automatic tipping

[kdowneymd]

we have always cruised rccl but next july will sail on the zuiderdam. RCCL allows (and encourages) one to put tips on account but does not do it automatically. We have always tipped in cash at the end of the cruise giving well above the recommended amounts. I was going to have the automatic amounts removed from our account so we could give everyone our tips in cash, knowing that they will receive the amounts immediately. Is this frowned upon on HAL

[RuthC]

HAL has an automatic $10/day service charge added to your on-board bill. That money is distributed to your cabin and table stewards, as well as several "behind the scenes" people.

There's a 15% service charge added to bar bills.

If you decide to remove or reduce the $10/day, then any money given to your stewards must be turned in to the pool for distribution.

If you leave the full $10/day intact, then any additional money you give out can be kept by the recipient.

You may give an additional amount to bar stewards in cash. There is no mechanism by which you can add to (or reduce) the 15% on the tab.

[jtl513]

If you remove the auto-tip it can actually cause problems for your stewards, because there's an implication that their service wasn't adequate, and they are called on the carpet to explain themselves. Better to leave the auto-tip on and give them a little extra cash in addition.

[JimVrhovac]

We had the opportunity recently to talk to the ships officer responsible for the crews payroll. She told us that the crew is making more money in the long run with this program than they did before and they are very happy with this program.

 

Any ectra tips given to crewmembers is supposed to be turned in but she acknowledged that little is turned in to the pool and they (HAL) does not push that issue.

 

Ruth & Jim

[noblepa]

I've heard that it actually takes LONGER for the crew to receive the money from cash tips, if the auto-tips are removed.

 

If you leave the auto-tips in place, I've been told that they receive the tips in their next paycheck, usually within a few days of the end of the cruise.

 

However, if you remove or reduce the auto-tips and they turn in the cash tips, as they're required to do, it can take a couple of weeks for the bean counters to collect the money and redistribute it to the appropriate crewmembers.

 

In short, the game of tipping is rigged by the house. You can't beat the system and IMHO, its futile to try. I realize that your wish is to tip in person and hopefully, speed things up a bit. In reality, going against the grain slows things down and you can't direct your tips to only certain people who you feel should receive the tips.

 

HAL has made a determination that some of the behind-the-scenes crew deserve to share in the tips. One may or may not agree with that policy, but there is no way around it, short of not tipping at all.

[cccole]

If you have incredibly poor DR service, like several who have posted recently, can you reduce the automatic tip? I am not concerned with lengthy delays, but attitudes. We have been on several cruises and have usually been very generous. There was only one time when we had two suites and the steward for one of the suites was horrendous. His tip was not what he would have wanted I'm sure, but I think that what we gave him reflected the service he provided. So...I am hoping that if we cannot enjoy the dining room because the staff make it unpleasant that we can use their tips for staff in other restaurants on the ship. We have never experienced an unpleasant dining room staff and hopefully will not in February. This is our first HAL cruise and I'm just wondering "what if?"

[jtl513]

If you have incredibly poor DR service, like several who have posted recently, can you reduce the automatic tip?

Yes, you can reduce the auto-tip, but IMO you shouldn't reduce the tip "across the board", to, say, $5/p/d. I think you should make it clear that you want the part of the auto-tip allocated to such-and-such a person removed, and you should also make a note of that person's attitude or actions on your comment card.

 

OTOH, if you receive exceptional service from someone, I would NOT increase the auto-tip (which HAL suggests), or try to add some amount and ear-mark it for a specific person. I give those people extra cash directly.

[cccole]

I totally agree!!!! I would never lower the tip across-the-board. So...on Hal, can you reduce the tip for a particular individual while leaving everything else in place. And...i will bring extra cash for exceptional tips.

 

Thank you for your response.

[bUU]

In short, the game of tipping is rigged by the house. You can't beat the system and IMHO, its futile to try.

This is really a good summary. Despite our personal desires to have things work the way we want them to (perhaps the standard way in our hometown restaurants and hotels) they don't have to structure things that way. Our option, if we don't like how our hosts have structured things, is to not patronize their services at all.

 

Incidentally, we're discussing this same issue this week on the Walt Disney World forums. Starting January 1, they're imposing new policies regarding gratuities in their restaurants (18% automatic tip, for all parties of six and above, and for all parties using a specific, popular discount program, and for all "extra" items ordered for parties using a specific pay-one-price dining plan). Just as with Holland America, the choice for Disney guests is to play by "the house's rules" or go someplace else.

[Krazy Kruizers]

Should you receive bad service anywhere - ie - for example - dining room. You can sign a form to have that amount removed - which is $3.50 for the dining room staff.

 

You may also want to talk to the guest relations person concerning this poor service at the begining of the cruise. We had to do that once converning a wine steward.

 

Tip break down:

$3.50 - room steward

$3.50 - dining room staff

$3 - divided among laundry people, cooks, etc. - all the behind the scenes people.

