They won't take cash of desks etc (or shouldn't!) as people dump their pockets out there without thinking. If I am tipping, I place the money on the pillow, or in the ashtray (used to be ashtray all the time, but now hotels rarely have them (I am not a smoker), the bed seems the most logical place. Another way to do it is to use the hotel's envelopes from the desk drawer and write 'Housekeeping' on it.

No more than I resent the "pushing" of good (or a large tip) tips for something that should be a standard.. GOOD SERVICE

as someone stated before, good service is part of what I pay for when I go into an establishment. I'm not paying extra for it. I'll leave the ~15% and thats it unless its something extraordinary and well I've never had something that great where I'd leave a bigger tip than the standard

I live here, hate the tipping culture and have only left a zero tip once for lousy service... typically i'm in that 12-15% range.

the zero time was kind of funny as we ordered drinks and our dinner.. drinks came in about 15 minutes.. dinner never made it and after another hour, we paid in cash, the exact amount of the drinks and dinner (and tax) down to the penny and left. When we left, we flagged down another waiter to tell him what we were doing as we were not happy..

it was too funny (after we left) when the waiter came running out with his manager to our car and told us not to come back.. now do you really think we were coming back anyway you dope..yes they were asking why no tip was included

What about all other people who are in service industries that who work hard but you don't see them? A chef, dishwasher?

I don't tip, so I don't go to restaurant, and I carried my bags. I tipped once to a hotel shuttle because our 18 months old had a tantrum from the hotel to the airport and I felt sorry that he had to 'suffer'.

IMO tipping culture is based on a good principle and it's now being twisted into something more like a 'norm'. If a waiter doesn't earn enough from his wages, get another job. To be honest I go to restaurants for the food, and if I can do it myself I'll fetch the plate from the kitchen. I think the worst is the Vegas buffet, I paid the cashier to get in and someone brings me drinks Why? Why don't they just put a jug of water on my table and I can help myself or put a beverage machine out - why should I have to ask someone to get me my comp. drinks? (it's silly since all food are self-service) I don't want to tip the waiter to help me to 'fetch' my drinks. The waitress that 'served' us after the first round without any tip she literally disappeared from our table and I can't ask anyone else to get my drink because they said, 'you need to get the one who served you'. It really sucks that I almost want to ask them where I can refill my own drink, and to be honest I'll do this next time when I'm eating buffet in Vegas.

You paid for your dinner even though you never received it?

That's how I read it (as my jaw dropped!)

yes, b/c we had ordered it and i presume it was being cooked and didn't want to get the cops called in a sort of chew and screw type of situation so we paid for it all to the penny.. mind you the waiter was still upset for not getting his tip

I would not have paid for dinner. I would have asked to speak to the manager, let that person know what had happened, then offered to pay the exact bill for drinks. Very likely, the manager would have declined the offer for the drinks payment and would have apologized.

But it never arrived at your table, even an hour after you ordered it. Too bad. I would not have paid for the dinner at all.

There is no way I would have paid for a meal that never arrived at the table!

I agree that's ridiculous, particularly since the waiter and/or restaurant got to keep the full cost of a meal you didn't eat (and they likely didn't prepare - in my experience if it's been over an hour and the food hasn't arrived, they simply forgot or lost the order).

You are not ever taxed in the UK on what you could have earned or should have earned. You are taxed on what you declare you have earned. You may have been on an emergency tax code where you were paying an amount designed to exceed what you would owe. This would be on the assumption that you would claim back excess payments at the end of the year or pay a reduced rate if you sorted out your tax code. Alternatively, your employer may have been scamming you.

with hindsite being 20/20 you guys are probably right and we shouldn't have paid; on that note, based on what was said in the parking lot by the mgr and waiter, the food was cooked and brought out just after we split.. so they say anyway

still the look i gave them when they told us to never come back.. really.. now, did they think that would ever cross our mind

my only mistake was not putting a review in every restaurant blog in the area

+1^. Wow!-

Yes, when you've spent decades in the US, I'm sure it comes quite naturally.

Most of us do not have that luxury. Hence, we find tipping-related (and often unrelated) situations stressful precisely because we're trying to do the right thing but it's by and large an utterly alien (and to many, ridiculous) idea with nearly no hard and fast rules to work from.

Indeed. How is that relevant to the specious assertion that tipping is supposed to be about rewarding and/or ensuring good service rather than making up for broken and unfair employment laws ?

Wow.. If they didn't serve the food, and they were being rediculous, I would have said that the food has taken too long, we're going. At that moment, the restaurant would have decided what they would do, and you could have responded.