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Tipping?

28K views 114 replies 37 participants last post by  RobGallagher 
#1 ·
We're heading for a crewed charter in a couple of days in Maine. We'll have a captain/owner on board. The charter broker said that a 15% gratuity is standard for a good charter. Since we're talking thousands of dollars for the charter fee, we're talking hundreds of dollars for a gratuity. Is this a standard practice for a crewed charter? When the crew is the owner of the boat? Thanks!
 
#3 ·
Yeah, right... they're full of it...
 
#4 · (Edited)
No...that is right...tips are standard for captain and crew on a charter no matter who owns the boat. Tips are generally not calculated on a 15% basis in my experience however. $100-150 bucks each is pretty standard for a week on a sail charter in a 40-60'boat. When you take a cruise ship..you tip. When you go on a fishing charter ..you tip. Same for sail charters with captains. You must be renting SOME boat to have "thousands and thousands of $'s" for 2 days!
But...as with all tipping...you should base YOUR amount on the service YOU receive rather than some arbitrary amount.
 
#5 ·
Tipping, the great mystery ?

It seems that tipping is always a problem with yacht charters. There those people who maintain that an owner/Captain should not be tipped,'after all he owns the yacht and the charter fee goes in his pocket'!
There are those who over tip....yes that happens.. and where it's nice to have happen, it's also embrassing too !!

For the first group of guests, I have to say this.. In most cases they are comfortable tipping a 'Rent a Captain' a few bucks for driving them around, but when it comes to tipping a professional owner/captain there hands get stuck in there pockets. Perhaps it's the fact that the owner has this large yacht that they would also like to own,:confused: or perhaps its an overall state of confusion...:eek: ... what ever the reason, tip the owner if he has meet your expectations of showing you a good time. Just like the 'rent a captian' the owner/captain also lives off tips too!!

So how much ?
15% tip of the charter fee is extremely nice, but way over board. If you had the best time in the world, the service was just incredible, the wind was perfect and the food was to die for then perhaps 10% would be justified. But that would be for the whole boat and given to the captain for distrubution around to the crew.

A much more diplomatic way is to tip each crew something according to there post, when you finish you will most likely have tipped about 5% of the charter fee, a much more resonable amount..

Good luck and have fun, crewed yacht charter is amongst the best ways of having a successful sailing holiday
 
#7 ·
TIPS - To Insure Proper Service. I think the owner/captain already agreed to give proper service when he/she accepted the charter, and your money. Tipping an owner used to be considered an insult. It indicated that you expected less than proper service from THEIR business. Owner/captains don't live off tips, they live off of charter fees and referals. If you feel your charter was a good experiece, give the captain the best tip, refer a friend.
 
#9 ·
Hey, yacht crew here! Yep we get tips when we show people a good time. Very rarely less than ten percent and sometimes a well heeled and appreciative guest goes to 20 percent or more. Most boats the captain splits even steven with the crew. Tipping according to position would suck. A dh works harder than anyone on a well maintained vessel and you probably wouldn't think that "according to position" they deserve a an equal tip to the Captain or the Chef. Plus the dh makes less to start with.

BTW Captain's got that yacht you want only because he is willing to share it with anybody who has the $$. Would you really want to do that?
 
#10 ·
Try this...

Don't tip the boat but do tip the captain and crew.
What I mean is don't base your 15% on the entire cost of the trip, that would mean you are tipping the boat as well as everything else. A good captain gets about $250 per day so tip 15 to 20% of that, $40 per day or so. Figure the mate gets about $150 per day, etc...
 
#11 ·
We all have a working knowledge of what a tip is right? I wouldn't tip the owner of the boat any more than I would tip the owner of a cafe. Their business/reputation depends on their providing good service. If the owner/captain "counts" on tips to make a living, perhaps he/she needs to raise their prices. If their not good enough to demand a higher price for quality service, then they probably don't deserve a tip in the first place. Everyone is stating as fact that you must tip. A tip is a reward, not just the rest of your pay that the customer is responsible to provide.

I do agree that a deckhand works very hard and may deserve a tip at the end of the day if they directly assisst the customer.
 
#12 · (Edited)
You guys are debating the concept of tips...And that's not the question here.

IF tips are customary and expected, on a cruise, a charter, in a bar, cab, or whatever, then you either pony up and follow the custom, or not. If the broker and the locals say "Yes, around here we tip a charter regardless of who is manning it" then that's expected of you.

If you want to make a political statement and stiff them...that's something else again. Getting lowballed and not realizing you need to pay heavy tips (like a first timer on a cruise line may be) can be a shock. But when in Rome...there's a time to make the political statements, and a time to simply do as Romans do.

