How much do you tip while dining? About This Page:

[MayraLR]

I start at 15% and go from there.

[Pretty Kitty]

Actually I attempted to explain. My husband paid him and I was across the table and called to him to explain but he won't come over. I even tried after we got up to leave by going to where he was standing and he turned his back on me and said something about cheapskates.

[CinderAbby]

Originally Posted by Pretty Kitty

Actually I attempted to explain. My husband paid him and I was across the table and called to him to explain but he won't come over. I even tried after we got up to leave by going to where he was standing and he turned his back on me and said something about cheapskates.

Then he wasn't worth explaining too and he probably wouldn't have understood anyway even if he did give you the chance.

[DizneyCommando]

20% minimum. I always marvel at those that get wrapped around the axle with the 15%, 18%, pre tax, post tax minutiae. Its only a couple of dollars one way or the other.

I must say, it hurt a little when I had to drop a hundred dollars in tip alone after a fantastic dinner at Artist Point. But the waiter had earned it.

[Teresa]

I have a theory:
I did not go into food service, ever, no matter how desperate for funds I/we were for one reason: it's a thankless job and I don't want to do it. Therefore, I need to truly appreciate the people who are willing to put up with my odd orders, who know what they're doing, and are making an attempt. By odd orders I mean things like this: "I would like an unsweetened iced tea please. No lemons in it, but a BOWL of lemons on the side."

We actually have a kind of point system. All servers start at 10 points. They are added to or deducted depending on things that THE SERVER has control over; my drink sat empty for 30 minutes while you conversed with your buddy/someone who was of the opposite sex/your family at the table next to me? you get 2-4 points deducted. My drink was empty for all of 3 minutes before you not only noticed it was empty but refilled it? 2-4 points added. bonus points if you noticed I need more lemons and brought them also. Cold plates, cold food = points deducted. Tells me you didn't check to see when plates were ready very often. hot plates/hot food = added points. Got the order correct? Points. Realized when I asked you to NOT stop and ask if we liked our food every 30 seconds I meant it? Points. At WDW we always use the Deluxe plan. I deduct points from servers who try to convince us to buy more food just because it's on our plan. I'm okay with suggestions, but if they keep it up, we deduct. We had a server once who not only kept suggesting items after we told him to stop, he just brought them out!! There were 17 of us, so he brought out 17 appetizers after we had said we wanted NONE. He didn't get tipped: he got fired!

At the end of the night, as a family we'll add up the points and agree on a percentage together. We rarely tip less than 20%, and usually more like 25-30%. Good service should be rewarded, but so should bad service be punished. Never, ever do I refuse to tip, but I have been known to leave 1%.

[jlhill4444]

We tip from 20% and go up or down from there. Both DH and I have worked on tips before and we know how hard the job is. DH is also a professor of Hospitality Management, so he is constantly critiquing everyone from the hostess, to the server and the management staff. He can't help himself. When he was the GM of a private golf and country club he would offer jobs to servers that really impressed him from our area.

It is a very hard job that can be very rewarding if you are good at it, if not then the server needs to be told why the tip was sub-par so he/she can correct it in the future if they so desire.

[kangelop]

I typically tip 15% but someone who is friendly always gets extra. I hate when waiters/waitresses won't smile and engage in conversation (I do understand when people are too busy)!

[DizneyCommando]

Originally Posted by Teresa

I have a theory:
I did not go into food service, ever, no matter how desperate for funds I/we were for one reason: it's a thankless job and I don't want to do it. Therefore, I need to truly appreciate the people who are willing to put up with my odd orders, who know what they're doing, and are making an attempt. By odd orders I mean things like this: "I would like an unsweetened iced tea please. No lemons in it, but a BOWL of lemons on the side."

