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I usually leave 20% unless the service is bad then I will leave anything from 10% to 1 cent.


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I'm usually good for 20%. But I also usually go to my usual spots and people that provide whatever service I use know what I like and how I like it, and they're generally generous (if we're talking booze). So I don't have an issue with 20%.

I also don't have an issue with tipping zero or over-tipping for exceptionally bad/good service.

One thing I usually do some people find stranage is I tip my room maids at hotels. $3-4 a day usually, laid on the pillow. More if they've done something extra . . . never more than $5 a day.

I have to tip. My best friend is a waitress and if I don't tip properly....

ANCFlyer wrote:One thing I usually do some people find stranage is I tip my room maids at hotels.

I hadn't even thought of doing that until I saw it mentioned in one of those tipping threads over at Airliners. Last time I was in a hotel, I forgot to do it until I was already at FL400 over the Atlantic.

20%, hell no. I remember when 10% was considered a good tip, and I object that kind of inflation. Unless the service is exceptional, I won't go beyond 15.

That said: I always feel really tight when we eat out as a project group, because you can't claim tips and our lot seem to interpret this as "don't tip". Pisses me right off. Many's the time I've left 10% on my own, and often the staff realise what I'm doing and that 10% actually means something.

I don't tip maids, usually, but if I'm somewhere for a few nights there are usually bits of origami floating about the room. When I check out, I'll leave an origami box (ah, that's what all that paper was about!) with some chocolates or something in it and a "thank you".

Depends where I'm at - if I'm having a pub meal where I have to go to the bar and order, I rarely tip as the 'service' is hardly there anyway - the person taking the order and payment will be different to the person who brings your meal, and these locations tend not to have dedicated servers anyway.

Somewhere a bit more upmarket I tend to go for 10%, or a little more if it will round up nicely and I'm paying with cash.

Group meals I go on tend to have service charges applied, so we tend to use the round up method simply to avoid sharing out the change!

At the bar I will usually leave $1/order if possible.
At a restaurant it depends. 20% is not out of the question for good service. I usually round it off so my total bill is an even number so it could be 20% +/- a few % depending on which way I happen to round.
10% tops for bad service or lazy service. Such as the type of server that never refills your drink or takes forever to even acknowledge you. I have left $0.01 once for such service.
Then there are "restaurants" such as Luby's. I never tip at these places, I dont understand why they expect you to. It's a buffet, I wait in line, I get my food, I get my drink, I'm not tipping the person who comes and says "hi" to me when I decide where to seat myself.

I wouldn't ever tip a hotel maid any more so then passengers tip their pilots.

15-20% depending on the service...also dependent upon how good my mental math is after said meal

My brother and I go to the same restaurant almost every Saturday morning and we always ask for one particular waiter because he gives us good service. I always tip him 30-50%. Otherwise, if I don't have to wait for my drink to be refilled and my order is correct, you'll get 20% or more.

If you come to my table and just stand there and ask what I want to order when I'm with a table of 4 and you you're too lazy to write it down, you just reduced your tip by at LEAST 50%, even if it ends up being right.

Queso wrote:If you come to my table and just stand there and ask what I want to order when I'm with a table of 4 and you you're too lazy to write it down, you just reduced your tip by at LEAST 50%, even if it ends up being right.

Why do you care if they write it down as long as its correct?

Airfoilsguy wrote:

Queso wrote:If you come to my table and just stand there and ask what I want to order when I'm with a table of 4 and you you're too lazy to write it down, you just reduced your tip by at LEAST 50%, even if it ends up being right.

Why do you care if they write it down as long as its correct?

Yeah...I'm always more impressed if they don't write it down...and then get it all correct. Having been on the other side of this for many years (and damn good at it as well), I probably over-tip...unless the service is absolute shite. I have served many a table of 4+ people, not written it down, remembered the entire order...and delivered it to the table, to the correct person...with a smile...

I was also a bartender for many years...used to average $200+ in tips on weekdays, probably double that on weekends....

I'll do 20% even if the server is mediocre. But if I come out of the dining experience not enjoying the service I'll drop the tip to maybe 10-15%. I'll always leave something. But if I do take exception to the server I'll discuss it with the manager or maitrde (sp?) and that usually solves the problem, though just about all the servers I've had recently have been very good.

I tip 20% is the service is average, 15% if it is below average, and more than 20% if it is excellent. And I'm rewarded for that when I return to our regular haunts. More than once we've been seated immediately when there is otherwise a wait, we get attentive service, and no upcharge for substitutions. In one restaurant, the wait staff competes for us when we walk in.

Airfoilsguy wrote:

Queso wrote:If you come to my table and just stand there and ask what I want to order when I'm with a table of 4 and you you're too lazy to write it down, you just reduced your tip by at LEAST 50%, even if it ends up being right.

Why do you care if they write it down as long as its correct?

Because many times I've had an order wrong because some little twit didn't bother to write it down, there's simply no reason for 5 people sitting at a table to be eating and one or two others have to sit there watching them eat for 15 or 20 minutes while what they originally ordered is prepared. It's one of those little things that REALLY get on my nerves.

Edit: Just got back from going to have a Coke and a snack at Denny's with my brother, check was $10 and we tipped the waitress $16.

