Tipping guide
With the size of monetary incentives, the situation is quite simple: there is a limit below which it is simply indecent to fall. But how to tip is a delicate question: much depends on the cultural, social and economic characteristics of a particular country. “Customers ask tour operators a lot of small questions about the country where they are going, but never consult about tips,” says Irina Tyurina, editor-in-chief of the travel portal Rata News. Each country has its own culture of tipping.
Vitaly Lungin, the owner of a florist salon in St. Petersburg, dealt with the tip system in a Las Vegas hotel experimentally. The maid stubbornly did not take the coins left on the nightstand. I thought it might be impolite to leave a little change in my tea, so I put in $2 the next day. In the evening I found them in their former place. This continued until I left $10, and then it turned out that the maids usually leave $2 a day, and in this rather expensive hotel – even more. To put such an experiment in South Africa, Tunisia and Morocco is not worth it: the staff of local hotels is forbidden to take the money left, the tip is handed over to the maid in person.
In English pubs, it is not customary to leave a tip in cash, but you can always "treat" the bartender with a drink, the cost of which will be recorded on your account. In the Czech Republic and Germany just round the bill amount in a big way - the money must be invested in the account brought by the waiter or at least cover with a napkin. “Leaving money for everyone to see is just indecent,” says Anastasia Patrysheva, co-owner of the website Travel.ru. And in beauty salons in the Middle East, the client should encourage everyone who touches his hair: a head washer, masters of haircuts, coloring, styling.
Tipping, of course, is voluntary, but not quite. If in an American restaurant you enter less than 10% in the bill, you may be approached by a manager with a seemingly innocent question about what exactly you did not like about the service. Tipping “good” customers in America is up to 25% of the order amount. “There you have to pay everywhere and everyone. Even drivers of free shuttles, even in McDonald’s, would be nice to leave $1-2, says Patrysheva. Still, a sense of reality must be maintained, advises Yuri Katsnelson, president of the Russian Bakers and Confectioners Guild, who travels extensively across America: “Big tips are common practice in the United States.” Taxi drivers, for example, are paid, and a lot. But when one of them said that I owed him a dollar for every suitcase and every open door, I quickly put him in his place.”
In Japan, it is not customary to leave for tea, the tips offered can offend a person: it is the duty of every Japanese to work well, and it is shameful to receive additional monetary reward for this. A survey conducted among the population of Japan showed that due to the need to pay a tip, Japanese even travel less than they would like.
As a rule, the poorer the country, the more relevant the question of tips. In Turkey, South Africa and Cuba, service personnel work only for tips with very little or no pay. In some ways it is even easier: tips you will not forget. “In Cuba,” says Evgeny Gindylis, the general producer of TVINDI, “all the locals know perfectly well how much, for what and from whom they are owed.” In case they remind you. This is their main source of livelihood.”
In fact, a tip is a thank you to the customer for good service. What if you didn't like it? Even if the service fee is already included in the bill, there is a way to indicate your position. In France, for example, it is customary to leave the smallest coin on the table: the waiter will understand you. “There are cases when it is inconvenient not to give a tip,” says Irina Tyurina, “but there is no situation when it would be inconvenient to half this amount.” Tyurin once accompanied the group on a trip to Israel. “We had the opportunity to visit Bethlehem. It is located in the Arab territory, only its guides work there. We were unlucky, our guide spoke in stamps, made gross mistakes, and then she told me, as the senior in the group, to collect tips for her. Of course I refused her.”
When it comes to how much to pay, people mostly rely on their own intuition, rarely thinking about what it can fail – each country has its own unspoken rules. To help readers not get trapped, Forbes compiled a tip guide.
Source: http://www.forbesrussia.ru/stil-zhizni/puteshestviya/14474-gid-po-chaevym-skolko-komu-i-kak-platit