Tip for VIP tour guide

[LAS2AMS]

I'm giving an honest answer based on my personal experiences. The last few tours we took were only $400-$450/hr and I tipped $300-$400. If the hourly rate is now $700, then $500 to $650 is a fair amount to me. I don't consider myself a generous tipper ever.

Historically, 10-20% was suppose to represent a fair pay for somebody working in tipped position. These CM are earning a fair hourly (not a tipped) wage and nearly $1,000 tip is way excessive for the service performed.

If you’re feeling generous and want to leave a $1,000 trip to the CM or your favorite waitress, that’s an incredibly nice gesture on your behalf.

But let’s not pretend it’s the standard. I’d handily bet that most guests don’t tip their tour guide at all.

 

[Jojo Cat Lady]

I appreciate everyone's input. The confirmation document we received states that gratuities for the guide are not included in the price of the tour and are discretionary based on the quality of the service. In a telephone conversation with Disney staff I was told that while the tip was not required, it was appreciated and should be in the form of cash or gift cards. I wonder how much of that cash gets reported? I guess that is between the guide and the IRS but it could be a substantial amount.

We have decided to tip a basic amount of $500 which represents $100 for each of us and have an additional $200 available if we are really impressed or the guide does something exceptional. I'll report back how the tour goes. We are not wealthy and have saved for a long time for this trip.

 

[LAS2AMS]

I appreciate everyone's input. The confirmation document we received states that gratuities for the guide are not included in the price of the tour and are discretionary based on the quality of the service. In a telephone conversation with Disney staff I was told that while the tip was not required, it was appreciated and should be in the form of cash or gift cards. I wonder how much of that cash gets reported? I guess that is between the guide and the IRS but it could be a substantial amount.

We have decided to tip a basic amount of $500 which represents $100 for each of us and have an additional $200 available if we are really impressed or the guide does something exceptional. I'll report back how the tour goes. We are not wealthy and have saved for a long time for this trip.

If you tip in cash, it’d be up to the CM to report it . Although it’s near certain at this point that the tax reform bill being negotiated in Congress will eliminate taxes on tips.

 

[tx911]

I think $100-200 would be fine for this tip. I'm usually a very generous tipper, but $500 and up seems ridiculously high to me in this instance. Disney is charging exorbitant prices for the a la carte line skipping in this case, which to me doesn't necessarily need to translate into 20% of that amount to the CM.

I think this is a case where you tip what you feel the job is worth. It doesn't fit in well with the usual practice of tipping a percentage of the total cost.

 

[evilmommie]

I appreciate everyone's input. The confirmation document we received states that gratuities for the guide are not included in the price of the tour and are discretionary based on the quality of the service. In a telephone conversation with Disney staff I was told that while the tip was not required, it was appreciated and should be in the form of cash or gift cards. I wonder how much of that cash gets reported? I guess that is between the guide and the IRS but it could be a substantial amount.

We have decided to tip a basic amount of $500 which represents $100 for each of us and have an additional $200 available if we are really impressed or the guide does something exceptional. I'll report back how the tour goes. We are not wealthy and have saved for a long time for this trip.

Have a FANTASTIC time! And we look forward to your thoughts on your very special tour in the Happiest Place on Earth!

 

[catloaves]

I think $100-200 would be fine for this tip. I'm usually a very generous tipper, but $500 and up seems ridiculously high to me in this instance. Disney is charging exorbitant prices for the a la carte line skipping in this case, which to me doesn't necessarily need to translate into 20% of that amount to the CM.

I think this is a case where you tip what you feel the job is worth. It doesn't fit in well with the usual practice of tipping a percentage of the total cost.

To be fair, it's not just line-skipping. On our VIP tour, our guide helped keep an eye on the little ones who had to hang back due to height requirements, brought us waters and snacks (churros, ice cream bars, etc.) while we were enjoying attractions, and picked up mobile orders that were a good distance away for us to enjoy during the parade. That's on top of keeping everyone entertained with stories and fun facts, being "on" the whole day while wrangling three adults and four children, and putting together an itinerary that made everyone happy. I don't remember exactly what we tipped but it was much closer to $500 than $100-200 and it still felt incredibly fair for the service that was provided.

 

[tx911]

To be fair, it's not just line-skipping. On our VIP tour, our guide helped keep an eye on the little ones who had to hang back due to height requirements, brought us waters and snacks (churros, ice cream bars, etc.) while we were enjoying attractions, and picked up mobile orders that were a good distance away for us to enjoy during the parade. That's on top of keeping everyone entertained with stories and fun facts, being "on" the whole day while wrangling three adults and four children, and putting together an itinerary that made everyone happy. I don't remember exactly what we tipped but it was much closer to $500 than $100-200 and it still felt incredibly fair for the service that was provided.

I agree, they definitely provide a service. I'd probably tip around $200 if I did one, and hope they weren't offended

 

[disneychrista]

I'm giving an honest answer based on my personal experiences. The last few tours we took were only $400-$450/hr and I tipped $300-$400. If the hourly rate is now $700, then $500 to $650 is a fair amount to me. I don't consider myself a generous tipper ever.

