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Home › Articles › General Family Finance › Here's a Tip

Here's a Tip

How to Tip Everyone from the Hair Dresser to the Bellman

By Lisa A. Goldstein

Pages:  1  2  3  

When Service Is Bad

"If service is bad, you don't have to tip, but you should explain why so the service provider has the opportunity to improve," Ramsey says. Ultimately, it's important to remember that the expectation is that tips are part of a person's salary, she says.

Tamara Sneddon, 31 of Pittsburgh, Pa., and the mother of two kids, once left a penny for a tip at a restaurant. "You can imagine how the service was," she says. "I wanted to leave the message that it takes more than just seating people – they actually want to be served. I knew [the penny] would annoy them and I wanted to send a clear message. Nothing does that like money or lack thereof."

Tipping Tips

You might feel like you still need a cheat sheet to make it through the maze of tipping do's and don'ts. Dr. Manners offers the following suggestions for average tips, but she cautions that you should feel free to adjust them according to your circumstances, income and locale (large, metropolitan areas would be on the higher scale and small, rural areas would be a bit lower):

Hotels

  • Doorman – $1 if he gets a taxi, $2 in bad weather
  • Porter – $1 minimum per bag when checking in or out, more if heavy bags
  • Room service – $2 minimum
  • Maid – $2 to $3 per night
  • $2 when the porter or other employee brings something to your room, such as a newspaper; $5 if they had to leave the hotel to purchase something for you
  • Doorman or parking valet – $1 to $2 for bringing your car around
  • Concierge – $3 or more for tickets; if it took extra time, like getting tickets to the best Broadway show, the tip should be 10 percent of the cost of the tickets

Hair Salon