:smack:
Right after I sent that, I thought that I might be incorrect.
There was one party that I worked this past summer at the Hollywood Bowl where I did receive a tip out, but that’s the only time that happened. A fair estimate is that the client put out more than 50 grand for our services, plus an untold ammount for the rental of the space. If there was a tip, I seriously doubt that my employer would disclose that information.
I always tip bartenders well, and it pays off. You usually get a lot more liquor in the drinks. The other night I was tipping $2 on $3 gin and tonics, and the last few I had had a lot more gin than tonic in them.
I always tip bartenders well, and it pays off. You usually get a lot more liquor in the drinks. The other night I was tipping $2 on $3 gin and tonics, and the last few I had had a lot more gin than tonic in them.
If someone provides a service to me and doesn’t insult me or treat me like an ass while they’re doing it, I calculate 15% in my head and then round up (so it usually comes out to almost 20%). For especially good service, I do that and then toss on a couple of bucks. If someone were blatantly obnoxious and insulting to me (which I’ve never had happen, but I suppose it could), I would probably tip 10%, because when you get 10% you know you did a sucky-ass job–if you get no tip you can make yourself feel better by telling yourself your customer was just ignorant. I believe that people doing service work have tough jobs that almost always require some kind of special training, and they deserve the tip; I also believe that service-providers remember the good tippers and give them better service the next time (which I find to be true, especially since I mostly go to local places).
I’m underage, so I don’t drink (and if I did, it wouldn’t be at a bar). But I plan to tip a couple bucks on open bar service when I get it; I have had relatives and friends who were bartenders, and know that it’s difficult.
I’ve had a couple of parties at catering halls myself, and have been involved in a few “hostless” parties at work ( group gets together, gets a hall, dj etc and sells tickets to cover the cost) . Every catering hall ( in NYC) I’ve dealt with adds a gratuity to the bill. Usually it was 15%, in cash, to be paid before the event. I wouldn’t expect a tip that I just handed to the employer to necessarily make it to the staff, but if my contract includes a 15% gratuity, to be paid to the catering hall in cash 3 days before the event, I expect that to go to the employees for the same reason that I expect the 15% gratuity added for parties of 8 or more in a restaurant to go to the waitress. If the waitress doesn’t or the catering hall employees don’t get the 15%, that’s really something they have to take up with the employer, not the customer. Your beef is with either your employer or the host- not the guests. The way to find out which is to determine whether or not your employer adds a gratuity onto the bill- and while they might not tell you, they will tell someone whose inquiring about having an event.
10%? why would you give them any money at all when they did a shitty job, or worse yet they where obnoxious and insulting? if you wanna make a point leave a penny. 10% is still better than 0% and 10% more than shitty service deserves.
I humbly disagree, doreen. My whole point is that I’ve worked similar events in NY and made a lot of money - because each guest ponies up a few dollars every time that they are served.
Also, this was not held in a catering hall. As I stated earlier in the thread, I would compare it to Lincoln Center.
The most likely reason why you’ve had to pay grat in NY is that these are places where a union is involved (I believe that it’s local 8).
(I didn’t see this method mentioned)
I attend a yearly fundraiser dinner of about 300 people - that’s been going on since the mid-70’s. There’s an open bar, but you have to get “drink tickets” from the 6-10 volunteers who are running the event. They’re freely given by the volunteers on request, but the point of the tickets is each is worth a fixed gratuity to the bartending staff at the end of the event.
Actually, my explanation for why I would tip 10% was pretty much out of my ass, because I realized I had no witty or decent reason for 10%…which probably would have been fine if I left it.
I don’t think i would really tip anything if they were actually obnoxious and insulting, the point was more to create an exaggeration and show that someone would have to be pretty bad to get less than 15% from me. Guess I killed that one by saying the part about how it could happen and making it sound reasonable. Oh well.
The whole point of my post is, I tip. I pressure my friends to whenever we go out (many of them don’t think to tip). And I get good service as a result of it. And I feel sorry for the OP, who got screwed.
It doesn’t really make a difference if it’s a catering hall, a party in a private home or Lincoln Center. My whole point is that the host is supposed to tip you, not the guests., and (assuming that they are private parties) , your problem is either with the host who didn’t provide a tip or your employer who didn’t pass it on. Guests might also tip you, but that doesn’t make it their responsibility. I wonder if the parties in NY (and the one in LA, for that matter) were really private parties. Was there a host who paid the bill and invited particular people ? Then it’s a private party and the host should have tipped you. Did a group organize the event and sell tickets to coworkers, members, etc? Then it’s a private party and the organizers should have tipped you (and in my experience, the ticket price is set to include taxes and gratuities) Did the venue sell tickets to the general public for a “party” which included an open bar? Then it’s not a private party, there is no host and the customers (not guests) should have tipped you.
I’m not at all saying you shouldn’t have been tipped, or even that you shouldn’t have gotten more than $46, but if it was a private party with a host and guests, it was the host’s responsibility to tip you, not the guests. Would you still be complaining about the guests not tipping if you had gotten your share of a 20% tip given by the host?
I’m very glad, Missy.
But people for whom “the sky is the limit” are not exactly the majority. 
So while I say “Bravo! Come to my bar! Have a kick ass margarita on me!” to that, I still maintain that most people tip the same way they’re polite; because society expects it.
Given a way out, they probably won’t.
But it’s obvious that Mr.2U and yourself DO rock. 
That makes all the difference in the world, doreen. If it was in a private home, I would never expect the guests to tip me (although I bartended a holiday party last year in NJ at a private home and got tipped by guests nearly $100) That type of party, you’ve most likely got fewer than 50 guests and a staff of maybe 6 or 7.
On Thanksgiving, I worked a party in a private home for 30 - at the end of the shift, the hostess tipped me out $50 - which I found to be quite generous, and I thanked her accordingly.
This was a corporate holiday party for Price Waterhouse Cooper. There were 1000 guests, and they paid nothing (other than the bit of their souls that their employer may take from them ).
It also makes a difference what is being served - when it’s simply wine and beer, if I don’t make any tips, I wouldn’t be put off because that is the type of service that any person who has motor skills can handle. However, when I am serving drinks that require skill to make (lemon drops, cosmopolitans, margaritas, kamikazees), and I am working double time because of a huge line, I feel that the expectation of a tip is not bad form.
Again, I’m not saying you shouldn’t have been tipped or that you shouldn’t have expected a tip. You absolutely should have been tipped. But if Price Waterhouse Cooper threw a $50,000 plus party for their employees and didn’t tip, then PWC is the cheap-ass , no class motherfucker, not the guests.
This is true, but calling a corporation out for being cheap is to beat a horse that died long ago. I don’t see anything wrong with my rant. If 80 - 90% of my clientele tips (and tips well) at party A, and 10 - 20% of my clientele tips at party B, and all other things are equal (both holiday parties with open bars), how can I be so blatantly in the wrong with my assertion?