The broker who placed the charter, indicated there's a price for the charter, with an extra 15% expected if you enjoy the service. Don't think an owner should be tipped? No problem, tell him in advance you want the "fixed price" for the charter, with all gratuities included. He's already told you (effectively) he's willing to gamble 15% on your happiness, think of that as a satisfaction guarantee adjustment. Tell him up front, if you plan to stiff him.
 
#13 ·
hellosailor said:
The broker who placed the charter, indicated there's a price for the charter, with an extra 15% expected if you enjoy the service. Don't think an owner should be tipped? No problem, tell him in advance you want the "fixed price" for the charter, with all gratuities included. He's already told you (effectively) he's willing to gamble 15% on your happiness, think of that as a satisfaction guarantee adjustment. Tell him up front, if you plan to stiff him.
I think hellosailor has a really good point. Cruises / charters are priced (and crew are paid) in a way that assumes tip. If you think tipping is only for exceptional service, then you should probably warn them ahead of time, and they can adjust their prices.

I personally would prefer prices be a bit lower, and I can choose to tip the amount I think the service was worth. If I have a great crew (even if they also own the boat), then I'll pay more than I would for a crummy crew. Seems pretty fair to me.
 
#15 ·
You wouldn't tip the owner of a cafe, so you don't have to tip the owner of the boat? The tip is not for his ownership position, it is for the job of captain. If the owner paid a captain $1,000, that would be $1,000 less profit the owner would get, so in essence, he is simply working for $1,000 per week in lieu of paying someone else. Makes sense to me if he has the time. If the owner of the cafe was your waiter, got your drinks and bussed your table - would you still stiff him? Most owner/captains are small businesses facing boat payments, dock fees, payroll, etc., just like every other small business owner.
 
#16 ·
We recently took a two day sail costing $1000 a day. It was just the owner/skipper and a couple. The owner told us after we signed the two day contract that he expected a 15%-25% tip (in writing) on top of the $1000 a day. The skipper also expected us to take him out to dinner with us and pay. He was an alright skipper, did not know how to trim the sails properly, over trimmed constantly. Boat was fine but old, sheets had holes. He served us a cold breakfast and a sandwich for lunch. We felt that the owner should have stated that he expected a 15-25% on top of the $1000 a day prior to our signing up. I would appreciate your thoughts. Thanks
 
#28 ·
If the captain really did this, and honestly it sounds a bit exaggerated, I would have walked.

No need to argue, sometimes the right response is to tear up the contract and simply walk away. It's never a good idea to deal with a dishonest person.
 
#18 ·
"The owner told us after we signed"
In the auto sales business this is called a "bush". Basically, extorting more money after the agreed sales price.
You have no obligation beyond the original contract and a "tip" is never obligated. It has to be EARNED by superior performance that goes above and beyond the mundane and normal.
I'd take out a new shiny penny and say "See this? " flip it over the side and say "There's your tip, go dive for it."

I do not appreciate some whore trying to bush me.
 
#19 ·
We have done a number of crewed charters in various parts of the world and 15% is usually what we give. We have mostly gone through brokers who take a cut of the price of the charter so the owner/crew often does not see the whole amount you've paid. There was one aloof Captain who we were willing to stiff because of his behavior but, his crew/wife was very nice and also great cook. We felt sorry for her being stuck with this guy so we justified it as a tip for her. On another charter we gave 10% not because the charter was bad but, because the charter cost was way above what our usual budget was. It was still a substantial tip and we will charter with them again so they will have gained repeated bookings and revenues from us.
 
#20 ·
Tipping is normal on charters and even on sailing schools/trips, but I think there's a difference between coming out and saying "Oh by the I expect..." and replying, if asked, as to what people normally do.

I think even the cruise lines have learned that it is one thing to say "guests are expected to..." or "tips not included", without coming out somewhat, ah, rudely and saying "By the way I expect...".

What momma said about "What's the magic word?"
 
#22 ·
I think it depends on the charter booking. For instance I know some charter companies apply a commission to the day skipper rate which means the skipper is actually earning less than what you are paying. Usually you can tell this based on if the company asks for the skipper payment direct to them or asks you to pay the skipper yourselves. At our company we ask for the full £120 day fee for a skipper to be payed directly to the skipper and then a TIP is optional based on the skippers performance over your trip. Personally as I have an interest in the company I do not take tips from customers but I do ask customers to instead use that money to TIP our marina based team that put the effort in to making all the yachts clean and well maintained for our customers.

