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 🫣

The servers' base salary is virtually nothing, like $2 per hour, and the tips are their salary

Not in NY it's not, @ThisFluentBiscuit; from memory wait staffs' minimum wage there is now about $16 if you include the "tip credit" the employer has to make up, and such staff are certainly not exempt from this

I wouldn't personally, @User74893677, but if you're determined to economise you'd probably get away with not leaving a housekeeping tip on your last day - after all you'll never see them again

I really wouldn't try it in any restaurants you visit though, and you can soak up some of the pain by using places a couple of blocks off the main areas, where you'll get a much better deal and happily won't hear "Oh everyone tips 40% here" either

Overall just remember that NY eats both time and money, but have a fantastic time - it's an amazing place and full of the most wonderful people

And getting rid of tips wouldn't affect affordability because the price of the items would go up. the cognitive bias of preferring to pay service separately is annoying and silly, but the total cost is not going to change.

I don't think anybody is under the illusion that the prices wouldn't go up, if they take account of proper guaranteed wages for the staff.

It's just the honesty and transparency of having an actual total all-in price, rather than an artificially low menu price which is significantly lower than the whole price that you're expected to pay.

I've been following this topic, tipping in the USA (late last year and earlier this year), and there have been some interesting developments. I'll try to make a timeline:

"The expansion of tipping expectations has contributed to confusion and “tip fatigue,” where customers feel pressured and frustrated when asked for tips in nontraditional places." (source)

The guest at certain (luxury) hotels were “given a slip of paper pushing tipping along with their key when they checked in.” (source)

And finally, "people are tipping less at restaurants than they have in at least six years" (source)

So, basically, people felt more and more pressured to tip, in more places and ways than before, and it backfired, dragging the tipping to the six-year minimum.

America is a country with free speech, therefore if they want better working rights, they are freely able to campaigne for such things, just like we have over the years.

I tip in restaurants and bars, but like hell, would I be tipping the hotel, $5+ a day.

America is a country with free speech, therefore if they want better working rights, they are freely able to campaign for such things, just like we have over the years

And this is precisely why I don't feel it's my place to insert myself into other folks' employment grumbles, @naunet - basically because I respect them enough to to deal with them themselves and resist swooping in to "mend" matters which are frankly none of my business

Like you I'll happily tip in the usual places but ddon't expect to be made a mug of, and that includes the creeping practice of asking whether the customer wants to "round up to such and such" even in places where it wasn't previously expected