For my mom’s birthday I purchased us both a day at the spa. I seek doper wisdom on how to properly tip for the following services. We will each be receiving the same treatments and I’d like to have our tips ready beforehand, in cash, for each service.
Prices listed are per person.
“Ultimate” Spa Facial $75
90 Minute Massage $115
60 Minute Spa Pedicure $45
Manicure $15
Do I tip the “headmistress”, too? I don’t have any trouble knowing how to tip for my normal services (food, deliveries, nails, hair, feet, piercings :eek:, etc.), but I want to make sure I do the right thing by each “provider” tomorrow. Thanks!
So $10 for the facial
$15 for the massage
$7 for the pedi
$2 for the mani (unless the same person does pedi and mani, in which case I’d give her $10)
$12-15 for the attendant. If there’s more than one, they split it and I’d go a little high.
You do not tip the owner of the spa, so if she’s your “headmistress,” she does not recieve a tip.
Oh, I forgot. Many day spas will request that you place each tip in an envelope with the therapist’s name on it that you leave at the front desk. (They provide the envelopes.) This is supposedly so you don’t feel pressured to tip, though it’s often because the therapist’s wages are based in part on what she earns in tips, or becuase the spa is keeping track of tips for tax reasons. If you’re doing a lot of things involving different people, ask the desk person to give you the envelopes and names of your therapists and which one is which before you begin, because you’ll never keep them all straight when you’re gooey and relaxed.
I would add that it’s entirely possible that you’ll have the same person for all of your services (I’ve had this happen before). When that is the case, I tend to tip a bit more (2% extra or so), just because the poor person had to put up with my bizarre sense of humour all day so you may want to consider that.
If it does wind up being the same person for all services, you could probably do $35 - $50 depending on how happy you were with your services. Perhaps I’m cheap, but 20% is the upper limit for what I’ll tip at the spa. (I don’t think that’s cheap, but perhaps a spa worker will be in her shortly to tell me it is - dunno.)
