The story in this space a few weeks ago offering up some tipping guidelines generated more e-mail than any other story I have done in a long time. Apparently you folks take your tipping very seriously. Good for you!
The bulk of the e-mails I got were from people who thought I was either suggesting too much for tips or not enough. In regards to that, I want to reiterate that tipping is solely at your discretion – you can tip whatever you want. All I was indicating is what is fairly standard around town and they are only meant as guidelines.
There were two areas in particular that seemed to draw the most attention: valet parking and payouts for slot machine wins.
For valet parking, I recommended $1-2 for the person who checks in the car and $2-3 for the person who brings it back to you. The valets themselves will suggest that this is not enough; that $5 is more in line for the people who run around in the heat to get your vehicle back to you, and I think if they keep the wait time to a minimum that it is certainly isn’t out of line. But many readers thought the tip for the person checking in the car was superfluous. I will say that I don’t do it all the time, but again here if they process what can often be a long wait to get your car into the queue, I think it’s worth a buck or two especially since these men and women aren’t getting the bigger tips that usually come with returning cars. Again… totally up to you.
As far as slot machine winnings, I suggested 5-10% of a hand-pay jackpot. You’ll see that range in a lot of different tipping guides and I think it’s fair depending upon how much you win. Hand pays on slots kick in when you win any single jackpot of $1,200 or more. In my experience there are usually three people that are involved in the hand pay – the person who first comes to the machine in response to the bells and whistles (usually an attendant), a senior attendant or manager who comes to take your information including social security number and ID, and then a third who acts as a witness when person number two is putting cash in your hand. At the $1,200 range, I usually give each of these people $20, which is 5%.
However, when the jackpots increase, the dollar amounts I tip go up, but the percentages usually decrease and usually go under the 5% mark. For instance, when I won $30,000 on a slot machine last year, I did not hand out $1,500 in tips – it was more like $500. I thought that the woman who had to count out $30,000 in $100 bills (twice, because of a machine error) deserved something extra for her trouble and I also tipped extravagantly to the cocktail server who kept bringing me water because she thought I was going to pass out (she may have been right).
But that’s the thing about guidelines; they are not hard and fast rules. The situation and the service you receive should dictate how much or how little you tip.
Which brings up the other thing several people e-mailed me about: responding to poor service. Many people believe that sub-standard service means you should not tip at all. I get this inclination and think it’s a totally valid response, but it’s not what I do.
I worked in the service industry for a long time in bars and clubs around Los Angeles and what I learned is that poor service is not always the fault of the person providing the service. Let’s say you’re at a bar and the bartender takes a long time to get you your drink and isn’t very pleasant when they do so. You may think, “to heck with them” and not leave a tip (and again, that’s fair). But in my experience there is often something going on behind the scenes that is out of the bartender’s control. I can remember many a night where I was faced with a line ten people deep (mostly obnoxious, loud, demanding people who had already had a few) and the manager should’ve had three people serving but had only scheduled two and the Diet Coke ran out and the bar back was taking too long to replace it (all for instance) and on those occasions I wasn’t as fast as I liked to be and may not have been as chatty and friendly as I could’ve been. Whether that’s enough of a reason to not get tipped at all is debatable, I think.
Another consideration to take into account is that, especially at bars and restaurants, a portion of the bartender or server’s tips are given to the people who don’t have direct contact with customers, such as bar backs, bus boys, and the like. Eliminating the tip for the server means you are also eliminating tips for people who made sure you got a clean glass, even if the drink in it didn’t show up as fast as you wanted it to.
I do two things when I receive poor service. Number one, I reduce the tip. I don’t eliminate it all together, but I do put down less. The second thing I do – and this is very important – I tell the server and/or the manager exactly why I am leaving less of a tip. I know people don’t like confrontation, but my experience is that people in the service industry appreciate the honesty and want to know when something isn’t going right – I know I did when I was a bartender.
Besides, I also know from experience that when customers don’t leave a tip, the service industry folks rarely view that as a commentary on their service. Instead, they’ll view it as a commentary on how cheap or rude the customer was. Taking the time to explain that no, it really was about their service, can go a long way toward making positive changes.
But ultimately, as I’ve stated many times, tipping is solely at your discretion.
Just do me one favor… don’ t leave pennies as part of your tip. I hated that!
For more information on tipping and other resources to help you plan and enjoy your Las Vegas vacation, visit the Resources section of Vegas4Visitors.com
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