It's not in the least offensive and actually quite generous. 15% would be perfectly appropriate.

I think in U.S. restaurants this approach is perfectly acceptable. Just add 20% to the bill in your mind before even entering the restaurant. If you still think the price is ok, go in.

I do the same thing, actually, although when the bill arrives I may still tip less, let's say 15%. In practise I still rarely enter because I've come to expect the service to be mediocre and the whole experience, especially paying, unpleasant. Maybe it is also the attitude of the waiters towards foreigners: they don't expect to profit from us and may thus show us how they really feel about their jobs, their employers and whatever.

There are still a lot of situations where it is not as simple. E.g. in the hotel you may have breakfast included. In the breakfast voucher there may still be very precise instructions in small print, e.g. "gratuities" (whatever that is now supposed to mean) are not included, breakfast by us normally cost 35$, you are expected to tip 15 to 20%.

Ok, we were in this situation having thought we will get a free breakfast and now found that we should tip 7$ per person, that is 28$ for the four of us for the waiter to pour me and my wife some coffee and our kids some juice (it was a buffet breakfast). I was already going to pay the 28$ but luckily my wife refused. We ended up tipping 2$ per person. I'm sorry for probably offending a lot of people by this and in the future I'm trying to choose hotels where breakfast is really included instead of "free".

I have no problem with the concept of a tip. My problem is that many Americans believe they deserve a tip, and in many cases demand one, for doing nothing more than the basic requirement of their job.

You shouldn’t get tipped simply for doing your job. You get tipped for going beyond the base requirement of the job.

I am not there to pay your wages. That is your employers job. If you get tipped, it is because you deserve to get tipped, not because you performed your minimum job requirements.

That's not how it works in America though. Here, Americans pay servers for service: basic service gets a tip, going "beyond" gets a bigger one. This is the fundamental misunderstanding common among visitors.

I'm an American and don't tip in these situations either. As you can probably tell from this thread, tipping can be a very sensitive subject, even amongst Americans. Generally, tip if you feel comfortable tipping. You are not required to tip, but in places like restaurants, etc. it is customary. But I have even not tipped in very nice restaurants if service is poor (and I've told them why I'm not tipping) and I've over-tipped when service is exellent

Allow me to echo PTravel's guidelines. I've lived on both coasts and in the midwest and this is the closest to what I do. The first post offering tipping advice (where the guy suggested giving front desk personnel $20) was incredibly generous tipping and a little absurd.

Funny, I'm an American and I have never - not once - tipped a hotel maid. Yet every day in every hotel, the maid came and cleaned the room.

Actually, I think I once left her an extra chocolate bar on my pillow.

Yeah, I'm with you. I will sometimes put whatever change I'm given in the jar, but it's more a function of not wanting to carry change than wanting to tip.

The exception to this is if the barista does something exceptional with my drink, or goes out of his way to help me with something. Then I'll put a buck in.

I agree, but sadly it's evolved beyond this. Yet there have been a few times where I've had truly lousy service in a restaurant and not tipped at all, or just rounded up to the next dollar.

I used to get takeout regularly from a neighborhood restaurant. One day, they had a new host who berated me for not giving him a tip as he handed me my food. Does anyone reading this tip for takeout? Several waiter friends told me one never tips for takeout, and that the guy was indeed totally out of line.

What about room service in a 5 star hotel? Do you still go for 15-20% or drop say $10? Is it dependent upon the bill amount?

Thoughts?

Room service universally includes an 18-20% gratuity but hotels still have the gall to include a line on the receipt for additional tip. I put a zero on that line.

The only exceptions would be (1) if I were staying in the same hotel several nights or intended to come back soon - I'd add a few more bucks just to make friends with the delivery person, or (2) if the delivery person did something truly phenomenal, which has never happened and I don't know what would justify a further tip in this regard.

Otherwise, a 20% tip for bringing a tray from the kitchen, up an elevator, and to my room is quite a lot, says I. For comparison, when one orders delivery from a restaurant one usually tips 10% of the bill to the delivery boy. (Or, at least that's what I do :))

This all said, I don't do room service much - I prefer to eat in the restaurant, alone if needs be.

I never had tipped for take-out. Next, the cooks will be out asking for tips! :rolleyes:

If the resort adds "Resort Fees" or some other ridiculous charge ontop of the room rate, I will not tip. If I have to pay to park at the hotel as a guest, I will not tip anyone at the hotel.

But if someone brings me food for room service, I will tip..especially if I order it at odd hours.

Even if all room service orders include an automatic gratuity?

The 15% rule (exact value depending on who you ask) is for restaurants with full table service, and bars if you run a tab.

Bars, if you pay as you go rather than opening a tab, should be a flat $1 per alcoholic drink or soft drink requiring preparation (barring special requests, which should be higher.)

$2-4 sound high for some of these. In general, tipping low will be better accepted than not tipping at all.

Most of the other ones can boil down to "a dollar or two" or "a dollar per bag" if it involved handling your baggage/luggage.

Tax tips are a more arguable point; in general, I'll tip a flat $2-3, which is way over 15% on a short trip, and way under on a $35-$50 trip out to an airport. In general, longer fares are more profitable to begin with. so I don't think proportional tipping is necessary.

As a general rule, if the service is bad enough not to tip, it's a good idea to bring it to the attention of the manager.

Exact amount varies. This should normally be posted on the menu.

I'll generally tip small change at purely-counter service places where I'm a regular. For places with "order at the counter, food is delivered," I'll generally tip about a buck a person.

For buffet, $2 per person is perfectly acceptable - maybe a little on the low side for s $35/plate place, but still acceptable. Not tipping, if they're bringing you drink orders, would have been poor form.

If it had been full table service, $2/person would have been insufficient most places. "This place is overpriced" is not a reason to tip less (although it might be a reason to tip 15% if you're normally a 20% person) but in the specific case of "included" meals, if you have a sense of the common prices of the meal at a regular, non-hotel restaurant and the "listed" price is excessive ($35/person for breakfast sounds excessive to me!) then it's perfectly reasonable to tip based on a more conventional rate.

Similarly, while one should normally tip on comped items and on the full price of items if you have a dollars-off coupon, places that are continually running free item or dollars-off promotions can appropriately be tipped at the actual bill.

Depends on the place. I normally tip for takeout (although more likely 10%, rather than a full 15%-20%) when getting takeout at restaurants that are not primarily in a takeout business and which I'd normally be tipping at (full-table-service) as the person doing the boxing is going to be taken away from their regular duties to do so, and it's conventional to tip them. At places where I'd not normally tip, I'm not going to tip for takeout, or at most tip small change.

Many room service will have a service charge on top of the menu prices. When it does NOT have a service charge, I'll tip my usual 15-20%. When it does, I'll only tip if my "normal" tip would otherwise exceed the service charge.