Tipping in Canada
 

I did a search for "Tipping in Canada" but only found US tipping threads.

We will be in Canada (Calgary / Rocky Mountains) soon and I am wondering if the tipping "rules" are the same as in the US.
How much in a restaurant, bar, how much for the hotel room cleaner?

Thanks in advance.

Basically the same though maybe not so extravagant as major US cities where the "expected" tip seems to be creeping upwards every year. 15% for food service, at the bar, or any other personalized service. In some provinces the sales tax works out to about 15% so tipping whatever the tax was is convenient. Not sure about BC.

Not sure about hotel room cleaners, I'm sure a lot of people don't tip at all and I'm sure other people do too.

I wouldn't be surprised if most of the places you go to in the Rockies have a "recommended tip" spelled out at the bottom of the bill as you're going to a tourist destination. I've noticed in Toronto that a lot of restaurants now helpfully point out that tipping is customary and that you should leave at least an X% tip. Some restaurants even conveniently do the math for you and give you a few options.

I agree with zkzkz, some people tip, some people don't so don't feel any pressure. Try to ignore the "helpful recommendations" and if you do tip, tip according to service - after all that is what its supposed to be for!

Same in BC - Around 15% for good service.

That sounds like the European system and doesn't sound right for Canada? In Europe it is acceptable to leave just a few euros on a €100 dinner. 10 euros would be a "good" tip. In Canada, shouldn't I leave at least $15 on a $100 dinner bill?

Yes, $15 tip on a $100 dinner is reasoable. But you can calculate the tip on the pre-tax total. Or to make it easy, leave a tip equivalent to the taxes (except in Alberta where the taxes are lower).

For hotels, I usually leave $1-2 per night for the cleaners, a bit more when the entire family of three stays in the room. At a recent stay at the YQB Hilton, the cleaner left a very nice thank you note after the first night.
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13F

We have/had the same thing here. A generation or two ago, 10% was the norm in Canada.

+1. The US argument of the servers being paid slave wages doesn't wash here.

But, back to the original Q - you can generally double the GST as an indication of how much to tip.

For hotel room tipping, that's all over the place. I usually leave $1-2/day rather than a lump sum at the end. Of course, the rule there is pretty loose and plenty of people don't leave a tip at all.

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I'll admit I've never been one to tip the housekeeping staff, though I've recently begun thinking I should. On that note, how exactly do you tip the housekeeper? Where do you leave the money so that she knows it's for her and not just some money you left sitting around?

I use the in-house note pads and write "Thank you" in English or whatever language is native. Under the 1st sheet, I enclose a US $1 (or whatever else is appropriate). For Canada, I leave a loonie/toonie on top of the note pad.

Lastly, I leave it in a place I think the housekeeper will see when she enters the room. So, sometimes it's on the corner of my bed or sometimes it's on the counter of the bathroom. More often than not, on the bed.

Many housekeepers have actually written back.

I usually leave 15% at restaurants and $1/night in hotels. I tend to leave it on the desk, usually with a thank you, like Braindrain does. I have left spare change on the desk and not had it taken, unless there is a note indicating its for the housekeeping staff.


In restaurants, I used to use the sales tax as my guideline.

In Alberta, you can triple the GST (5%), or in BC, round up on the HST (which is 12%) on the bill. I tip before taxes.

15-20% depending upon service in restaurants and bars.

I leave $5/night in hotels for housekeeping.

$5-10 for bell boys(girls) depending on how much luggage they haul. $20 if I think I'm going to need some future special favour during my stay. :)

$10-20 for hotel check-in people again if I think I may need future favours (more if I discern the chance for, or am given, a room upgrade):)

$2-3 for car valets each time I take my car out.

Airport/rental shuttle people get $2-3 if they help with my bags.

$10 for good tour guides whether walking or on a bus.

I/We usually tip $1-5 for the maid depending on how much of a mess I/we make, if we ask for extra stuff (towels), etc. Normally there's a notepad & pen in the room so we'll leave the money on top of a written thank you message (along with any other requests) and leave it either on the desk or night table. We try to tip daily vs the end of the stay because who knows when maids have their vacation days. Tipping daily also occasionally yields us extra nominal freebies like chocolates, bottles of water, etc.

It wouldn't have occurred to me to tip for either of these. Unless the tour guide is a private tour guide arranged just for my group. The others seem high but absolute amounts will depend on your budget.


Fwiw my personal rule for restaurants for a meal with good service was 15% or $2 whichever was greater -- I always thought the waitresses in the cheap breakfast diners put more work in than the staff in the expensive restaurants and it never seemed fair that they got much less.