Originally Posted by GUWonder
Here's how I do it generally:
With regards to Person:
1 above. Only gets tipped if I ask for the help and he's not pushy. (For those that try to milk me, I have a bunch of old Turkish lira that look good -- a million old Turkish Lira, you know, a big amount
-- which I give them. They can't even get it converted into two INR.
) Never more than 40-50 rupees.
2 above. Never more than 50 rupees.
3 and 4 above. Never more than 50 rupees and only to the person who did the last or biggest delivery step.
5 above. 50 rupees regardless of bill
6 above. 70-100 rupee tip per day for local run driver if he negotiates down things on my behalf but never more than 300-500 rupees per month in total.
7 above. Never more than 100 rupees regardless of tab.
8 above. Restaurant waiters never more than 10% with a cap of 150-200 rupees.
Wow. I am starting to feel a LOT better about myself as I read this and
Savage25's post also. I tip exactly in this range (although, like
Savage25, I never, ever let the guy at the airport grab my bags). And I have always considered myself a hopeless cheapskate w/r/t tipping, particularly compared to some of my American finance-industry colleagues. I guess I am doing the right thing after all.
However, I did have one experience with a local Europcar driver where it was clear that he thought I was being seriously stingy. He was hired by my Hyderabad hosts to take me around for one day for business meetings and a second day for sightseeing, and he did a nice job of being a bit of a tour guide too. I tipped him INR 200 at the end of day 2, and he looked at it like I had just given him a dirty Kleenex. I wasn't sure what to make of that (although I was not motivated to give him any more money!). It was the first time I'd gotten that reaction.