Different view on tips

11.50 sounds pretty reasonable and close to the US to me. Here in the US, I usually tip $1 per person or 10% at a buffet I usually when staying in a hotel tip $5 per day for the maid, and I make that $10 per day if it's a suite. And then for dinner, I'll tip between 15 and 20 percent. Let's say the retail price of a dinner meal is $20, which would be a $4 tip.

So per person

$1 b-fast buffet

$1 lunch buffet

$2.5 (room -- assuming two per room)

$4 dinner

That's $8.50, leaving another $3 per day to cover more generous tipping for sit down breakfast, extra for cruise services you don't see, and perhaps a little more for your room steward who does more for you than maid service like a hotel.

To me the tips seem quite in line, not overly high or low. And like anywhere, extra money is always appreciated.

Tipping in hotels for housekeeping.

Why? And when did it start? 30 years ago or so I was a housekeeper in a hotel, never got a tip in the years I was there. Located on the interstate, most people check in after dinner, check out early the next morning.

Then all of a sudden these envelopes started showing up in hotels, like the housekeepers were asking for a tip. I never understood it and I still don't.

Housekeepers make a minimum wage. (NOT debating the who can live on minimum wage/who can't live on minimum wage - NOBODY can live on it) Servers in all but those 4 US States make $2.13/hour and that it why we tip. The law actually reads that servers must make minimum wage - in wages and tips - and that if they don't the restaurant has to make up the difference. The servers where I work have never questioned that, I've never seen one in five years ask for the difference if there was a slow day. They probably aren't even aware of what the law is.

I'm the bookkeeper in a restaurant and I'm also not debating the fact that servers work very hard to make their money. BUT - here is something everyone in the US is ignoring. Your cash tips in most (not all but MOST) restaurants are TAX free for the server. Yes, they are supposed to claim all their tips but they don't. Most of them claim the credit card tips because they are reported to the government/and they must claim up to their state's minimum wage but NONE of them claim the cash. You leave it on the table, the server puts it in their pocket and they don't pay taxes on it. Aggravates the heck out of me because I get all of my income reported to the government and I have to pay taxes on ALL of it, I don't have the choice to put a bit in my pocket and keep that portion tax free. These girls and guys work hard for their money but they also make a pretty darn large chunk of change that they don't pay taxes on. I know, I do their payroll and I see what they claim but I also know what they put in their pockets - I'm the bookkeeper and most of them make THREE or FOUR times what I make in a week. (Small but high volume Sports Bar & Grill)

In my personal opinion the tipping in the US is a flawed system. Mostly for the reasons I've just stated. I have a few servers who have tried to buy a house or a car but they don't have the income statements to back it up, even though they are making much more money than I am, they don't have the foresight to realize that what matters in lending is the paper trail, not how much cash they have in their pockets. For that reason, I won't leave a cash tip, I will always put it on my card so there is a paper trail and I am not giving a server tax free money that I have already had to pay taxes on.

The new game on shore is one restaurant in California, and a small chain in Florida, adding 1% to every bill, to cover their employees healthcare due to Obamacare. And where most are startled by this, yet some OK, this is an instance were these establishments are imposing a tax, where only the government has that right. Imagine everyone just imposing taxes on a whim, instead of raising the cost of their good and services.

 

Amazing how some will allow anyone just create their own accounting for their own tax purposes and savings, and just go along with it.

 

Now, back to cruising.

On TV two days ago. There was one place in Beverly Hills Cal adding a 3% health care tax. The owner stated his customers would no even notice it.