We actually have a kind of point system. All servers start at 10 points. They are added to or deducted depending on things that THE SERVER has control over; my drink sat empty for 30 minutes while you conversed with your buddy/someone who was of the opposite sex/your family at the table next to me? you get 2-4 points deducted. My drink was empty for all of 3 minutes before you not only noticed it was empty but refilled it? 2-4 points added. bonus points if you noticed I need more lemons and brought them also. Cold plates, cold food = points deducted. Tells me you didn't check to see when plates were ready very often. hot plates/hot food = added points. Got the order correct? Points. Realized when I asked you to NOT stop and ask if we liked our food every 30 seconds I meant it? Points. At WDW we always use the Deluxe plan. I deduct points from servers who try to convince us to buy more food just because it's on our plan. I'm okay with suggestions, but if they keep it up, we deduct. We had a server once who not only kept suggesting items after we told him to stop, he just brought them out!! There were 17 of us, so he brought out 17 appetizers after we had said we wanted NONE. He didn't get tipped: he got fired!

At the end of the night, as a family we'll add up the points and agree on a percentage together. We rarely tip less than 20%, and usually more like 25-30%. Good service should be rewarded, but so should bad service be punished. Never, ever do I refuse to tip, but I have been known to leave 1%.

Do you really actually do all this mental gymnastics while you are trying to enjoy a good meal with your loved ones?

Personally, I would rather err on the side of leaving too generous a tip and console myself with the thought that it might help pay my waitress's electric bill or buy her baby some formula.

But that's me.

[Pax]

At WDW:

• Abysmal service: 0% and a word with the manager;
• Substandard service: 10%
• Expected service: 20%
• Extraordinary service: 30% and a commendation to the manager
• +5% if it's especially busy
• Minimum of $2 to $3 for any % tip.
• Always round up to the next $1.

Buffet or "traditional" TS doesn't matter to me - both work as hard to make my experience "just right", so both are equally deserving of remuneration.

In general, I also add more on Holidays. In fact, I still remember one year, when I had a bit of a financial windfall and told my mother and grandmother that I, all of nineteen, was taking them out for Thanksgiving dinner (at my grandmother's favorite-of-all-time restaurant, the Greenridge Turkey Farm in Nashua NH ... which sadly no longer exists; there's a big B&N where it used to be). It was an absolute mad-house - two to three hour wait time to get a table, plus they were slightly understaffed (I think they were short one server - I forget why, it's been over 20 years after all). And despite how busy it was, despite us being three peopel seated at a table that could have taken a party of 6-8 without undue crowding ... our server was AMAZING. I have never had better service, before nor since. We had refills showing up at the table as we were putting a just-emptied glass down, she was that good. Everything was remembered perfectly for our order, and she even sent one plate back to teh kitchen before it got to us, because she personally remembered our order well enough to spot the error herself.

When I was waitign in the lobby for my mother to bring the car around to the covered portico (my grandmother was in the middle of a chemo regimen, and it had started to rain - we wanted no risk of her getting sick!), that server came out to thank me profusely and wish me a wonderful Thanksgiving and holiday. Nwo me, being clueless at nineteen, I just smiled pleasantly and said "You too, and thanks for making our thanksgiving meal so great!"

Two miles down the road, I realised what had happened. Remember, this was almost a quarter century ago (eep, I feel old), when 15% was still the standard for "good service". Well, I had thought "tack on another 5% because she was VRY good, and heck, another 5% because it's a holiday and she's here serving us, instead of home with her family". And then I had a Math Error, and accidentally left a fifty percent tip. Yes, 50%, instead of the 25% I'd intended. On a sixty or seventy dollar tab (it'd likely be a $100 tab, and thus a $50 tip, nowadays).

But, to my credit? When my mother asked (hesitantly) if I wanted to go back, I said "No, no, not at all, it IS a holiday and she was amazingly good. At least now I know why she tracked us down to thank me ... I must have made her whole day!!"


...


And ever since then? I've taken great pleasure in being as generous a tipper as my finances permit. And if I can't afford to leave up to a 25% tip? IMO, I can't afford to eat there at all. Period, end of story.

Originally Posted by WillCAD

WillCAD's Four Simple Rules for Being a Good Restaurant Patron:

Excellent rules in general. Please permit me to add:

1a. Make their cleanup as easy as possible.
Gather and stack your used dishes and silverware when you're done with them - with an eye to ease-of-carry. The less time your server needs to spend collecting plates and spoons, the more time they can spend on making sure you've gotten everything you want, and enjoyed it all. (Plus, we've received countless expressions of gratitude from servers when we show this simple, easy gesture of appreciation.) Besides, it'll get all those things out of your way so you can relax with an after-dinner cup of coffee, or whatever you prefer.

