The other day my girlfriend and I had breakfastr at Denny’s. She felt I tipped extra because the girl was attractive. After some discussion she asked what I base my tips on. I don’t actually calculate or keep score but I think I start at about 15% and go up or down from there depending on the level of service. A nice fresh well groomed server improves my experience so I may add points for that all things being equal. After thanksgiving I tend to double my tips through the month of December. Other than Chrisitmas I rarely go over 25% or under 10% unless service is blatantly rude. When I buy coffee or drinks I tend to tip about $1.00 per drink and maybe .50 on refills. I feel like I am pretty normal on this, she thinks I tip too much. thoughts?
I tip more than that, about 20% rounded up.
I just go by gut feeling. It’s quite arbitrary; I look at the check and a number comes to me, and I put that down.
If I were to math it out it would probably come be somewhere around 20-25%, but sometimes it can be significantly more. For example, I got a pizza delivered last night, and the charge was $13.10; I gave the guy five bucks, which is like 40%.
In Holland if you tip, its between the 5 and 10%
But a lot people don’t tip here
20%. Or at a bar a buck a drink.
Sales tax is around 7 1/2 - 8% in our area. I start by doubling the tax amount and then adding to it based on service and over all dining experience. Usually works out to around 20-25%.
I usually start the mental math at 20%, because it’s easy, then deduct or increase as appropriate given the dining experience.
Same here. After doing this, if I’m paying by credit card, I’ll usually add cents to bring the total up to an whole dollar value (I would usually leave the coins if I had paid in cash and gotten change so I guess it just kind of carries over) and might add another dollar or two if the service was really good or I felt like it was a difficult day or order (it the place is crowded, the server seems more stressed than usual or I had more more than one special request, for example.)
As long as the server was polite and makes an effort to provide good service, I’ll almost never go below 20%.
15-20% but the tip must make the bill total an even number.
I drink a ton of water when I eat out. If my server was good about keeping my water refilled I’ll usually go 20% so long as nothing else about the service was particularly bad.
If my server notices the volume of water I drink and brings me a pitcher or two full glasses of water at a time, I’ll go a bit higher than that.
If my server can’t keep my water full but the rest of the service was acceptable, the tip will be about 15%.
I’ll go as low as 10% for mediocre to poor all-around service.
Move the decimal over and double. Easy peasy.
I usually start at 20% after tax. I’ll adjust up or down a bit depending on the situation (e.g., toddler grandchild) and service. But really, the waiter has to be downright flatout rude for me to go under 15%.
Evidently that’s a bit higher than standard around here, judging by the treatment I get on return visits. I think the average is around 15% pre-tax.
But y’know what? I make a decent living these days and can go out to eat fairly often. I’ve waited tables, I know what kind of money they make. I can afford that extra couple bucks to make their day better.
For some reason that level of math is beyond me. I seem to have a medical condition where when I eat tasty food, my math skills fall to a kindergarten level.
I just work out how many tens are in the check, and give two bucks for each one, then make a little adjustment. Me thinks I tips good.
I start at 20% and then add or subtract based on a few things. I’ll limit these factors to things under the server’s control. For instance, if the food takes 45 minutes to make it to the table I understand it’s a busy kitchen so I don’t care - as long as the server comes by and warns me it’s going to take a while. So I wouldn’t factor in how long it took, but I would factor in how long I sat there waiting, uninformed. In the end I never tip a percentage though, I always round to a total, so if the after tax was $30.50 and I was feeling like tipping 25%, I’d round it up to $40 total.
Oh, and as my wife has pointed out, I’m a sexist pig and attractive women will get a better tip. Unless the server is particularly good, in which case my wife will ask me to tip “as if it was a cute girl.”
Easiest method is to take the first number in the bill and double it, you’ll always be between 15 & 20%
Example, bill is $34.85. Tip $6. Comes to a 17.2% tip.
Usually I’ll add an extra buck if the second number is 7 or higher.
20% and round up, or $5, whichever is higher. Never less than $5. $10 if it’s your first nght at one of my regular places. And as somebody said, regular servers at those place always get a Holiday bonus, in the case of the darling who always brings extra napkins and remembers to leave the cherry off of Celtling’s sundae - $50. But she’s an exception, and takes good care of us on exhausted weeknights throughout the year.
There have been a few extremely rare circumstances, like when I’m thirsty all through the meal for lack of water (+1 Johnny Bravo!) or when I have to wait 20 minutes for the check, that I’ll adjust down from 20%. You have to be really openly trying to get to 10%, because I’m just really offended by the vulnerability serving folks face in the US. A merit pay system should have checks and balances, and be run on a well-defined scale IMO.
So the OP is the only one who tips pretty waitresses extra?
No. I do too.
I do remember one time I tipped $0. It was a very popular restaurant in Savannah. We had a coupon for free onion dip or something, and as my wife sat down the waiter ripped it our of her hand, didn’t say a word about it. He was rude the rest of the meal, and left us with empty water glasses for good periods of time. And he never brought us our fucking onion dip. When the check came, I circled the onion dip and left $0.
I don’t go by pretty or sexy as much as I do good grooming. My GF seems to think I go by sexy. If I am alone and the waitress is sexy shows me a bit of extra attention I might be a little more generous.
15% unless there’s some extraordinary circumstance in either direction.
10% of the bill plus half again. Easy enough.