Ever get confused about what to tip in restaurants?
Tipping is often a divisive and complicated topic at the end of the meal. Do you add it and split for everyone? How much should you put on? Do you still tip if it’s been bad service? What about buffets or self service?
Then there are the differences overseas. Just how much do you tip? In countries like the USA, low minimum wage salaries mean it’s often essential for staff to survive, but they’re also double what we’d expect in the UK at 20%.
This week’s Clever App is TipThisMuch.In can help some of those questions. It’s is a handy site to help you figuring how much money to tip. It’s only for restaurants but it has two useful features.
1. It suggests how much to tip based on the country you are in.
2. It lets you calculate how much based on your meal and the number of people.
The site is easy to use. Just scroll through the country list, or tap the amount of the meal and percentage of tip into the handy calculator.
How does it save you money?
I wasn’t aware that tips are not customary in Japan or China – it can be considered offensive. Or that in France it’s the law for it to be included in the price. And there are many others too where you don’t need to tip.
For most that’s probably because it’s already factored into the price or staff are on better wages. So if you do the standard British thing of adding 10%, you’re essentially paying double.
Likewise, it’s easy to get confused working out any gratuity, even if it’s just 10%. So the tool is useful to make sure you don’t under – or even over – tip.
I quite like this site, and it’s well worth bookmarking. It would be better if it also gave guidance on other scenarios such as taxis, hotel porters and hairdressers. There is another site How Much Should I Tip which has some of those options, but the countries and cities listed seem a bit hit and miss.
If you’re not keen on evenly splitting bills – and tips – make sure you read my How to avoid beer pressure and keep your friends blog post.