Tipping in America

[User74893677]

I’m going to New York and Boston at Easter with my children. The flights were a gift but I’m paying for our hotels and obviously food, activities etc.

Ive read that we should tip at least $5 per night for housekeeping. And similar if the hotel looks after our bags before/after check in/out. And generally for pretty much everything - helping take our bags to our room, provide local information etc.

Ive worked out that we will easily spend more than $100 just on tips for the hotel staff alone - for services it’s not customary to tip for here in Europe.

AIBU to consider not tipping for these things? We are travelling on a budget and $100 (or more) is a lot of cash!

I know we will have to tip in restaurants but we’re not planning to eat out much - it’ll be warm so the plan is to buy picnic/take out food for at least two meals a day to keep costs down (also I have the least foodie children in the world and they’re very happy with picnics and take out burritos etc!).

I anticipate people saying that if we can’t afford to tip, we can’t afford America 🫣

You need to tip.

Unfortunately in the US people rely on tips to live. Their minimum wage hasn't risen in over a decade.

If you get the reputation at the hotel of not tipping then expect things not to happen.

It's annoying if you buy drinks at a bar as you have to tip the bar person otherwise no-one will serve you again.

We won’t be going to any bars… Tbh we also won’t actually need help with taking luggage to our rooms etc. But my experience in America is that saying “no thank you” to offers of help is not popular… But then obviously the expectation is to tip. Which (as a European) I find a bit annoying when I’m tipping for a service I’d rather politely decline in the first place.

I have to go to sleep but I’m hoping for helpful comments to wake up to!

I understand that wages are low in America.

I do tip here in restaurants. No tip for bad service (this is rare though). 10% if everything is fine. More if someone has been really friendly and helpful. But I only eat out about once a month so it’s not a major expense. I’m expecting to tip 15-20% in any sit down cafes/restaurants we go to.

I didn’t tip housekeeping in a hotel, I never really saw anyone from housekeeping so it didn’t even occur to me. Still had perfectly good service. That was four different hotels over a two week stay.

Then when we went on a cruise I tipped housekeeping there because it was completely different, the staff member in charge of our area introduced herself and was present and helpful every day, even offering services as well as responding to our requests.

I hate tipping as a concept - certainly when it's expected/assumed as opposed to a gesture that the client/customer specifically wants to give unbidden for exemplary service.

Before the inevitable accusations of being a tightwad, I'm happy to pay the full cost - which will naturally be considerably higher if required tip income is incorporated into it - but I'm a big fan of being given an actual price for obtaining goods and/or services and not being considered rude if I don't realise that the quoted price was actually a ruse and that the required price was considerably more.

Just like Tesco will happily sell me a tin of beans for the price on the shelf and don't expect me to add a single penny more, as their pricing was already accurate and properly calculated to include all of their costs and desired profits.

However, needlessly awkward and clunky as the system in the US is, that is their culture and their expectation, so I really don't think you can reasonably choose to go there and then just avoid doing it.

It's definitely something that would put me off going to the USA on holiday, in favour of a country that can give accurate prices for goods and services.

But if you DO choose to go there, I really think it's a case of 'when in Rome'.

You don’t need to leave a daily tip for housekeeping, I never do and our rooms are always cleaned properly. Though on the morning when we’re checking out, I leave $10/15/20 in the room, depending on what cash I have.

You can just bring your own bags to your room, just say we can manage our bags ourselves, thanks.

it’s not customary to tip for here in Europe.

Well, if you want everything to stay the same as you expect in Europe - it actually is normal to leave a tip behind here - then don't go to another continent and expect everything to be the same.

Also, here we have VAT included in the price but buying anything in USA, sales tax - which differs per state - is added on at the till so you always pay more than the price of the garment on the label. Just a heads up.

Enjoy. USA is an amazing, friendly and fascinating country except the orange horror and his mate in charge

Picnicing could be a bold choice for April in New York/Boston...it can still be pretty wintry compared to the UK at that time of year. But you don't have to tip everywhere if you eat inside.

Tip around 15% for a sit down, table service meal.

You don't need to tip if it's ordered at the counter and then you sit. You can (there's a tip jar, or the register might ask if you want to tip) but it's NOT expected.

You do not have to tip for housekeeping but it kind of depends on the level of hotel.

Ordering drinks at the bar? Leave at least $1 on the bar.

Being in the US is to feel like you’ve become a dollar dispensing machine. The expectation is that you’re handing out notes to everyone you interact with, however brief and insignificant that contact. You can try not doing it, but you should expect to be challenged.

I am in Boston.

There is a bit of a backlash against tipping everywhere now but still - in a sit down restaurant you tip 20% not 15%.

You absolutely do not have to let someone bring your suitcases up. We never do it. Just say No I can manage myself.

The housekeeping thing - you don't need to leave 5 dollars a day (I do but I can afford it) but it is nice to leave a couple of dollars.