Just yesterday we had a situation where the customer had sourced their own skipper which they were paying for the week. After being out for the last 3 days they came back for dinner and the so called skipper couldn't maneuver a 53 foot yacht in to a berth that had 2 empty berths on either side of it (not to mention it was an outside position in the marina with nothing in front of it). 15 minutes later and with the help of 2 marina zodiacs they gave up. Then one of our marina team got one of the zodiacs to drop him off on board and he had it in and done in 2 minutes flat. The point being Tip if they deserve it I would say.

Also in one of the previous posts somebody mentioned about a cold breakfast and somebody mentioned about taking the skipper to dinner. In around Turkey the general rule is skippers are expected to look after your welfare and the yachts well being. It is not their responsibility to cater for you. On the contrary it is the responsibility of the customer to provide food for the skipper. If you cook on board or if you go to a restaurant. If you want food prepared as well then you usually hire a hostess that will be able to provide this service.
 
#23 ·
I have worked in the service industry a large part of my life and in a way still do. Although I am no longer getting tips from it, because I provide service for an individual now. I do spend a lot of time on the road and work amongst other service people that i do tip and then bill my boss for it. Sometimes I will also do some of the grunt work myself like carry my own luggage or retrieve something I want instead of getting the service people to do it for me. If I demand some service I expect to tip.

To me 20% is standard for wait staff if they do a good job but 15% on a bill that is 4 figures does not make sense. My thought process would be tip the person according to "rank" on a boat but appreciate the idea of tipping all equally because the deckhand had to probably work the hardest and makes less already. Better yet tip according to the level of service they provide to you or how hard you saw them working in general.

Telling someone this is what you are expected to tip and you have to take me to dinner is just tacky. Imagine having to drag a freeloading Captain to dinner every night on your Honeymoon? I would take him to dinner if he was a good host just so my service did not suck then, probably stiff him on tip, just because he had no cooth.

As a Service Industry Professional here are some tips on tipping. Big tippers get better service. Tip your bartender $5-10 on your first drink, he/she will be attentive the rest of the night. Buy a big bottle of wine and tip 20%, your waiter will remember your name when you go in the next night. If you or your spouse are demanding, tip extra on the effort you have cost the server. There is possibly another customer that has been neglected because you needed each entree described in detail before ordering. If you don't tip well after this the server will remember your name also but not in a good way.

Tips do not have to be in the form of cash. Taking the crew to dinner, pouring a taste of your wine for your server if you are drinking something special, buying a round for the kitchen if the food was great. The last step only if the kitchen is small and you can afford a round for the staff. The fastest way to a cook's heart is through his liver.
 
#24 · (Edited)
Remember, tipping is very much by country. Some wait staff are paid well because of a countries laws. Other countries, like the USA, have quite low hourly rates and high cultural acceptance of tipping. In Australia bar staff earn a minimum $19.48 per hour with a dollar equivilancy similar to US dollars (not the exchange rate!).

As an American its important not to over-tip in a country you are visiting but to tip the going amount. $5 to $10 for the first drink may sound fine to some New Yorker but given in some countries its a few days wages. Remember over-tipping can have consequences too: those that follow you, and to the wait staff too as a manager/owner may want the few days wages you just dropped.



And puleeeze can people stop adding a tip on top of a bill that has the gratuity already included?

Mark
 
#25 ·
Would you tip differently (US) if the owner or family waited on you vs. unrelated staff? To my mind there is no difference, once you accept that a tip is a standard part of the transaction and implied cost. (If you do NOT accept that tipping is normal in a certain transaction, that is totally different. In general, people should do their job without tipping.)

Just a question, as this is common in small restaurants.
 
#27 ·
Would you tip differently (US) if the owner or family waited on you vs. unrelated staff?
I don't know. Often times the family of the owner gets no pay at all and probably more deserve a tip than anyone. What is the cultural norm?

Services erk me too... a taxi driver for example. So now I just don't use taxis but use Uber because there's no tipping. (And its funcianality worldwide is utterly sensational!).

In the original post the charter captain was the boat owner. Weird situation.
 
#26 ·
Tipping in all industries has gotten completely out of hand - it's become merely an expected extra payment. At one time up to 10% was the norm for exceptional service. Now the receivers seem to set the standard and it's getting nuts - supposedly you are supposed to tip waiters here 20% now - according to them, just for doing their job. And that's on the entire bill, including liquor and tax which was never included in the past. Industries have gotten on to this and now some don't even pay their staff, relying on the exorbitant tip expectations to pay for them. I've even had waiters not return with my change, just keeping it as a "tip".

Tipping the owner has never been the norm in any industry, even if they do your haircut or serve you at the table.

Use your judgement as to whether it's deserved or not, as it should always be.
 
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