Tipping Valet
 

I want to go cashless and use Google Pay. Only 2 instances where I am concerned. Tipping Valet and hotel room service.
How would I tip valet if I don't use cash?

Depending on where, maybe gift cards or pre-paid visas? Or maybe PayPal?

Each person receiving a tip would need a Google pay account.

Having collected class gift money for teachers and coaches, I received money using 4 different payment options: Zelle, Venmo, PayPal and Apple Pay. No one asked to use Google Pay. HS kids use texting in green as an insult phrase.

I like google.pay because I can put my credit cards on there also. Once time to tip the maid at the hotel or valet,, I can ask what is your cell phone number and send the money over.
I am thinking of doing it with the bartenders also.

You're overestimating the number of workers who are just going to hand over their cell phone number to some random customer. Just carry some cash.

You have a point about cell phone . Would it be easier to use ask for their email or their paypal login to send to them?

See prior reply. Consider people who don't want to hand over information or don't have email and paypal. Just carry some cash.

I want to say that Google Pay has horrible transfer time. It is much worst than Venmo. Venmo usually takes about 1 or maybe 2 days. Last time my brother paid me using Google Pay, it took 4 to 5 days to get to my Google Pay balance.

One of the advantages to having that type of job, is the benefit of not having a paper trail when receiving hard cash gratuities. Lack of paper trail equals potentially lower income tax burden. ;)

There's a whole lot of assumptions in that statement, most of which are dubious.

The last time I had a valet park and retrieve my car, the whole bunch of them were running, not walking, to take the car from you and to retrieve it. I handed the valet my claim slip and some folded money when I got my car, and he was gone. I can't imagine one standing around long enough to give you his email/paypal account when there's a long line of impatient customers waiting for their cars.

Housekeeping staff: I am almost never see them, so how much time do you plan to spend waiting for one to show up when you're ready to check out? Leave the folded money on the dresser with a slip of paper that says "Thank You" and don't interrupt their work.

And if I was a hotel employee and you asked for my phone number, email or paypal account, I would slowly back away and call for the manager.

I carry an envelope with about $50 worth of $1 bills on each trip. It's used for things like in the Amex lounge and housekeeping.

In my work brief I keep maybe $200 in mixed bills that I'm starting to realize I never use. The $1 bills I happily carry, the weight of them is never to the point where I'd want to stiff the people who help me or ask them for their Venmo address, which feels really insensitive or tone-deaf.

I carry a wad of $2 bills for the same reason. Plus, people always get a kick out of the $2 bills, so they buy more "goodwill" than 2 one dollar bills. Frankly this type of ad-hoc (no credit card possible) tipping is the only reason I carry cash.

Ah, I see you found a use for those!

The thread title says "Tipping Valet", so I will respond to the topic of tipping valets.
If it's a nicer establishment (well, most of the time it's "nicer" if they have valet service), I'll tip $5 here and there, depending on what it is that they are doing... I'm sure others tip much more?

That's what the title says, but the OP's *question* is not about how much to tip a valet, but rather how to tip them without having to carry cash solely for that purpose.

This is a real problem. I don't carry cash and have no interest in carrying cash. I do 95% of my transactions via Apple Pay (Harris Teeter is the big exception because they won't accept Apple Pay or even 'tap to pay' CCs and they are the big grocery store near me) and it brings up this challenge in isolated cases where a tip could be appropriate but I don't have cash and don't care to just keep cash in my wallet all the time just in case I need it 1-2 times a month to tip.

It wouldn't be that hard for a hotel to put a QR code out to collect tips -- or put an option in the various apps to add a tip to your stay for the housekeepers who serviced your room.

Ditto.

Chase keeps them in plentiful supply at their Worth Avenue branch in my town.

I have thought for YEARS that there needs to be an app for that.. easy NFC or BT or QR code app that can easily do a quick share, without having to really exchange any user specific credentials. Obviously one has to authenticate, but being able to pull up my phone or Apple Watch (or whatever device you have) and tap 3, 5, 10$ and send to the nearest device (with confirmation fo course) is where we need to go.

till the, yeah I keep an envelope of 1’s and 5’s in the car, which is dumb.

Although tipping is nowhere near as compulsory in the UK, bar staff have become used to getting a "keep the change" type tip. With more and more people switching from cash to contactless, the tips have fallen substantially.

A few places have a "TipJar" machine. This is a QR code device where you can easily leave a tip using contactless / ApplePay / GooglePay etc. There's also an app where you can do the same thing.

As an aside, 8 of us went for a meal a couple of weeks back. None of us had cash, so we paid by card. We asked the server to put a tip on the bill, and she refused saying that tips have to be cash only :)

I always give cash, since the establishment owner charges the visa/MC/Amex transaction fees to the tip as well, so the servers end up getting 2-3.5+ less money.

That's not universally the case. I asked a restaurant manager about that once, and at least at the place I was at, the restaurant ate the discount rate on the tip and gave the server the entire amount.

totally possible, certainly probably not always the case.

I've noticed more and more buskers have a Square type machine set to £1 on which you just tap your card. Problem solved. If someone is demanding cash they won't get a tip from me as I haven't used cash for over a year. They need to get with the times.

In Somalia everyone in major cities has EVC, a local alterative to Google Pay. You can pay in shops with it, taxis, utilities etc even local car wash kids, porters and general helpers.

Many East African countries have developed their own cashless systems.

The EVC take up in Somalia would make Google drool!