[Palms2Pines2Sea]

As John mentioned, the use of the comment card is an important link in having your sentiments heard regarding service good or bad.

We've heard many times over from HAL staffers and management (in fact, from all cruise ship staff) that a direct compliment on a comment card is their preferred form of praise.

I'm sure they love the extra cash too, but by all means leave the auto-tip in place and distribute "extra appreciation" as you see fit.

The comment card praises, by the way, are apparently the best steps in the path towards that individual's promotion.

[bUU]

Should you receive bad service anywhere - ie - for example - dining room. You can sign a form to have that amount removed

In Terry's interest, can you sign a form to have an amount removed strictly from the Maitre d'?

[kakalina]

I totally agree!!!! I would never lower the tip across-the-board. So...on Hal, can you reduce the tip for a particular individual while leaving everything else in place. And...i will bring extra cash for exceptional tips.

 

Thank you for your response.

 

I know what others have said here but I must disagree. I have spoken with various Hotel Managers, Pursers, and payroll personnel and I have been told it is impossible to remove tips for a specific person or department. It can not be done with the system that they have in place. If you cut back on your tips it will be across the board. The form you fill out when you remove the tips does not give you options. It asks why you are doing so and how much off the total you want removed. ex: If you have $3.50 removed from your tips because you are displeased with service from the main DR you can have that exact amount removed from your tips however the remainder will be paid out in the normal manner to everyone involved.

[terrydtx]

In Terry's interest, can you sign a form to have an amount removed strictly from the Maitre d'?

 

Thank you, I have and I will again if the situation dictates!!:p

[terrydtx]

We had the opportunity recently to talk to the ships officer responsible for the crews payroll. She told us that the crew is making more money in the long run with this program than they did before and they are very happy with this program.

Ruth & Jim

 

Like every thing else in the cruise industry tipping has evolved from the early days. On our first cruise in the early 90’s the cruise line would not allow us to add tips to our credit card or shipboard account so we had to make sure that we saved back enough cash to tip at the end of the cruise,. This was a problem on this cruise, we did not know about that upfront and ATM machines were not as easily accessible in ports outside the US as now and I could not leave as much as I wanted. As the CL’s allowed tips to be put on Credit cards, the amounts for the ships workers went up by a large percentage. However the problem has always been that there will be a certain amount of “Cheap SOB’s” that do not believe in leaving tips no matter how good the service was while on board. On a cruise a couple of years ago on another line I overheard a conversation among some passengers on deck that believed that the “high” amount that they paid for their cruise should be enough to adequately compensate the service personnel and that they do not leave any tips on cruises. :eek: A friend of mine in the cruise industry said that as much as 20% of passengers do not leave any or less than the recommended amount of tips. I like this policy of HAL’s that automatically charges “everyone” a minimum amount for tips and I am sure that is why the ships personnel are not only making more money but are much happier. This debunks the old argument that with auto tips the service suffers because HAL is known for their superior service and I do not think it has suffered since this policy went into effect.:D

[noblepa]

Last year, on the Zuiderdam, our DR waiter was not very good. Not really terrible, but definitely on the low end of the mediocre scale. It was not what we had come to expect on two previous HAL cruises.

 

OTOH, our cabin steward was wonderful. The few requests we made of him were instantly fulfilled and he was very attentive. We seldom had to ask for anything.

 

We left the auto-tips in place. We did not give the waiter any additional cash, but we did give the cabin steward some ($30, I think). We then filled out the comment card in great detail, both good and bad. We sang the praises of the steward and told of our disappointment in the DR. Everyone I've ever spoken to on any cruise tells me the same thing: they DO read the comment cards and they DO take them very seriously. Promotions and demotions ride on those cards.

 

Personally, I think it is unfair and a mistake for passengers to remove/reduce the tips because of "one bad apple". We're on the ship for usually a week or more. There are a lot of people involved in making the cruise enjoyable. Did that one instance of lousy service really "ruin" our vacation? Of course not. It wouldn't be right to punish all the crew for the failings of one or two. That's what comment cards are for.

[Krazy Kruizers]

We have never removed the auto tips and don't intend to.

 

A couple sitting across from us on one of our cruises had awful service in the dining room. They did not have the same waitstaff as we did. They did fill out the form - in the pursers office -- and they only had the dining room wait staff removed from receiving any auto tips from them.

 

This policy may differ by ship.

[RuthC]

I know what others have said here but I must disagree. I have spoken with various Hotel Managers, Pursers, and payroll personnel and I have been told it is impossible to remove tips for a specific person or department. It can not be done with the system that they have in place. If you cut back on your tips it will be across the board. The form you fill out when you remove the tips does not give you options. It asks why you are doing so and how much off the total you want removed. ex: If you have $3.50 removed from your tips because you are displeased with service from the main DR you can have that exact amount removed from your tips however the remainder will be paid out in the normal manner to everyone involved.

