…pulls out a calculator app to figure out exactly what a 15 percent tip is at a restaurant while traveling with colleagues, especially if the service was excellent.
Agreed how difficult it is to multiply tip*2 + service quality adjustemnt which is 1% * your satisfaction level
Usually here in NY I just double the tax amount and add a few dollars here and there based on my BAC
“Ok Google, how much is a tip on $54.23?”
That may not work in states with no or low sales tax.
I usually pull out the calculator if we’re dividing the bill and there are more than two people. Though I can usually do it in my head anyway.
I generally get to 15% by dividing by 10 and then adding half to that. Or I remember $3 for every 20. $1.50 for every $10. Then I’ll throw on more of they did anything I liked or seemed noteworthy about the service. If I didn’t order very much and they didn’t make a fuss or give bad service, I’ll also add a little more.
In NYC, if we’re all paying our own, I generally add up the pre-tax price of what I consumed and add 25% for tax and tip. It works out nicely.
Who only tips 15% anymore?
DoW, admit it, these were the Marketing dolts who brag about golf every weekend.
How hard is it to calculate 20% of any amount?
While on the subject of tipping, remember to always tip on the full amount of the meal even if you pay less for it (e.g. happy hour pricing, some sort of coupon, other discounts).
I still tip 15% for blah, run-of-the-mill service (though round up to the nearest appropriately round figure, and round down if I’m dissatisfied). I’m happy to do 20% or even 25% if I’m impressed in any way.
If I get a discount or coupon, I’ll tip on the full value vs the discounted value, but sometimes they play games with the full value. I’ll pay say $50 after the discount and they’ll tell me that normal value is $200 when my guess is it’s probably closer to $100. With a massage groupon, for example, I saw a sign telling me their service’s full value is $115, but if I went to their website and booked the exact same service there, it turns out I’d only have to pay $65. That sort of dishonesty really irks me, even if the groupon cost $45.
I do 20% as a baseline because its easier to calculate.
^Agreed
I wish I could say so, but the truth is that it was some socially hideous member of the team who didn’t want to “raise any eyebrows” in accounting with an excessive tip…what a chump.
No one should…the point was against being exactly cheap versus being generally generous…
I can’t rationally explain why, but I’ll never go to a restaurant with a groupon. Hair salon, spa, workout studio - sure, but never to a restaurant. Anyone else feel that way?
I’m that guy. If in a group i usually ask for the bill, check no service charge on already, calculator out, *1.1 then divide by number in the group before anyone can say ‘but i only had a salad with no dressing’
Exception being if the service was bad, then there’s no tip.
You north americans take tipping too far but on the flipside, people who don’t tip for good or even decent service are dicks. some people in the uk seem to think that you shouldn’t tip for lunch, even if its proper sit down 3 courses with wine with the same level of service as for dinner. I had a stand up row with a former colleague at a chrismtas dinner one year when a massive group of us were out and 10% of our bill ended up being £50, he couldn’t get his head round it.
Also, for groups of five or more, you should always play credit card roulette. Don’t be that guy that’s too afraid to put his card in the hat because his wife will kill him if he loses.
I’ll go to a restaurant I wouldn’t have otherwise gone to. That is part of the point. And if a restaurant I go to regularly has one, I’ll often take it and then be extra generous at tip time.
I’ve discovered a few restaurants that I like this way and will now go there even without a groupon… isn’t that what the main idea behind it is?
In a group bill, I’ve found that the best way is for everyone to pay for their own order (entree+drink etc), and everyone pools together for the tip + tax.
If tax/tip comes to $30 combined with 5 people, you pay for your own order (say $15 entree + $7 drink) and just add $6.
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Simplifies the math a lot
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makes it easy to divide among a lot of people
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no one gets screwed a lot by ordering a salad vs. someone who ordered the 4 pound lobster and a drink.
I hate anything but round numbers on my bank statements, so I almost always overtip. My bill was $51.84, I write $65 and move on. I almost never carry cash, so I’m also exempt from ever being the person in a group responsible for sorting out these things. I’ll throw it all on my card and take your cash, or I’ll ask for a separate tab to avoide the cheap and incompetent.
Out to lunch with co-workers one day we had brutally slow service, clearly a kitchen problem and not a wait-staff problem. The server was nice and apologetic. We get done, everyone throws in cash(I actually had cash this day) and we walk out. One guy doubles back, takes $5 off the table and says “that was way too big of a tip for such slow service.” We never went out with him again.