Queso wrote:
Edit: Just got back from going to have a Coke and a snack at Denny's with my brother, check was $10 and we tipped the waitress $16.

Denny's, DENNY'S!!!! God god, I thought you were more civilized than that.

15% for normal service.

I have no problem leaving no tip for bad service, but above and beyond service will always get an above and beyond tip.

15% is normal for me.

If they don't write it down and get it right It just went over 20%... Mostly because someone that good at being a waiter likely didn't miss a beat on anything else.

I went someplace the other day where they filled in the tip for me on credit card recipt. They were going to get more, but they hosed themselves.

I feel somewhat conflicted about takeout.. A lot of places have a tip slot on the recipt for takeout. I don't feel walking from the kitchen to the counter is worth anything- even if you are cute. However, a few places I regularly do takeout from I tip the takeout people.. Hell, a couple of them in the past have even learned my name. It does lead to better service, but if I never see the same person twice, screw you.

At work.. If we are wearing anything that might identify where we work I tip over 25% as do a few other people on my shift.. Even if we get a discount and even if the service sucked.

One time I was someplace where the service was so awful I just rounded the check up to the nearest dollar. for a tip. I feel a truly shitty tip is worse than no tip.. It sends a message.

I tip the hell out of Chipotle.. I have picked up food on the way to work there a few times and they ALWAYS hook me up with free food, or at least a free drink. Hell, my regular Chipotle even hooked me up NOT in uniform. One girl there even knows my days off- amazing.

Normally, I tip fairly well at a bar.. But one time I had a mojito where I think they omitted the rum- that led to a microtip.

Also, important to note. Cold late food = bad waiter. Hot, late food = bad kitchen. Don't punish the waiter for the kitchen.

I probably average about 15%, though I have been known to tip more. If the service is poor (a regular occurence in the UK) I will make a point of telling the server why they aren't getting a tip.

10% is regarded as usual here. But I never understood what the tip has to do with what's on the bill. If two waiters in two restaurants provided the same good service, why would I tip one more than the other, just because the restaurant owner asks for higher prices for his food and drinks? I tip for the service, not the food quality.

So my tips will usually vary from below €1 (if the service was sub-par, which unfortunately is not that unlikely in Germany), to €5 and up if the service was great.

And I do tip at hotels as well - why would I tip the waiter, but not tip the maid? When staying for a longer time (e.g. on vacation), I'd usually tip twice: once at the beginning of my stay (to keep the maids motivated) and once at the end (if the service was good).

Airfoilsguy wrote:Denny's, DENNY'S!!!! God god, I thought you were more civilized than that.

It was convenient and clean, and and they don't discriminate at this particular one (I don't think, anyway) so it was OK. I guess we could have gone to Hooters, but you can't even hear yourself think in that place because they keep the music too damned loud and we were talking business. Speaking of Hooters, I rarely am able to tip anything there because the bubble-heads always screw up something on the order.

Airfoilsguy wrote:

Queso wrote:If you come to my table and just stand there and ask what I want to order when I'm with a table of 4 and you you're too lazy to write it down, you just reduced your tip by at LEAST 50%, even if it ends up being right.

Why do you care if they write it down as long as its correct?

I always thought it was the mark of a good server if they diddnt need to write it down. Especially if they get special orders spot on.

My tipping policy. Walk in the door. 15% automatically. Sliding scale on top of that for how good/bad they were. I've left as much as 25% and as little as nothing coupled with a call to the manager (and have never been back since). I used to work in a restaurant and know how people are and know what its like to need tips, so I tend to be a little more forgiving imo. But I also tend to be more subjective at times, such as when a place isnt busy and errors are made, etc.

One other thing about tipping. . . .

If it's a place I go often, I tip in cash. That way the IRS idiots can't get their hands on it. And if it's a place they pool the tips (I hate that), then cash directly to the servers hand . . . never to the 'pool'.

Otherwise, tips are on a credit card with the cost of the purchase.

ANCFlyer wrote:One other thing about tipping. . . .

If it's a place I go often, I tip in cash. That way the IRS idiots can't get their hands on it. And if it's a place they pool the tips (I hate that), then cash directly to the servers hand . . . never to the 'pool'.

Not writing down an order is cute and fluffy, but it makes me nervous for the entire time I'm waiting for the food. I've experienced too many screwed-up orders from a waiter trying to impress me with his faulty memory skills. Expecting a major screw-up in the order, especially if I don't have the time to wait for them do a reorder, is nerve-wracking. Write it down. That impresses me more.

captoveur wrote:
I went someplace the other day where they filled in the tip for me on credit card recipt. They were going to get more, but they hosed themselves.

Any indication of hinting/asking for a tip will result in a shitty tip.

Also, don't decide to get cute and flirty when you're delivering the check after you've ignored me for the last hour. The "check delivery suck-up" guarantees 2 things-a bad, if any tip and a long time until you'll see any of my money again.

15% and like others, more for good service, less for bad.

Queso wrote:Speaking of Hooters, I rarely am able to tip anything there because the bubble-heads always screw up something on the order.

I HATE Hooters. The bimbos think because they are eye-candy they can be stupid - and most of them are I've found...... not to mention the food isn't all that great.