I have the same understanding that you do, Trisha. If you reduce your service charge by (for example) 1/3, then everyone in the distribution will be reduced by 1/3---not solely the one you want reduced.

Since there are different understandings of how this works I would suggest that anyone who wishes to reduce/eliminate the service charge for a specific individual confirm that HAL will do exactly that before they sign off on the reduction.

[peaches from georgia]

The automatic tips are all put into a pot and divided among the qualifying crew in various %s. If you remove or reduce your automatic tip it just lowers the total amount of tip $ in the pot. Can you imagine the accounting nightmare if amounts were deducted from individual crew members according to the wishes of individual pax. Let's see- we are deducting $1 from Raul's share, the waiter on the upper level, because Pax A didn't care for the service and $2.50 from Lower Level steward Raul from Pax B's auto tip because ..... It's all one pot and you put into it your $10/person/day auto tip or something less or nothing if you so wish. But you don't name specific crew.

[ekerr19]

We know a great many crew members. They like the auto-tip and are making more money from it - especially the bar staff.

 

Removing it causes problems for all. I think it s better to address the problem to those who can and are able to do something about the problem - such as Hotel Manager - rather than penalize the waitstaff.

[cccole]

Taking into consideration all of the responses I know that I will take extra cash for exemplary service, and not remove the automatic tip if it applies to everyone. However, if we receive horrendous service I will try to remedy the situation and only remove an automatic tip if it can be applied to a specific person. I don't anticipate any unpleasant experiences, and if there are any, they will not ruin our cruise. We can't wait.

[JimVrhovac]

That sounds like a very reasonable way to handle the situation

 

Ruth & Jim

[kdowneymd]

So what I can summarize is 1) The crew prefer the auto pay because they are not stiffed. 2) If I want to acknowledge our servers/ room steward I should just give them additional cash and leave it to them whether this is put in the pot. Howver, does HAL at the end of each cruise give the tips directly to the employees or do they hold this money until paychecks. This way HAL floats the money for an extra week (remember this can add up to BIG money) the employee doesn't have use of the money immediately, do the employees have to pay taxes? as international citizens, I don't know. If I remove my automatic tip and give money directly and fill out comment cards raving about service and stating why I paid directly, am I still making it more difficult for the employee? I understand the staff are ultimately ahead of the game due to guests who unfortunately don't get it, but I am not one of them and wonder whether they wouldn't prefer cash in hand

[hammybee]

So what I can summarize is 1) The crew prefer the auto pay because they are not stiffed. 2) If I want to acknowledge our servers/ room steward I should just give them additional cash and leave it to them whether this is put in the pot. Howver, does HAL at the end of each cruise give the tips directly to the employees or do they hold this money until paychecks. This way HAL floats the money for an extra week (remember this can add up to BIG money) the employee doesn't have use of the money immediately, do the employees have to pay taxes? as international citizens, I don't know. If I remove my automatic tip and give money directly and fill out comment cards raving about service and stating why I paid directly, am I still making it more difficult for the employee? I understand the staff are ultimately ahead of the game due to guests who unfortunately don't get it, but I am not one of them and wonder whether they wouldn't prefer cash in hand

 

The answers to most of your questions are in the previous posts. I will try to summarize:

 

When you leave the auto tips intact, it is believed the crew gets to keep any additional cash gratuities.

 

It appears the crew gets paid quickly when you leave the auto tips intact. Any float, insignificant at today's o/n rates, probably does not offset the credit card transaction/% cost and the cost of administration necessary to secure and allocate the tips.

 

The majority of onboard crew does not pay tax on income.

 

If you remove auto tips, the crew and their management know right away.

 

If you remove auto tips, rave and give cash, the crew is required to turn over the cash to the pool. And they will be looking for it, given your raves and desire to do so.

 

There is only one reason to delete auto tips- to stiff the crew. Given this is not your intent, why not leave it alone.

[jtl513]

Howver, does HAL at the end of each cruise give the tips directly to the employees or do they hold this money until paychecks. This way HAL floats the money for an extra week (remember this can add up to BIG money)

True, but it's not like HAL is gaining any interest on that money, or much benefit from it.

... do the employees have to pay taxes? as international citizens, I don't know.

I don't know for sure either, but since they are technically being paid from Seattle my guess would be yes.

If I remove my automatic tip and give money directly and fill out comment cards raving about service and stating why I paid directly, am I still making it more difficult for the employee?

Possibly not ... but why do you object to leaving the auto-tip in place and supplementing it where needed? Only $3/p/d is going to the "background" people.

 

It is my understanding that before the auto-tip system was put into place the front-line staff had to "tip" the background people themselves to get good support. The dining room stewards had to "share" with the kitchen staff to get their orders filled promptly, the room stewards had to "share" with the laundry room people to get what they needed in a timely fashion, etc. The auto-tip system appears to work well - why fight it?