Tipping in India
 

Is there a 'fair' rule of thumb for tipping in India? On one hand, I don't want to be a cheapstake and get my food spit in, but on the other hand, I don't want to support the worldwide American tradition of overtipping and making it worse for future tourists. I am going to India this December and I look every bit like a tourist, so there is no blending in with the locals. There aren't too many 6'0" white men running around India (I think).

Maybe 10% of a dinner check. Rs. 50 for the various services in a hotel.

There are PLENTY of 6' white American and British men running around, and even many 6' Indian men running around, but, no, you won't blend in.

I now rather often tip 10% of a check up to a maximum of 150-200 rupees at better establishments. Of course a lot of people still do tip way more than needed or even expected. Furthermore, a lot of foreigners in India don't tip at all or don't tip more than the change/coins they get back if paying the bill in cash. This has not resulted in any trouble on that visit or on repeat visits.

Doggone if I didn't think tonight on the way to the hotel about this very topic. It is late and I need to sleep. I have not been tipping in the past with no negative effects. I have started to tip here and there but there are far too many people that I could potentially so I'm a bit perplexed.

1) Guy that tries to grab your bag and take it to the car at the airport.
2) Airport pickup/dropoff driver
3) Bellhops taking/placing your bag from/into car
4) Bellhop bringing/takig bag to/from the room
5) Room service delivery person
6) Local run car driver
7) Hotel restaurant/bar waiters
8) Waiters outside hotels

So do y'all tip all of them while in India? How much do you tip them each?

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 :D -- which I give them. They can't even get it converted into two INR. :D ) 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.

Not tipping has not yielded me any trouble either. There have been some trips where I have not even tipped more than 200 rupees in total on the entire trip and my service the follow-up time was not impacted negatively as far as I could tell.

1) I shake my head, say no/"nahin"/"naa" (whatever) and grab it back. If I have a car from a hotel, the driver can very well take my suitcase, if I have one. My rollaboard stays with me all the time.

2) 20 or 50 rupees, depending on whether he helps me with my suitcase, adjusts the air conditioning to my liking, plays the right music, etc.

3) If its the same person as in 4), he'll get a tip. If I just have a rollaboard, it goes with me into the backseat - and I can do that myself.

4) Usually 50 rupees for 1 or 2 heavy bags.

5) Nothing. There's always a ~10% service charge.

6) Haven't used one.

7) Nothing. There's always a ~10% service charge.

8) If there's no service charge, I'll usually round up the bill. eg. for a Rs. 40 bill I'll just pay with a Rs. 50 note and leave, for a Rs 200 bill I may leave a Rs 20 tip, for a Rs. 500 bill I might leave Rs. 50. Never more. You're not likely to have a bill larger than a couple of hundred rupees at a place that does not have a service charge anyway.

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.

A regular indian would tip the restaurant and maybe the driver if the car was assigned to him personally during the time. Taxis sometimes have their fare rounded off if he was quick to get you someplace or if you only drive for a short distance after hailing him out of a queue at the airport or train station.

At restaurants 10% is for really good service, otherwise just round off. I've noticed that in some restaurants they often just skipped the coins on the return change, expecting me to leave the change anyway. Now this I hate and make it a point to call the guy in charge.

Drivers get 100 INR. Service people in india KNOW the tip is for extra service and not a given. In US you tip because the persons get minimum wage and the tip is part of their pay. Don't forget that.

The 10% service charge is a tax that the govt. levies on these establishments. It is totally ridiculous, but it isn't a service charge like in gratuity.

While true, one could argue that what some of the service staff in India make in establishments outside of the very good ones probably is far less than what might be the equivalent of minimum wage in the US, in order to maintain a bare minimum standard of living.

I like tipping in India more because I am not always made to feel obliged to do so.

Well said. I tip in India not because it's demanded -- for when it is, I don't tip at all there -- but because it's to reward service and help out people making a very basic honest living. As the begging and pestering has dropped off, my willingness to tip (and tip more) has risen. The people selling newspapers along the road -- who used to beg -- now get me to buy their papers and I let them keep the change although they routinely try to give me back the change. It's a huge improvement over the nonsense that used to happen along the roads, especially around DEL (before they started to fine the persons giving money to beggars).

Is this just speculation? I would never argue that.

Tipping
 

Tipping is more sought out in India than in other countries but the amounts are lesser. Staying in India (and being local), I generally go by the guidelines:

1. At airports, I move bags to trollies myself and do not allow airport porters and other hanger ons (they are in abundance) to touch the trolley. They usually have absurd demands and are real pains in the a**.
2. At the car, I do not tip the driver since he gets tipped at the end of the day.
3. I do not tip public taxis. They may expect it but it is not practised at all in India. Only full day hired cars of private operators who are wating on you for 8-9 hours need to be tipped (about Rs. 50-Rs.100) per day depending on his efficieny and demeanour. I also offer them about Rs. 50 for lunch which suffices.
4. At hotels, the bell desk gets tipped small amounts (Rs. 40 for 2-3 bags)
5. Restaurants, if the bill amount is < Rs. 1000, I tip 10%. For bill amounts of Rs. 1000-2000, I tip about 7% and above that not more than 5%.

I also regard (as mentioned in some of the postings) tipping also as a means of creating rightfully earned income for the poorer sections in a country with high wage inequalities.

I'm glad you mentioned this about the annoying people at the airport. I had a ?porter? in Kuwait who refused to let go of my trolley. He was an immigrant from one of the poorer Muslim countries. I told him no time and time again and even forced his hands off the bar, but he put them right back on and refused to let go. I didn't want to cause a scene, so I ended up just using his services, but I was not happy about it. What can I do if they are like this? I see my only options as:

1-Drop kick them (probably getting myself arrested in the process).
2-Call the police over (will they actually do anything?)
3-Use them and then pay them a few pennies or something (would this work?)

I don't like using service people like this because I'm perfectly capable of doing these things myself. I don't need or want someone to open a door for me, carry my bags to my room, etc. I tip in restaurants because the wait staff are performing a service, but other than that, I don't like tipping because I always feel like I'm being ripped off.

You just gave me some bad ideas :D