Thread Drift

[crazycanuck]

It's only in the US kids...

BWAH AHAAAA i've never heard of such thing being done down this way...

Perhaps ONLY at a nice restaurant but otherwise no and they don't even think about it.

[JennK13]

I get confused on tipping when it comes to "services". When am I "supposed" to, how much? We went on a fly fishing expedition this summer, it was $150 each, and then we were supposed to tip??? What the?? When we went white water rafting, it was mentioned that we were supposed to tip our guide? I guess I don't get why we're "supposed" to tip people for those kinds of things, especially when we're already paying a couple hundred for the trip itself. Now I worry that I was supposed to tip my snowboard instructor last season, or my bike fitter. I think it all started with the fast food restaurants leaving tip jars on the counters...now everyone thinks they're entitled!

[Crankin]

Yes, you are supposed to tip guides on a trip. Especially the bike tour leaders. It's an incredible amount of work.
This year, the tour we took was with a small, Spanish based company, with owners who hail from the UK. They were fabulous. There were only 2 other Americans on the trip; the rest from Australia, Denmark, Canada. We did not tip the owner/leader, but we did tip the other leader, who was an employee. He was a poor, semi-pro cyclist who worked in the asparagus fields to make money. I know he appreciated it. If we hadn't brought it up, the others on the tour would not have tipped him. After we explained the rationale, they all were happy to do so.
The reason we tip in the US is that service people often get paid minimum wage (or less) and depend on tips to make a living wage, as opposed to EU countries, where waiters, etc make a salary.