I tip about a buck a day, whether it's 5* or no-*, more if I leave the room in particularly messy shape. The only circumstances where I'd tip $20-30/day would be if I'd been partying like a whole band of rock stars, in the hope that a big tip would save me a significantly larger cleaning or repair charge.

I don't--I just added this item to show that in Las Vegas, tipping has gone bonkers.

I hate not having strong air conditioning in the summer outside the US but my not liking that is not going to make the rest of the world turn down the thermostat.

Your complaining about tipping will not change anything either.

Many buffets have lots of "stations" which (sort of) prepare food to order (1)omelets, (2)crepes, (3)sushi, (4)Mongolian etc. Caesars Palace in Las Vegas closed their Lago buffet and opened the Bacchanal buffet (dinner is now $40)--and if you follow the "rules" (per various publications), if you utilize (say) 5 "stations", you are supposed to leave (at least) $1 per each, this becomes a (very) expensive buffet.
Do "you" tip per "station"?

Coming from northern Europe, I am uncomfortable with tipping. However, I do recognize the necessity thereof in the US and some other countries. So I do my best to be reasonable in tipping, even though the idea that I am responsible for the livelihood of a restaurant worker instead of the owner is very, very alien to me.

But tipping per station and other silly stuff like this is simply making things very inconvenient. Am I supposed to count the stations? What if I don't use one of them? What if I visit one station twice?

If we foreign devils are sometimes bad tippers, is not always entirely our fault - the system is sometimes confusing and sometimes it is hard not to feel our ignorance is taken advantage of (as in 18% mandatory tips in some NYC or SF restaurants, post-tax).

Cheers,
T.

It's becoming clear that some tourist traps attempt to abuse the US tipping system, and such rules not only can, but should be ignored. I'm tempted to say that the tourist traps themselves should be as well; Vegas buffets, and Disney-run restaurants, for the examples given in this thread,

Other than bar/restaurant service and porters (the latter only if you engage their services; many of us skip them), a lot of the other "common" tipped professions are tipped less often and very much optional, especially if you're never going to see the person again and don't need to worry about quality service as a repeat customer.

I've never heard that, I've never seen a tip jar at the station, and I don't see how your server would be able to keep track of how many stations you use.

On top of a $40 buffet, an extra $5 in "station" tips would still put you under the regular sit-down restaurant tip,absent some other tip to the server who brings drinks. I'm sure the same publications suggest tipping the buffet server as if they were a regular restaurant server; I've already given my opinion of that.

The server does not keep track of station use. But I see lots of people handing dollars at omelet, crepe etc. stations. [I don't]
I've even seen people tip the cashier

I like tipping when its unexpected. The housekeepers probably don't get much. So I like tipping in unconventional fashion. As for restaurants, I pretax the amount and deduct any takeout before tipping.

I'm going to give the club lounge a substantial tip. Won't be like a regular restaurant, but they usually don't receive anything. Thus the unconventional tipping when I shouldn't but the buck goes a long way when I do.

My mother in law is a housekeeper and even she doesn't think it's appropriate. She'll pocket the money of course, but she doesn't think anything more about the person who left it. All she's thinking about is trying to get through her allotted set of rooms.

OK; Vegas, and Disney are both nuts.

It's been years since I've been back to Vegas, but I've never seen this at the Reno buffets, and off the top of my head am not sure how someone handling food would even be able to safely handle money -- it would involve a glove change, or hand-washing, no?

I can't speak for Vegas; I've only been there once and didn't see the tip craziness at any of the buffets I patronized.

But I can say that Disney World restaurants follow the typical American standard - they add an 18% automatic gratuity to the bill for parties of 6 or more. This can be negotiated if you get bad service. It's the customers who are crazy, increasing their tip percentage to 20% or 25% on an already-overpriced meal.

And that's one place where Disney is crazy - the actual meal price. I love the place, and there are several restaurants that I really love to visit when I'm there, but the prices are getting mighty high. In particular, I will not be returning to the Epcot steakhouse called Le Cellier. For $60, i got a steak and one side with a Coke. Now, it was a very good steak, but frankly, I've had better steaks at Longhorn for $25 including a side, a salad, bread, and either an appetizer or dessert.

Next time I'm in the mood for a steak while I'm at WDW, I'll get in my rental car and find a steakhouse off site.

Anything at Disney is going to be expensive. This latest stay we dined at Le Cellier as well. It used to be hard to get into this restaurant because Disney dining allowed for use of only one sit down credit. Since they changed it to 2 I've been able to get in more often. The steaks are excellent there and yes, driving out and about will get you a better deal.

I agree with all this 18% tip charge by Disney is rediculous. I get hit all the time as a Table in Wonderland card holder. The 18% is added every time pre-discount. Should be post discount IMO.

These publications suggest $1-$2 to the server at a buffet--so they haven't gone off the deep end in this instance.
[The problem with the scenario with "stations", gets super-magnified if you have a family of (say) 4.]

Well, that does balance out a bit; I've seen people recommending the standard 15-20%, which seems out of line to me.

$1-$2 per person at the table sounds about right to me, which is comparable to the standard tip at the cheapest buffets, and quite a bit lower at the pricier ones. Maybe a little more if they don't have self-serve soft drinks (most Reno ones don't, while it's pretty common at hotel breakfast and the the whole non-casino Hometown Buffet sort of places) and the server is good about refills.