Group travel and tipping question

[Harpy Eagle]

Good morning all,

My wife and I are doing a 12 day group tour of Scotland at the end of April. It is our first time doing this sort of traveling and wanted to see how it was.

I am assuming that it is customary to tip the tour manager at the end of the tour and was just wondering if anyone has experience with this and what would be a reasonable amount.

Thanks in advance

 

[braumeister]

It depends on the company you're traveling with.
I know that some of them recommend $20 a day but there is no specific rule in most cases.

 

[OldConch]

Tipping policies should be outlined in the trip notes or FAQs. On our Rick Steves tour in Spain all tips were included in the cost of the tour. We didn't tip any additional. All of our Intrepid Travel and G Adventures trips have had a suggested range for tips and we usually tip at the high end of that range.

Loved Scotland. In addition to an 8 day tour of the Highlands we spent 4 nights in Glasgow and 8 days walking the West Highland Way. Paesano Pizza on Miller Street in Glasgow is the best pizza we've ever had.

Safe travels!

 

[BigNick]

$20 per person per day for a 12-day tour with 20 people on it would be $4800 for the tour guide, which is probably about three times what they are making in salary for that period. That seems like quite a lot, especially since each person will have had 1/20th of the guide's individual attention (but obviously there is benefit from their efforts on behalf of the collective too).

I would say, work out what you would tip as a couple if you had had the guide to yourself, divide that by the number of couples, and then add 20-30% to cover the cheapskates.

 

[marko]

$20 per person per day for a 12-day tour with 20 people on it would be $4800 for the tour guide, which is probably about three times what they are making in salary for that period. That seems like quite a lot, especially since each person will have had 1/20th of the guide's individual attention (but obviously there is benefit from their efforts on behalf of the collective too).

I would say, work out what you would tip as a couple if you had had the guide to yourself, divide that by the number of couples, and then add 20-30% to cover the cheapskates.

If I had a personal guide to myself for a fantastic 12 day tour, I'd probably expect to tip him/her about $4,000 or $5000 for the two of us.

Almost two weeks of having someone shuttle you around, plan your meals, arrange transportation, lodging and logistics? What...give him $50 bucks and a warm handshake?

I've paid a $500 tip for a chef to come into the island villa we were renting and cook one night for six of us. Memorable!

That's like tipping a waiter based on how many tables he has and deciding that he should only get $10 on a $200 meal because he's going to make too much money from 20 tables that night.

A friend of mine was a ski instructor at Vail. He told me that all the resorts share guest information on bad tippers or difficult customers. If you end up on that list, suddenly getting a reservation later is next to impossible.

Twenty bucks a day is a bargain IMO. Don't be the cheapskate!

 

[braumeister]

Almost two weeks of have someone shuttle you around, plan your meals, arrange transportation, lodging and logistics? What...give him $50 bucks and a warm handshake?

It's easy to overlook all that a good tour guide does for you. I appreciate it greatly and I don't have any problem tipping generously. I've seen $20/day, or 10% of the trip cost, or any number of other rules of thumb. Most trip outfits will have a FAQ on their site with a suggested tip amount, but of course everyone is free to interpret that as they like. Tour guides work hard, and often have to deal with very difficult group members.

 

[Koolau]

Tip what you feel it was worth.

 

[Sunset]

I would look up the FAQ's, etc for the tour company website.
I recall, on the Viking river cruise, the tour director (he was involved and on the ground fixing and tending to our needs when excursions went sideways) towards the last day reminded folks about tipping for the staff, but to not to tip him.

 

[BigNick]

If I had a personal guide to myself for a fantastic 12 day tour, I'd probably expect to tip him/her about $4,000 or $5000 for the two of us.

Almost two weeks of having someone shuttle you around, plan your meals, arrange transportation, lodging and logistics? What...give him $50 bucks and a warm handshake?

I've paid a $500 tip for a chef to come into the island villa we were renting and cook one night for six of us. Memorable!

That's like tipping a waiter based on how many tables he has and deciding that he should only get $10 on a $200 meal because he's going to make too much money from 20 tables that night.

A friend of mine was a ski instructor at Vail. He told me that all the resorts share guest information on bad tippers or difficult customers. If you end up on that list, suddenly getting a reservation later is next to impossible.

Twenty bucks a day is a bargain IMO. Don't be the cheapskate!

