“My advice is just stop tipping. And I’m giving it to you for free,” said a tourist who took a logical position in his way. He reminds us that the basic tip is voluntary and is a thank you for excellent service, so the tourist turned to all public catering and hotel services, demanding to remove the service fee by definition, that is, the so-called tip, which is included in the bill as a separate line.
As he declares, it was not easy for him to reach such a position. For example, in Hurghada, according to a tourist, he was “chased along the beach” demanding a tip. “I purposely ignored the tip envelope in my room only to be chased down the beach one fine day by a cleaner eager to remind me that I can show my appreciation with a tip,” the tourist said with some humor.
He notes that “for some reason” when it comes to tips, everyone prefers to focus on the US, where the service fee often reaches 20%… At the same time, such employees would hardly receive anything voluntarily. “Due to painfully slow service, it takes 20 minutes to find someone who can muster enough energy to print my bill. Which was surprising given my waiter’s eagerness to get my money, starting with a non-negotiable 20 percent service charge, added presumably so that the staff could afford basic medical care,” says a tourist about his experience at South Beach.
“Why can’t we be like Japan where tipping is considered an insult?” – asks the expert. According to him, it was there in a Tokyo restaurant that he forgot about his dislike of tips and “out of distraction” left them for the waiter. However, he caught up with him in a few seconds at the exit of the restaurant to return the money. “He just took pride in doing his job,” the expert added, but acknowledged that requests for higher tips and service fees won’t go anywhere. Too many industries want to get the tourists to shell out for things that were once free.