I had the opportunity to work in a high end resturant when I was younger and can attest to the fact that there are plenty of people who treat the job as a vocation, even an art. There is a considerable amount of skill involved and allot of behind the scenes preparation. Given this I usually find it completely unacceptable when I receive bad service in a high end restaurant and while I will not stiff the waiter for anything other than abominable service/attitude (if it is his fault rather than the kitchen's) I will always let the manager know of any service that is out of the usual range, good or bad.

I too get peeved by Hotels that wait until after you check in to bring up a crib or rollaway depsite the fact that it has specifically been requested in the reservation. After a long flight no one wants to wait an hour while the skeleton housekeeping staff searches the hotel for a crib at 10PM.

In meals where we just get a bottle or two of wine, no matter how expensive, I tip on the total. When I take friends out and we end up with 4-10 bottles that can range up to $350 each (that is about my limit and I rarely go there, most recently it was for an amazing Corton Charlemange at La Pinnsionare along the banks of the St Lawrence in Quebec, highly recommend for both food and wine) I will tip on food and add $10-20 extra per bottle of wine depending on service and price (this is because I almost always choose the wine myself). When there is a bonafide sommelier in the establishment, and I mean someone who actually knows something about wine (and I don't mean that they have justed tatsed the wine before and that is the extent of their knowledge) I take full advantage and love to hear a really knowledgable one talk and I encourage them to take me on whatever adventure their cellar can offer. For those gems I will tip allot but such experts are rare.

Also love places where when you close the place up, the chef will come out and enjoy a glass of something with you. Happily many's the time when I have had occasion to pay homage to a great chef with a good bottle of something or other or a samll gift of appreciation delivered to the resuatrant after a recent gastronique epic.

Bottom line I suppose is that there are allot of very talented people ofut there who deserve recognition and appreciation, a tip is one way of showing that, but there are others too.