busyThe four factors are time, effort, salary, and service. Of those, I prioritize service, followed by effort and time. I am easily charmed by discreet yet attentive service and a sweet personality. I also have one hell of a competence kink. I will tip accordingly. Conversely, I feel entitled to lower or omit a tip for shabby service. If you diss my fat friend, or insult my queer friends, or whinge about my dietary requirements, I will leave two pennies on the table so you know I didn't just forget, I am actively penalizing you for acting like a dick. And I won't go back to a place with lousy service or quality or a tendency to jerk people around.
I really resent the salary factor. It is the employer's responsibility to pay every employee a living wage. Not doing that abuses both the employees and the customers. A tip is supposed to be extra for a job well done. It is not supposed to be anyone's livelihood. I won't discount salary entirely, because we're stuck with a society that allows employers to abuse people like this; but I rank it last, because it shouldn't be my responsibility to take care of some moocher's employees. If you can't be arsed to take care of your people, then you shouldn't have any, you should be in a business that doesn't require that.
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Yes...
April 5 2014, 18:10:12 UTC 7 years ago
Agreed.
>> It also leaves out hotel maid service, which I just recently found out you're supposed to tip for, and still have no idea how much is reasonable. <<
Look at the room. If all they need to do is standard stuff like making the beds, tip less. If you've used up all the supplies or made a bit of a mess, leave more. If you've trashed the place, leave a LOT and maybe a note that says, "Sorry for the mess, thank you for taking care of it." If you're staying one or two days, whole tip together is fine. If you're staying several days, you can leave smaller daily tips. If you're using the "green" option, that saves a lot of work, tip less. If you have to have everything fresh every day (frex, allergies) than tip more.
In general it helps to think of what you can buy with a tip. A gallon of milk? Cup of coffee? Book? Bag of diapers? A whole meal? Think about what you would give as a gift if somebody did a favor for you. This approach scales nicely to local prices. In some places, $2 will get you a coffee; in others that would cost $5 or $10.
>> I would absolutely prefer a system where everyone just made a decent wage straight off, prices were appropriate for that, and I didn't have to try to guess when and how much to tip. <<
Agreed! It's a lot of work to get tipping exactly right, and making mistakes under a lot of pressure (when someone's survival is at stake) is stressful.
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Re: Yes...
April 5 2014, 18:35:40 UTC 7 years ago
Remember the "What can you buy with it?" ruler? Look at the prices for room service or the hotel restaurant. If they don't have that, you're below $5 territory. If they have it and the prices are decent, $5ish. If they're jacked up, more than $5.