4th ABD and tip question

[lpm23]

I definitely agree. I hate carrying cash but have run into issues on the ARizona and Costa Rica trip trying to get money at the ATM. They need to get in the 21st century with this!!

 

[CaliforniaGirl09]

I've actually been thinking about this in the context of group size. One thing about ABD really trending towards the larger group size is that the guides then make more money, so it I imagine the guides prefer the larger group size. The whole tipping issue with ABD definitely does not work to align interests for everyone.

I've been thinking about this, too. You are so right. I really wish ABD would stop the whole tipping of guides thing and just pay them a decent wage and/or charge me more at the outset so I don't have to worry about it.

One of the wonderful things about Japan was the no tipping anywhere--except for our adventure guides we were reminded, LOL. Sometimes restaurants added service charge, but that was actually fairly rare. It was so so nice. I wish it was like that in the US. In Japan, tipping is considered rude and an insult on a couple of different levels. Basically you are insinuating that they don't make enough money, and/or that their employer doesn't pay them fairly.

We had a concierge get us a very difficult to get reservation and I was told absolutely not to tip her. I wanted to give her a small gift, but I was discouraged from doing that because apparently if you give a gift they think they need to give you a nicer gift back. I was given an example where a tourist left candy, and the concierge tracked the person down at their next hotel and gave them a very fancy gift.

 

[TarotFox]

Yup on the Japan stuff. Sometimes the "Japanese people are so polite" stuff is coming out of this, when really there's a social obligation factor going on. Like, yes... it's polite, but a lot of times the Japanese person might be thinking that you've inconvenienced them but they can't really say so culturally.

 

[OhanaCuz]

One of the wonderful things about Japan was the no tipping anywhere--except for our adventure guides we were reminded, LOL. Sometimes restaurants added service charge, but that was actually fairly rare. It was so so nice. I wish it was like that in the US. In Japan, tipping is considered rude and an insult on a couple of different levels. Basically you are insinuating that they don't make enough money, and/or that their employer doesn't pay them fairly.

This was so hard for me to get past when I was in Japan. I felt like a scumbag leaving a restaurant without tipping.

 

[RebelHawk]

I certainly agree that ABD should make tipping the guides a simpler process. We work under the assumption that there will be one local and one US based guide. We bring USD with us for tipping the US based guide and hit the ATM for the local guide tips. However we always ask each guide on the first day what their preference is for tipping (currency or PayPal options). Out of 4 trips we've ended up using PayPal/Venmo for 3 guides and 5 guides said their preference was cash.