100 dollars is not an enormous percentage of a budget for a trip to NYC and Boston for a family. It really should be considered part of the cost.

You have to tip 20%. It's the actual price of the service - the list price + 20%.

It's like sales tax - they add that on at the till for you, and it's less, but the key thing is in the US the price is not the actual price. It's the list +.

If you fail to tip appropriately, you will be cheating the person right in front of you--not the company, not the state, not the Federal government. You will treating that server as less than deserving. So, if that is your choice, do it with the full knowledge and awareness of how poorly you are treating people in a lesser position than you.

The suggestions online can be a bit much. I don't tip that much in hotels.

The time that you absolutely MUST tip is in restaurants. 20%. Wait staff are often on tip wage which can be as low as $2.13. Employers are supposed to top it up to minimum if they don't make up the difference in tips, but it's hard to enforce. They really do depend on it and they often have to tip out to back of house, they don't keep every penny.

And you had best do it at the bar if you want more drinks.

A lot of places will ask for tips at the payment pad/screen. I do not feel obligated to tip for counter service unless I asked for something complicated. If you're a regular it's a good idea to tip the barista at a coffee shop, but that isn't the case for a tourist. If you get any beauty services, you tip.

Do tip cab drivers.

But I've hear lots of tell (and complaints) about people being handed an iPad at the end and being asked to choose what percentage to leave as a tip.

How does that work if everybody knows that it's an extra 20% every time - so presumably the other amounts are just there to rip off unwary foreigners?

At least the sales tax is a fixed percentage - they don't ask if you'd like to pay sales tax of 10%, 20%, 30% or a higher amount of your choosing?!

It seems a bit of a shame to me that young, healthy and able-bodied hotel customers are cheerily waved on free of charge if they can carry their own bags up to their rooms, but that elderly and/or disabled customers can't be given a bit of simple assistance from the goodness of somebody's heart for a physically weaker person.

I get that it's their job and how they earn their money, but I was always under the impression that it was a compulsory (or at least expected) service, so that everybody would pay; not that it was purely an effective tax on age or disability.

I imagine when those services are offered, taking luggage to room etc., those tasks are part of that person's job and the expected tips are part of their wage. If you handle your own luggage your are doing them out of part of their income. Maybe the solution would be to stay at motels or air BnB where those services are unlikely to be offered.

You often have the choice of tipping different percentages when you go to pay by card - maybe 18%, 20% and 22%.

We tend to leave a few $ for housekeeping if we’ve stayed a couple of nights in a good hotel.

The amounts suggested are NOT there to "rip off unwary foreigners." It's really not about you.

I can only really speak for the UK, but although tipping is quite common here, it isn't effectively compulsory.

You'll never get somebody chasing after you if you 'forgot' to tip or scowling at you like you've just pooed in their slippers if you've been given a bill and then settled it in full, without adding extra money.

20% on meals is pretty much compulsory.
I don't tip on takeout (unless I have a spare couple of dollars in my wallet) except for my regular places, including my local Starbucks because there is a guy there who sings everyone's names.
I tip $5 a day on housekeeping as it normally means they'll up the water bottles, free snacks, etc. It's worth it BUT it's also completely fine if you don't.
You don't even have to let anyone take your bags if you don't want to, particularly if you have carry on only. Don't be rude about it, just say no thank you and everyone is good!
Bars have changed a lot over the last few years because a lot of people (including me) don't carry cash anymore. It used to be $1 per drink but now we just pay by card and tip depending on the service.
I will say if you're worrying about $100, NYC might not be the place for you.

You are right. The US is not the same as the UK.

It usually says 20, 22, 25 on the ipad.

Unfortunately in the US people rely on tips to live. Their minimum wage hasn't risen in over a decade

There's always a lot of confusion about this. Many states have set a minimum wage that is higher than the federal minimum. For instance, New York is $15.00/hour:

https://www.minimum-wage.org/wage-by-state

Tipping:

*Bring your own luggage to your room. Most people do this now and obviously no tipping.

*Tip housekeeping once at the end of your stay ($5-$10 per night). That's assuming your room was cleaned daily.

*Sit down service at a restaurant - 20% providing service was good

Keep some $1.00 bills handy for tip jars at coffee shops, etc. And remember - you can tap the "skip" button on the tip screen of this iPad payment devices! There is no need to tip someone for handing you a bottled water across the counter at Starbucks.

Have fun and don't be stressed by tipping.😀

I was just querying the assertion that everybody knows the real price is the stated price plus 20%; and the suggestion that it's basically a 'tax' that you factor in.

It would appear that the restaurants and other establishments don't know about this 'rule'.

Of course it's not just foreigners; timid Americans and those who don't/can't afford to eat out regularly may well feel led to assume that the 'real' price is actually more than 120% of the stated price.

I know it's weird and terrible, but it is in fact how the country works.

You can fight with me about it but I didn't make it up and I can't change it either, so you are tilting at windmills with that one.