failed to bring out food as ordered, forgot what things were, etc.... In short, we started out with 1 hour 45 minutes to eat, and had out main courses arrive around 1 hour 20 minutes into that, when the service at this place is usually excellent... No time for dessert + bad service = barely any tip, certainly not the 10% expected. I truly believe that bad service warrants little or no tip.
I agree there, however over here, restaurants dont wait for the tip, they add it to the bill, as if to say, you cheapos wouldnt tip, so we'll charge ya for it...... NOT a good way to get a tip from me. As for the massage, if its worth what you paid, then tip her, I normally tip in paper, if its good £5, if its great £10.
Aegis: That didn't quite happen to me once but something similar. Me, my family, my mate and his family went out for a big dinner bash at this steak place. Noy my mates dad isn't the biggest guy, only about 5'6 but he has that dangerous look of an AJ about him. The waiter was chatting away with his mates and took a while to come over but eventially took our orders. Then after we'd been sitting for an hour waiting he comes over and says 'Sorry we're closing' and we were naturally like 'excuse me?' Turns out a joker had turned the clock forward two hours, so this guy cnacelled our orders, told us to get out, retook the orders and then we sat some more. Other people were disgruntled too. Now this steak place ise really very good, been there a few times and they know the meaning of LIGHTLY well done. So eventially we get our orders. Everything is as cold as ice...like solder than the ambient temperature which naturally had us thinking 'woot?'. So we call the waiter over and say 'Look, the food is ice cold, we've been waiting hours, please just give us our order' So this spotty little brat says 'Naw can't do that your foods been made you have to pay for it now' This army guy stands up and shouts ' YOU, WHAT THE HECK IS THIS' and naturally the waiter ran away pleading to his boss to get some proper food. Eventially we hand our orders back in and they come back nice and hot...the steak being litterally as stringy as 10 year old tennis tackies (they'd put them in a microwave). We just left and said we weren't gonna pay for substandard food. Now it wasnt the usual chef which explains something but paying £8 or some such for bad food and service. There is a time and a place for tips, restaurants generally expect them but thats your choice.
I would usually tip the actual person who took care of me rather than leave anything else on the bill. However masseusses also work on a commission type basis as well, but giving them something extra is always good, especially if youre a like a regualr or something. My view on the restaurant stuff (by the way I'm a restuarant manager ) - What happened to you guys is bad service and you were completely in the right to just walk out. In fact you have every right to walk out if you get unprovoked attitude from the staff. Note - the 10% service charge is just that. You order the food with the price next to it, service is then based on what it takes to bring the food to you. It is what is used to pay for their salaries. The Tip is separate. Imagine, 10% of your bill is about £2 (£20 thats like the average for dinner for 2 people), I have 7 staff on me: 2 waitresses, 4 chefs and me. That £2 is divided between all 7 of us. (not including the owner) That comes up to about 28p per person. The harder we work to get customers to come back, the more we get in return, therefore it is obviously in our best interest to do everything but put the spoon in the customer's mouth. (although I have many who take the right mickey "Put the food on my plate, waiter" is one such request and "I've been waiting for a table for 5 minutes because the restaurant is full, I want 20% off my bill") My place (or places, Dads got 2) is not that fancy, we use paper table cloths. I have been to high class places before like The Dorchester Hotel's Grill Room and Gary Rhode's The Garden. The service sucks and the food is supposed to be cold? and they ask 14 - 15% simply because of their celebrity status. £5 for mushy cucumber soup (done in a blender) and £39 for a steak (granted it was huge) but you get nothing else with it, just the meat..chips, salad, gravy is extra. In addition to what I have said in the paragraphs above the service charge is optional you do not need to pay it! PS Edit - about appropriate tipping. I know girls who worked at Casinos as waitresses and some get £50 for just bringing customers a coke. I get 28p for the entire schtick.
it's not THAT kind of parlor! She's a nice 'older' lady who has her massage therapist license. If I wanted THAT kind of parlor, I'd head down to the city, although I think my wife might be a little upset.
your not an artist are you Kodiak? ALL tips are dependant on the service you recieve, and how regular you are there.
Man, if I were getting a tattoo, I'd make sure the artist was reeeaaaalllly happy before we started.....and not too much caffeine either.
