To tip or not to tip: the countries you don't have to leave it and those where giving it is an outrage
Where tipping is mandatory and where tipping is an insult
United States of America
New Zealand
Japan
South Korea
China
Australia
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'To tip or not to tip?' To paraphrase Hamlet, this is the doubt (Hamletic, indeed) that seizes many tourists around the world when it comes to leave (or not) a tip at the restaurant, after a cab ride, when they bring his bags to his room. Along with another (dubious) one: How much to tip?
In all European countries and in most countries around the world, the rules are quite elastic. In Europe, for example, no one will chase you out of the club or give you dirty looks if you at the end of a lunch or dinner you will leave nothing to the waiter who served you. However, if the venue is of a good standard or if the service was particularly attentive or friendly, Leaving the equivalent of 10% of the account is a nice gesture. Most online tipping sites also recommend it.
Ditto for the cab rides. Rounding up the meter figure is especially appropriate if the driver has been asked to take a particular route. By how much? A reasonable thing may be, for example, leave 25 euro if the cost of the ride is between 20 and 25 euro or 30 euro if it is between 25 and 30 euro.
In hotels, 5 to 10 euros are more than enough for those who have there carried luggage from the lobby to the room and has, perhaps, explained to you some of the room's equipment and the operation of the air conditioner or heating controller.
Similar rules apply roughly across most of the planet, from South America to Africa to the Middle East. However, according to visualcapitalist.com, there are countries where restaurant service is already included in the bill for food and drink. In Europe, they do this. at Switzerland, Belgium, Finland and Iceland. In Latin America in Brazil, Ecuador, Colombia and Chile. Caribbean, in the Bahamas. Asia, Iran, the Maldives, and Thailand.
It is in North America, and in particular in the United States, where tipping is a kind of 'compassionate religion' towards workers, such as those in restaurants, who receive allegedly derisory hourly wages (and the tourist, even more rightly if he is a foreigner, wonders 'why do I have to be the one to redress the social injustices in this country?').
Online there are sites according to which a tip, in the U.S., should not be denied to anyone. Fortunately for us, we do not live there, and the areas where we have to pull out a few extra dollars are rather limited.
What no one escapes from is the so-called 'sit down restaurant,' that is, the restaurant where you sit, order and are served. There the etiquette would have it that The 'tip' is between 15 and 20% of the account amount. However, those who have traveled to the U.S. in recent years will have realized that, especially in large cities and tourist locations, the bill already comes with the 'suggested tip': 15%, 18%, 20%, 25%. And the patron has only to tick off one of the possibilities. In the most exorbitant restaurants, the minimum 'suggested' tip starts at 18%. Of course, one is free to leave not a single dollar behind.
It may be the case that the restaurant (or even the hotel) is equipped with free valet parking: in this case, 5-10 dollars to the valet are sufficient. For a cab ride (or by Uber or Lyft), it goes back to the percentages: 10-15% (which, for example, in the case of a commute from JFK or Newark to Manhattan, is not a small amount of money).
E In the hotel what do you do? It is a good idea to reward those who take it upon themselves to bring your bags to your room, the concierge who gives you some good tips about a restaurant or show, and even who will redo your room: in this case, more than one site indicates in 2-5 dollars the daily tip, to leave every day because, experts explain, it could be a different person taking care of your room every day, especially in very large hotels.
If the United States (but also Canada) is a country founded on tipping, there are others in which you won't even have to venture to pull out your wallet, if you don't want to slight who has just finished serving you at the table, taken you to your destination, or responded competently to your request. Mostly, these countries are scattered between the Far East and Oceania. In Japan, Korea, China, Taiwan and Singapore, leaving a tip is considered an offensive gesture To be avoided at all costs. At the restaurant, is equally valid Australia, New Zealand and some islands to Pacific archipelagos, such as Fiji, Samoa and Vanuatu.
In short, when in country, it's best to find out how things work over there before you leave, although we've already given you some good tips.
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