I guess we Europeans have a different take on it. We don't tip waiters (or if we do, it's a small amount of money, not a percentage) because their salary and benefits are built in to the price of the meal. Likewise when we book a tour with a guide, it's made clear that the guide's time is paid for as part of the trip. I'm not going to pay several hundred dollars on top of that, any more than I am going to tip my mechanic or the gas repair man. A tip to us is a nice gesture, not a necessary income top-up.

Of course, when I'm in the US I tip at least 20%, but that's because I've chosen to play the game of "Eating in a US restaurant" where those rules apply. But I never make the amount of my tip conditional on the emotional labor performed by the server, any more than I would deduct money from the bill in Europe if the service wasn't very good. I even wrote a blog post about this: Don't stiff people who live from tips

(And of course, what constitutes "good" service varies dramatically. If a French or Spanish waiter were to perform even one-third of the amount of interaction with their (European) customers as American servers do with theirs, the diners would think it weird. Phrases like "Please leave us alone --- if we need anything we'll call you" and "Why have you brought me the check when I didn't ask for it?" would be used. )

 

[marko]

I guess we Europeans have a different take on it. We don't tip waiters (or if we do, it's a small amount of money, not a percentage) because their salary and benefits are built in to the price of the meal. Likewise when we book a tour with a guide, it's made clear that the guide's time is paid for as part of the trip. I'm not going to pay several hundred dollars on top of that, any more than I am going to tip my mechanic or the gas repair man. A tip to us is a nice gesture, not a necessary income top-up.

Of course, when I'm in the US I tip at least 20%, but that's because I've chosen to play the game of "Eating in a US restaurant" where those rules apply. But I never make the amount of my tip conditional on the emotional labor performed by the server, any more than I would deduct money from the bill in Europe if the service wasn't very good. I even wrote a blog post about this: Don't stiff people who live from tips

(And of course, what constitutes "good" service varies dramatically. If a French or Spanish waiter were to perform even one-third of the amount of interaction with their (European) customers as American servers do with theirs, the diners would think it weird. Phrases like "Please leave us alone --- if we need anything we'll call you" and "Why have you brought me the check when I didn't ask for it?" would be used. )

I know. We lived in Paris for almost a decade and in Asia for a few more where again, tipping is not the standard. I'm happy to hear that you're one of the few Europeans who doesn't "forget" to tip when in the US.

 

[athena53]

The group I use, Overseas Adventure Travel, suggests $10-$14 per person per day.

I've learned to ask the guide before the trip (they always contact each traveler) what currency they prefer. Last year I was in Central America and I assumed I'd be able to find an ATM within walking distance in Belize, our last stop. Nope. The one I finally did find (the guide suggested one that turned out to be in a hotel which was being demolished) wasn't working. He already knew PayPal wouldn't work. I ended up trying to send it through Western Union (he had to enter his bank info on my phone) but it wouldn't go through- Fidelity and Western Union blamed each other. After I got home I called my broker at UBS. Guide had to send me his info AGAIN but in one day he had the money- at no fee to me. I added a little extra for all the hassle he went through. Last trip started and ended in Sweden, which is virtually cashless. Guide said $US or Euros were fine. Now I bring the tip with me and hide it well. Lesson learned.

 

[marko]

The group I use, Overseas Adventure Travel, suggests $10-$14 per person per day.

I've learned to ask the guide before the trip (they always contact each traveler) what currency they prefer. Last year I was in Central America and I assumed I'd be able to find an ATM within walking distance in Belize, our last stop. Nope. The one I finally did find (the guide suggested one that turned out to be in a hotel which was being demolished) wasn't working. He already knew PayPal wouldn't work. I ended up trying to send it through Western Union (he had to enter his bank info on my phone) but it wouldn't go through- Fidelity and Western Union blamed each other. After I got home I called my broker at UBS. Guide had to send me his info AGAIN but in one day he had the money- at no fee to me. I added a little extra for all the hassle he went through. Last trip started and ended in Sweden, which is virtually cashless. Guide said $US or Euros were fine. Now I bring the tip with me and hide it well. Lesson learned.

Kudos for the extra effort!!! Above and beyond.

 

[Bestwifeever]

The Globus tour we recently took had written guidelines of $10-12 a day for the tour director and $4 a day for the driver, per person. So that's what we tipped (we went with the $12) but in euros. The tour director told us tipping the individual excursion guides was at our discretion--DH took care of that, not sure what he gave them. On the last day, maybe 20 percent of the people blew off the last meeting with the tour director and the driver and I imagine most did it to skip the gratuity.