Why should it matter how much you are paying Disney for the tour?

 

[LAS2AMS]

To be fair, it's not just line-skipping. On our VIP tour, our guide helped keep an eye on the little ones who had to hang back due to height requirements, brought us waters and snacks (churros, ice cream bars, etc.) while we were enjoying attractions, and picked up mobile orders that were a good distance away for us to enjoy during the parade. That's on top of keeping everyone entertained with stories and fun facts, being "on" the whole day while wrangling three adults and four children, and putting together an itinerary that made everyone happy. I don't remember exactly what we tipped but it was much closer to $500 than $100-200 and it still felt incredibly fair for the service that was provided.

If I paid Disney nearly $5,000 for a seven hour VIP tour, I would expect the service to be exceptional. Anything less would be unacceptable. That doesn’t mean the exceptional service is worth an extra $1,000 - again, the employee does not earn a tipped wage and I paid for exceptional service.

It’s certainly not my fault that Disney is charging me $5,000 and only passing on only a couple hundred dollars in wages to the employee. If this bothers somebody… then maybe skip the tour?

 

[Minnie1222]

Why should it matter how much you are paying Disney for the tour?

It's just my quick way of doing math. An hourly rate of a 7-hour tour is about 14%, which is close to the standard 15% tip rate.

 

[disneychrista]

It's just my quick way of doing math. An hourly rate of a 7-hour tour is about 14%, which is close to the standard 15% tip rate.

If $300 is considered a good tip when the tour costs you $400/hr why then does it need to be $500 when it costs you $700? That doesn't make sense to me at all.

 

[foodiddiedoo]

We did a VIP tour last year at WDW for 8 hours at 800 an hour. We had a group of 7 (2 kids, 5 adults) and we tipped 600 dollars to our tour guide. My parents tipped 100 , my friend and her daughter tipped 100 each, and I tipped 300 dollars for my family of 3. Our tour guide said it was unnecessary but also thanked us. I expect that 20% is kinda crazy especially on the days that cost 700-900 dollars per hour, but I think paying about 100 per person in a tip seems fair.

 

[Minnie1222]

If $300 is considered a good tip when the tour costs you $400/hr why then does it need to be $500 when it costs you $700? That doesn't make sense to me at all.

My $400/hr tour was a few years before Covid. The $300 tip was 10-ish% of the total 7 hrs at that time.

I assume the current rate is $700/hr, so $500 would be 10-ish% of the total hours.

 

[twodogs]

We did a VIP tour last year at WDW for 8 hours at 800 an hour. We had a group of 7 (2 kids, 5 adults) and we tipped 600 dollars to our tour guide. My parents tipped 100 , my friend and her daughter tipped 100 each, and I tipped 300 dollars for my family of 3. Our tour guide said it was unnecessary but also thanked us. I expect that 20% is kinda crazy especially on the days that cost 700-900 dollars per hour, but I think paying about 100 per person in a tip seems fair.

This.

 

[GoingSince1990]

So many people seem to lose all sense of reality when it comes to tipping for VIP tours. A tip is genuinely not expected or even suggested, and Disney makes it quite hard to do, with no line on the credit card charge or helpful little card offering tip suggestions like you see in the restaurants. Almost no international guests will ever tip anything at all, as tipping for something like this is overwhelmingly a US phenomenon and would never even occur to visitors from overseas. And very often, calculating a tip as a percentage is simply inappropriate. If your AC guy spent a day installing a system and the bill was $5000, would you say "oh, I'd better tip 20%" and give him a $1000 tip? When we do a 7 hour tour at $700 per hour, I'm not going to tip the guide 20% of $4900, which would mean a $980 tip, which would be equivalent to the guide getting annual tip income of more than a quarter of a million dollars on top of their actual salary. We will typically bring $300 in cash in an envelope as a tip for our guide.

 

[LAS2AMS]

So many people seem to lose all sense of reality when it comes to tipping for VIP tours. A tip is genuinely not expected or even suggested, and Disney makes it quite hard to do, with no line on the credit card charge or helpful little card offering tip suggestions like you see in the restaurants. Almost no international guests will ever tip anything at all, as tipping for something like this is overwhelmingly a US phenomenon and would I’ll never even occur to visitors from overseas. And very often, calculating a tip as a percentage is simply inappropriate. If your AC guy spent a day installing a system and the bill was $5000, would you say "oh, I'd better tip 20%" and give him a $1000 tip? When we do a 7 hour tour at $700 per hour, I'm not going to tip the guide 20% of $4900, which would mean a $980 tip, which would be equivalent to the guide getting annual tip income of more than a quarter of a million dollars on top of their actual salary. We will typically bring $300 in cash in an envelope as a tip for our guide.

Excellent post! The VIP agreements (not tour) I’ve read that are executed with VIP guests state that gratuities and gifts are not allowed.

I don’t care if somebody tips $1000 or $10,000, but I do take issue with them insisting that those who leave “a couple hundred bucks” are cheap and under tipping. You’re literally paying for the service on the $700/hr rate. This is not a tipped position. If it bothers you so much that the CM is only getting a fraction of that amount, skip the tour trans take your cash elsewhere.