Posted by
mayita
16 yrs ago
Someone recently mentioned in a post that tipping is expected & mandatory (ab. beauty parlour), because i had a really different opinion (maybe because i'm european & have travelled to Japan)...
I tend to think that foreigners tend to import their original country tipping practices, or to conform to an "american" tipping practice..., while some stick to the "i've never seen any of my HKG colleague giving a tip to anyone in the restaurant" kind of habit....
Let's please share, generally speaking, our opinion and practices about tipping, especially in the non bar / restaurant stuff (unless you wish to)...
Pls. also true native HKG people (not the one who've been raised abroad only), give us your insights...
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In my opinion, I guess tipping depends on a lots of factors :
1) you'll never be expected to tip if you go to a real Japanese oriented customer place.... (like facialists, hairdressers), etc.... though the initial price might be higher & the staff, incl. cantonese will be paid a much higher wage & taught to provide an outstanding level of service (=v.polite, no hard selling, not fishing for a tip, etc.)
2) I noticed a lot of Cantonese people (or are those just my colleagues & people i met at my Taichi class) just don't tip, they'll just (maybe) give a 20 dollars laysee to their usual facialist / massage person ... on Chinese New Year....
3) I go to a local Hair salon, and am actually the only one who ever left a tip . No other customer, however well off - it's a medium range salon- ever leave anything...OK i'm the only foreigner going there as well...
What i find embarrassing though is when it's the boss who cuts my hair i'm confused about leaving a tip in his hand (tipping the salon's manager is weird in France, and might be offending, contrarily to tipping the regular hair stylist)... i'd rather they had put a "tip box" somewhere.... though sneaking in a small bill in the hand of the person who shampooed you when that gave you a nice head massage is much easier... and received with a smile... while the first time the manager cut my hair, he looked quite surprised when i left some of the cash he had handled me back...
4) But i guess the first critera before giving a tip is : did you enjoy the facial, was the beautician, the hairstylist OK ? If not, tipping because you "have to do it", whatever the country really IS stupid.
Honestly, giving a tip even for a "normal" level of service, which is basically what you'd expect for what you pay, doesn't really make sense to me.... Would you tip the guy in 7-11 for registering your purchases in the till ? this guys makes less than 25 HK$ an hour.... less than the beautician, the salesperson in the shop, the waiter in the bar.... even before the tips... ????
5) On the other side, as pointed out in "Reservoir dogs", some jobs bring a really scarce pay for long hours of hard work (and that's basically the business model of some bars, restaurants in Europe) and the tips make up for the bad wages, and motivates the staff to give a good level of service (well, at least in France, as no one, except tourists, ever tipped a bad waiter, will leave a small tip for normal service and a higher tip if the level of service really was oustanding...)
Please give me your insight, as i'm curious to know.....
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I'm an expat. I don't consciously tip 15% here as I do in US. Instead I just round up to the nearest $10, e.g. had lunch at a cafe, bill was $161+, left $170. I do that whether or not the service is good.
I don't know how much waiters are paid here, but my impression is that tips make up a small part of their salaries.
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I'll round up to the nearest 10 at restaurants. In taxis I'll give a little extra if I've had my kids in the taxi with carseats and the associated hassle.
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i think some restaurants have caught on to the expat trend of rounding up and leaving the coins behind...several times I've paid a bill that was, for example, $80, with a $100 bill, and have had miscellaneous coins returned for the change...when this happens, I'll either take the whole amount of change, or ask them to bring me a twenty (i hate carrying change!)...
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"i think some restaurants have caught on to the expat trend of rounding up and leaving the coins behind...several times I've paid a bill that was, for example, $80, with a $100 bill, and have had miscellaneous coins returned for the change...when this happens, I'll either take the whole amount of change, or ask them to bring me a twenty (i hate carrying change!)..."
In any case a restaurant payment should always be returned with FULL change. It is quite rude of restaurant staff to withhold change on the assumption I will tip.
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agreed..in my situations, the staff must have felt that if they returned my $20 change as coins, I would be more inclined to leave it as a tip...a costly error in judgement on their part, lol
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Many people I know tip only the spare coins from the change because they claim the 10% service charge is the tip.
But in most instances the 10% does not go to the servers, it is kept by the restaurant owners.
Unfortunately for the serving staff they end up with next to nothing in tips because of their assumption. How unfair
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funbobby, you don't even tip with coins? Now, come on! Even if the 10% did go to the waiters, the proper tip is 15-20%, not 10% at least by Western standards. I'm a Westerner and am amazed that everyone is not tipping! I tip my hairdresser 20% which is what I'd do in my home country and since she's a foreigner, she may expect it. I've heard people don't tip here, but many of us do. I also thought Lycees would include $100-$200, especially if you don't tip all year long! Oh well, that's just what I thought.
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"Unfortunately for the serving staff they end up with next to nothing in tips because of their assumption. How unfair"
The situation is different from the US. In the US, it is assumed that a significant portion of income for serving staff is tips and restaurant owners adjust wages accordingly. In HK this is not the case, and compensation is structured differently.
"the proper tip is 15-20%"
That's very much a North American practice. Not at all a worldwide standard. In most of Europe less than 10% is the norm. 15-20% would be considered very extravagant.
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This discussion will be very much enlightened by actual salary amounts.
The average salary in HK is 10,000; median about 12,000. How much does a waiter earn?
I think since tipping is not the culture here, the restaurant would have increased food/drink prices to cover staff salaries already. Conversely, in the US, waiters earn just 2 USD an hour, with tips making up the rest - and sometimes the total is just above min wage.
