Hotel van tipping etiquette

ClarkGriswold said:
Rode in a cab the other day in NYC with another pilot. Cab driver drove like a lunatic, swore and yelled at the radio/other cars the whole way. When we dropped the other guy off first he paid the amount due before getting out. Cab driver rolls the window down and yells "what no tip pal?!" Unbelievable.
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I think in NYC the culturally appropriate response is "that's right jackass!" With a raised middle finger. It's not rude, it's just the way they communicate.
 
I tip my van drivers unless they are rude, dangerous, or some weird reason. If I have to wait that doesn't change the tip, mainly because sometimes it isn't their fault and at the end of the day it's just a buck.

However, tipping has gotten absurd. The other day I bought a cup of coffee, $2. She handed me an empty cup and pointed towards where I could fill it up. There was a tip jar and a spot to tip on the receipt. Yeah, I'm not tipping there. I bought a 2 donuts a few months back, she handed me the slip to sign and said "don't forget to tip". What the hell is going on, you handed me two donuts which were within an arms length from where you are. If we're tipping for that I should get tipped for handing you back your pen and signed receipt. I don't tip for these kinds of things.

As someone else said, I tip wait staff, van drivers, delivery drivers, and bar tenders.
 
Ajax said:
I tip my van drivers unless they are rude, dangerous, or some weird reason. If I have to wait that doesn't change the tip, mainly because sometimes it isn't their fault and at the end of the day it's just a buck.

However, tipping has gotten absurd. The other day I bought a cup of coffee, $2. She handed me an empty cup and pointed towards where I could fill it up. There was a tip jar and a spot to tip on the receipt. Yeah, I'm not tipping there. I bought a 2 donuts a few months back, she handed me the slip to sign and said "don't forget to tip". What the hell is going on, you handed me two donuts which were within an arms length from where you are. If we're tipping for that I should get tipped for handing you back your pen and signed receipt. I don't tip for these kinds of things.

As someone else said, I tip wait staff, van drivers, delivery drivers, and bar tenders.
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I tip baristas because I haunt the same 3 coffee stands and it's always good to be on good terms with your regulars.
 
Roger Roger said:
I tip baristas because I haunt the same 3 coffee stands and it's always good to be on good terms with your regulars.
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I'm not against tipping a barista that makes a drink. If I'm getting something that involves steaming, mixing, etc that's fine. A caramel machiatto, yeah I might tip especially if they make a good one. If I get a medium cup of black coffee, I'm not tipping for pulling a spout for 3 seconds.
 
Pilot Fighter said:
With regards to van drivers, I think we tip for the next guy.

If pilots tip well as a whole, we get treated well as a whole. From time to time, one of us is going to need a favor from a van driver and is going to benefit from our collective reputation.
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This winter our company gave us a hotel after a cancellation however in the typical winter storm O'Hare meltdown the hotel sold ours prior to our arrival. A crew from another airline and us were there, 8 of us, in the lobby, with our respective companies trying to find us a place to go, with our seemingly best option being to go clear back to the airport so we could grab the van to the place having rooms, in the storm, because cabs and uber were totally snarled.

Hotel van guy sees us all on phones and volunteered once we figured out where we were going to take us direct to the other hotel, all of us, wherever it may be. Guy pulls out, explains to a couple their flight isn't going anywhere anyway, and proceeded to fight the traffic and storm to the other place prior to doing his scheduled airport run. Probably got us to dinner, beer and bed 2+ hours earlier.

So yeah I think your right, for what ends up being about $30. a month we have some allies out on the road, not too bad.
 
Ajax said:
I'm not against tipping a barista that makes a drink. If I'm getting something that involves steaming, mixing, etc that's fine. A caramel machiatto, yeah I might tip especially if they make a good one. If I get a medium cup of black coffee, I'm not tipping for pulling a spout for 3 seconds.
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Yeah, I'm the same way, but I tip a bartender for opening a bottle and giving a cold glass, or simply pulling a handle.....

Maybe because I was a bartender and never a barista?

Seriously, woman uses a church key to pop the top off a bottle I give her a buck. She turns and puts hot liquid in a paper cup....NOTHING....

