Tipping

Hi

I%26#39;m heading off on honeymoon in July - Penisula Hotel in Bangkok and Santiburi resort in Koh samui. They are both up market and i%26#39;m now confused what and who to tip. Don’t want to look like an idiot in front of my new wife so can anyone give me advice on who to tip and generally how much? Should I tip the concierge for better service for example.

Thanks for your help.

Stu

Tipping

I think you will find that both hotels will include a service charge of 10 per cent.

The Peninsula is one of the world%26#39;s top hotels and the level of service is far higher than you would normally receive in Europe.

I%26#39;ve never used Santiburi but I would expect that service standards will be high.

If you feel the need to tip people for small individual services then remember Bht.20 goes a long way here and will be gratefully received.

If you use taxis then they will already be rooking you so don%26#39;t feel the need to feed the bandits further.

Tipping

tipping is not part of thai culture, they won%26#39;t expect it and for the most part will never go out of their way to earn it. all sales are final doesn%26#39;t matter if its a tv or a meal. all service finishes the moment you have paid your money.

We liked to tip.Most meals will put a service charge on if we had a good meal we And say it was 1230bht we just left 1300.What is 70bht it%26#39;s only a pound.We left the maid 50bht every other day.We got our washing done other there and tipped 100bht.we left the odd 20-50 bht tip for the man at the beach bar but at the end we gave him 500bht.He looked after us really well was so polite and helping if a bug landed in our drinke he just made us another with no extra charge.Lets be honest its only 9 pound.Its up to you they dont expect it but just look how some of them live as you come in from the airport.Some of them don%26#39;t have the basic things we take for granted.I know that is how they live and they are used to it but a few tips go along way.When i put our washing in it came back with one item missing,When i complained they double checked and it had gone.The washing had been passed on to be done and when the sercuity at the hotel came with me she was so upset she wanted to give me money.I believe someone took it before it got to her or it got put in someone elses washing by mistake.She asked how much the top was in the uk.When the receptionest translated it to her she was so upset her face just dropped.She wanted to help me and give me money.Tryed to give me all the monry from her pockets.It nearly made me cry.I couldn%26#39;t take her money for a mistake.She kept thrusting it towards me but i could not take it as all the other washing was so good and neatly ironed.I just wanted them to check to see if they misplaced it.sorry long winded just wanted to make a point that 20 pounds to us is only an hour or 2 wage to them its a week

Tipping is far more widespread than it was when we first went.

You will find that when you get your change it is always broken down so that it encourages you to tip.

what has happened is that too many westerners have tipped too heavily and this has slipped the balance.

I agree with tipping for good service but lets not get like the states where it is expected and more or less demanded.

Costs in sanui are highly inflated to other parts of Thailand. It is no where near as cheap as it was. i totally agree with comment re the taxi drivers.

20-40 baht is the standard tip in Thailand. Tips of 100 baht and 500 baht are obscene. Unskilled jobs pay 200 baht a day. At home, would you tip someone a half day%26#39;s pay? Or more than two days pay?

It%26#39;s immaterial how little this is when converted to your home currency, or how poor you judge the people to be, or what your tipping behaviour is at home. 20 baht buys you lunch from a food cart for example; it may seem like little to you, but it%26#39;s an appropriate amount in Thailand.

Service people at tourist resorts probably expect big tips now that so many western tourists horrendously overtip, but in general they%26#39;re paid to do their jobs and doing a few extra things is part of the culture, not done with a tip in mind. The 20 baht is meant to be a small gratuity, not a percentage of the bill.

In restaurants that charge 10 percent service fee, don%26#39;t tip at all unless you really receive extraordinary service. Give the money personally to the server, don%26#39;t leave it in the cheque wallet. Don%26#39;t tip taxi drivers; round up the fare a few baht (ie from 121 to 125 or 130, for instance). You don%26#39;t have to tip self-employed tour guides; their profit margin is calculated into their fee. And don%26#39;t tip them at all if they drag you to commercial establishments for a commission.

And don%26#39;t tip laundresses who lose your things.

english like to tip , i certainly do if i am happy with a service, you cant say dont tip someone , if anyone wants to tip anyone its up to them how much they want to give

Well, all we can do is inform you what the custom is in the country you%26#39;re visiting. If you choose to ignore it, that%26#39;s your own affair, just like when we tell you not to sunbathe nude or not to walk around town in a singlet.

You don%26#39;t necessarily buy respect or gratitude when you overtip. Just think of what your reaction would be if someone from another country came to your town and started throwing around, say, 100 pound tips. The people being tipped would be sneering at him among themselves.

Or if some group of people arrived and started making a practise of giving out 10 pound tips to the greengrocer, the news agent, the bus driver for just doing their jobs, and those personages started expecting the same from you.

I agree with black russion.We dont think we over tipped when we gave our bar man a 500baht tip.We received great service.I know he gets payed for that but where we come from we like to.Its not a tip i would give for 1 day but he looked after us for 2 weeks.I understand what you say that people might start to expect it or sneer at us it we do tip but thats their choice.I never ment any offence when I said how somw people lived out there.If like you say westerners tip too much and then local people can%26#39;t to that extent.The local people should not expect thais to tip like us if that makes sense.To be honest i would feel like a tight arse if i didn%26#39;t tip 20-50baht after a great meal.I know you say the money differs from home but 50bht is less then a pound we earn that in 5 mins so to us its a very small tip,We tipped the lady who done our washing but didn%26#39;t know something was missimg until my partner brought it back to the hotel otherwise i wouldn%26#39;t of paid her.