[Pax]

Originally Posted by Pretty Kitty

He was not happy with the amount of tip he received. He went and told another waitress what happened in a loud enough voice that several patrons besides us heard it. I was humilated.

Originally Posted by Pretty Kitty

Actually I attempted to explain. My husband paid him and I was across the table and called to him to explain but he won't come over. I even tried after we got up to leave by going to where he was standing and he turned his back on me and said something about cheapskates.

... and that's when the "have an unplesant word with the manager" comes into play, because his behavior was absolutely unacceptible - unprofessional, impolite, and a discredit to the establishment itself.

A server should, to the customer's face and anywhere any customer might overhear them, be unfailingly polite and as cheerful as their life circumstances permit. That's a server's job: "service with a smile".

What he did was none of that. He was an insolent, rude, p!ssy S.O.B. ... whose employment as waitstaff should, IMO, have been re-considered by the management at that restaurant.

[BethC]

We do 20% also unless really bad service or really great service. We also follow WillCad's "rules". I have left a server less than 10% only once. It was because I paid my bill and left my tip. The people I was with didn't leave a tip at all so I left the little money I had left for their tip. The server knew what I was doing and knew I had no extra money (I was counting my pennies). She actually tried to refuse my "2nd" tip but I wouldn't let her. She did really appreciate the less then 10% tip anyways.

[Principessa_di_Fata]

I've waited tables on and off for 18 years, and for me, it's always been 20% or more for tips (whether it be a buffet or a table-service). The server would have to be rude and truly visibly lazy for me to tip less, just because I have been in those front lines before (and currently I am serving on the side, for extra vacation money). Obviously there are exceptions to everything, but that's my rule of thumb. And for extraordinary service, I leave more.

Everyone has different views on tipping, and that's just how life is! But I have regularly experienced cheap tippers, and in the service industry and it's disheartening and frustrating to work so hard to get a lousy few bucks. Fortunately, there are good tippers out there that make up the difference, and I try to be one of those wherever I can (as deserved, of course).

[Teresa]

Originally Posted by DizneyCommando

Do you really actually do all this mental gymnastics while you are trying to enjoy a good meal with your loved ones?

Personally, I would rather err on the side of leaving too generous a tip and console myself with the thought that it might help pay my waitress's electric bill or buy her baby some formula.

But that's me.

It's not hard. And I don't do it constantly throughout the meal, we just know.
I always keep in mind that wait staff are paid much less than minimum wage, on the assumption they will make quite a bit in tips. If they want to pay their electric bill or buy formula, they should work as if they care. I don't expect them to be perfect - I do expect them to take pride in a job well done. If they need to write things down, that's okay. I'm impressed if they remember all the orders of the table without writing them down, but I don't deduct for it.

I actually came on to say: right after I posted my response last night, we went out to eat. For the first time EVER, we contemplated leaving a 2.5% tip. Worst waiter ever - and we gave him multiple chances to do well. A few things he did: messed up our drink orders, and then argued with us when we told him the UNsweetened iced tea we ordered was sweetened (kind of important when DH is a diabetic), the rootbeer was actually Dr. Pepper (he actually said maybe we confused the taste), and he told me I had NOT ordered lemons!! (the entire family said "yes, she did"!) Our food orders were ALL incorrect, one down to the type of meat. He'd walk by, say "Oh, you need rolls." or "I'll get you a refill" and disappear for quite awhile, only to reappear with rolls and give them to the table next to ours (who already had rolls) or act surprised we didn't have any drinks. Our appetizer and salad plates sat (stacked by us, for ease of removal) on the table for the ENTIRE meal. There were periods of time we didn't see him at all - sometimes up to 20 minutes. We ended up leaving him 10%, but it was a hard decision.

[Pretty Kitty]

The issue where a server comes by, sees you need something, says they will get it and you don't see them until whenever they appear, that will cause me to deduct from a tip faster than anything( except when I realize the server has other customer running him ragged/large serving area or something like that. I tend to be more willing to give them a chance) else.