How Much Do You Tip?

In the past year, I've had my share of traveling around U.S. for work and personal purposes. In a conversation with my wife over the weekend and some people recently, it occurred to me how uneven our tipping standard is today. How much is too much or too little for tipping service? Why are we using different scale standard to give tip.

If you go to an average restaurant with average services, the normal tipping rate people go by these days would be 10% - 15%. If you go to a really nice restaurant, you might end up tipping upward to 18% - 20%. This is for a service someone gives you during your time at the restaurant, usually an hour or two. Some places charges an average standard gratuity rate of 18% for party of 6 or greater. For a personal meal, you would usually pay $25.00, which mean you could be paying $2.50 in tip if you are going by the 10% rule. For a meal that averages $150.00, you are looking at averages of $15.00 worth of tip for those who go by 10% rule. Often time, we go by the 15% - 18% rule.

However, for other services we use such as car wash, hotel room cleaning, etc., we tend to UNDER tip. It bogs my mind as how much we sometime under tip these people. I've came across people who believe tipping $2.00 - $4.00 per night stay at a hotel is excessive, while their hotel rate is in the upward of $125 - 150 per night. To some people, they tip $1.00 or other times not tipping at all. With their $1.00 tip, they expect the red carpet treatment cleaning service for a place where they will be there for a whole 24 hours.

Another example of an under tipping service is at the carwash. You'll spend anywhere between $20.00 - $30.00 to have your carwash, detailed, vacuum, and sometime wax. People would usually tip around $1.00 - $2.00. In a restaurant environment, where a person serve you drinks, take your order, and smile to you in an air condition environment, they would’ve received around $2.00 - $5.00. However, a person who cleans your vehicle in the summer sun, they receive much less.

Sometime it makes me wonder what kind of standard do we set ourselves and the people who serves us. Overall, we tend to go out of our way and tip for entertainments and tip frugally when it comes to other things.