However, should I learn that HK waiters earn very little, I'd increase my tipping.
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FKKC
16 yrs ago
Anybody will appreciate a good tip but as Peggie Wong wrote, tip them separately or else whatever tips you leave on the plate/dish/booklet when you asked for the check will go to the restaurant and some restaurants will and some will not divide the amount received among the staff at the end of the month, with the restaurant taking one or two portions of the money.
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Is tipping your hairdresser really a common practice here? I'm used to tipping cab drivers and restaurants, and believe that it is only fair, but your salon?
Hairdressers in HK charge up to 3 times the amount that I would have spent back home in a top salon. Given the higher rent costs etc, I accept that I will pay a little more than usual, however I'm sure the hairdressers are making a decent wage.
Please, if I'm committing a faux pas I'd like to know!
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not you > you are missing the point....if my change is say, $13, and the service is worth a tip, I'm happy to leave the change in addition to the service charge (which is NOT charged where I come from in NA, and your 15-20% is on the high side)...and I'm talking about a place like Delifrance, not Felix in the Peninsula! If I'm in a nice quality restaurant where the service warrants it, I'm more than happy to leave a suitable tip..don't paint me as a tightwad when you don't know me okay?
When my change is EXACLTY $20, I expect a $20 bill, not 3 $2 coins, 2 $5 coins and 4 $1 cions...come on, thats ridiculous!
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Have to agree funbobby, coins are a nuisance!
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kim - i tip my hairdresser (and he owns his salon - maybe i shouldnt ) but i used to tip in UK as well - that is the practive there too, so it is not new to me at all... i would tip esp if you go to the same person...
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Good point, Kim.Constable, that the cost of services like a haircut in a top salon is more expensive here than in Europe / North America. After paying the bill, one doesn't feel like tipping everyone 20%. My comment about tipping being expected in beauty salons referred to those frequented by expats. Fair or not, western-influenced or not, I feel much pressure to tip in these places. One "spa" salon that just closed its Repulse Bay shop even referred to tipping on its website, saying that tips were not included in the bill, that tips were not required but that the therapists would appreciate one. The message is not exactly that tipping is a silly American practice that they want to discourage! Over the border in Shenzhen the people working in manicure / massage places are very dependent on tips, and this is made clear by the staff (a standard tip of 10 RMB per hour of service is expected and often added to the bill).
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Fair enough.
Although I must say, in one visit to a salon for a haircut I am served by up to 2-3 tea makers, 1 shampoo person, 2 colourists and one stylist for the cut.
If I were to tip them all I'd almost be better off flying back to aus for a new 'do'!
From now on I will tip 20% when paying the bill. What they do with it is then up to the salon to decide.
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cd
16 yrs ago
To notyou, I'm a westener and 15-20 % is certainly not the norm in the UK.
I don't tip when I go to the hairdressers, Restaurants we usually leave a tip, amount varies depending on how many of us there are. But I wouldn't tip in a restaurant if the service is bad.
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On a slightly different angle, my understanding is that it is very bad form for diners to check the tip. Pay the amount, without query. The rationale is, if you cannot afford to pay the bill, don't go to the restaurant.
The majority amount of your bill is made up of fixed costs anyway -rent, labour, power, etc etc.
Tipping? Leave the coins in an average restaurant, maybe 5% extra in a better restaurant, or, as an earlier poster suggested, slip something to your favourite waitperson (s).
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I'm sorry, trying to understand your post, are you saying that diners should not check their bill?
If so, that's ludicrous and awfully silly. 3 times out of 10 (particularly when the bill is in Chinese) there will be a mistake in the bill. Hubby and I are happy to tip, and we do so generously. However, we would never pay for something we hadn't actually ordered/consumed.
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I always check to see if service charge is included in the bill. If not, I'd leave a proper tip, rather than just rounding up to nearest $10. I don't see why that is bad form.
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Hi
==== To Kim.Constable
Regarding what may have been said before, adding a 20% tip to your already "over-priced" hair salon bill, might not be such a great idea, as the staff you want to say thank you to might never see the colour of that money....
Just the owner who will increase his margin....on already inflated service price.
Don't feel like you HAVE TO tip for the sake of spending money... the staff will never treat you better or understand your appreciation of their service if the money goes directly in someone else's pocket.... (though, according to what i've understood from my colleague, tipping is definitely not a middle-class Cantonese habit..)
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wow! I feel bad...
I'm from Australia, and we don't tip anyone there.
I do always tip the cab driver, unless he is rude to me - as I usually get a cab when I am too tired to walk the 2 or 3 k's home, so the fare is only around $16 - 20 at the most.
As for everyone else, it is not customary to tip back home, so I didn't realise we needed to here.
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mayo
16 yrs ago
I am also from Australia and I don't tip hairdressers here or at home nor am I planning to start doing so. I round up at restaurants buts that's about it. However when I lived in the US I did try to my best to do what's customary tipwise even though I am sure I messed up quite a few times. Here I'll just stick red enveloping. When in Rome.....
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Thankyou, bless the aussie logic. :)
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Well Mayo,
your answer seems to be very sensible.... to me as well
For exemple, tipping someone in Japan is like a big big mistake (even offending)...
People will run after you to give you back the change you mitakenly forgot to take... or give it back to you next time you show up in the restaurant.....
I guess not tipping/ tipping the wrong amount in the US is also a major No No, but surely shouldn't be imported to HKG if it's not customary.... or only followed up by American expats here ....
Here in HKG, I'll stick to what you advised, Mayo (great Aussie logic!) and personnaly just add a bit more for "outstanding service" like doorman who helps you out with tons of luggage, etc....
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