I should think about this.
 
I was a barista and I didn't expect a $1 tip from everyone, but I definitely liked seeing people throw their change in the tip jar. It adds up and everyone splits it at the end of the day. My hourly pay went from $8.50 to $11 on a good day when I added in the tips. If I pay in cash I throw my change in their just because I don't want to carry around coins.
 
Cazadores said:
Yeah, I'm the same way, but I tip a bartender for opening a bottle and giving a cold glass, or simply pulling a handle.....

Maybe because I was a bartender and never a barista?

Seriously, woman uses a church key to pop the top off a bottle I give her a buck. She turns and puts hot liquid in a paper cup....NOTHING....

I should think about this.
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I agree it does seem odd.

I think bar tenders are considered tipped employees so their wages are lower because they depend on tips, while baristas are, to my knowledge, paid a non tipped hourly rate ~3x higher.
 
In WA there's no such thing as a tipping wage. Seattle min wage is about to be $15/hr in a few years. I'm absolutely not tipping the barista that pours me coffee. That's what they were hired to do.

I tip the van drivers out of convention cause I don't want to be the weird one in the van, but I disagree with it. :p
 
I'm an above average tipper when it comes to personal expenses. I'm an excellent tipper when it comes to business-related expenses. Why not be an excellent tipper when it's tax deductible?

Life can be tough when you have a tip-driven job. If $3 on a $15 tab is good or average, I'm tipping $5. If everybody did the same, a crappy job might turn into a good job. That's my flavor of social consciousness.
 
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Had a new captain on the ER get in an argument with a taxi driver in Accra one night over the fare/tip. We let him go on for a few minutes then pointed out that the U.S. equivalent of the Cedi amount he was arguing about was about .35 cents. Needless to say, he quickly ponied up and we went on our way.
 
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My first thought when I read the title
 
Dphoenix said:
In WA there's no such thing as a tipping wage. Seattle min wage is about to be $15/hr in a few years. I'm absolutely not tipping the barista that pours me coffee. That's what they were hired to do.

I tip the van drivers out of convention cause I don't want to be the weird one in the van, but I disagree with it. :p
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If the min wage goes to 15/hr then I think tipping should come to an end. The only reason it's gotten as ridiculous as it has now is we are subsidizing their low wages with tips. That's not our job. The corporate/owner should pay them their due hourly wage, and then a tip should be a true extra-income deal which the employer, nor the government get to touch. But that's not the current system.
 
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Nark said:
Seeing that this conversation is shifting this way...

What was the name of the Seattle company that was going to pay every employee $75K a year, or along those lines?
Didn't they shut the doors due to lack of productivity?

Here is the link that revisits the company a few months after the social experiment gone array.
http://dailycaller.com/2015/08/02/ceo-who-raised-minimum-salary-to-70k-falls-on-hard-times/
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I read a Bloomberg article on the CEO and company a few months ago, as far as I know they are still on track. The co-owner was pissed about something and they split ways involving a lawsuit however.
 
I read that Bloomberg article as well. They are still in business but, 2 of the top people left because lack of reward for output. They received little or no raise, yet new hires immediately got $70 G's

Which I think really bodes well for this topic. Why are we tipping for disastrous service, because of convention or social obligation? I like Japans ethos on tipping: none.

I'm old school I guess. Hard work deserves reward. However I'm not naive to think all hard work will result in reward.
 
There was a discussion about that company in the $15 min wage thread. Since the increase, although yes 2 of the top people left because they didn't like seeing their fellow man better off at no cost to them, the company has added 20 new employees and signed on several new clients. They are doing very well.


And in regards to tipping service staff, although I don't know if it applies to baristas, restaurants have a different min wage which is like $2.50/hr because the waiters and waitresses make most of their money in tips. Basically the customer subsidizes their salary in the hope they won't spit in our food.
 
I have given some serious consideration to driving for a hotel part time after seeing how much they make in tips. Most vans can hold 8-12 peeps and if each tips $1, that adds up nicely quickly. Seeing some of wads of cash they have tucked in the cup holder makes it very tempting.
 
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