HOW MUCH TO TIP.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXIX, Issue 5231, 25 January 1928, Page 3

HOW MUCH TO TIP.

TRAVELLER'S WARNING.

U.S. CONSUL’S HINT, This is the, time of. the year when Mr and Mrs Suburbia decide to go for a trip to Europe, and advice is eagerly sought on the cost of everything abroad, says a Sydney' paperFor, unless Mr and 'Mrs Sluburbia. are particularly wealthy, this trip is going to make a big hole in the family bank account.

“It is not so much the x fares and things that frighten us,” said a homely little woman from Mosman, “but they say tipping is so expensive now, a;nd stewards and other people like that expect a lot —all due to rich Americans and Australians,, who have no regard for how much they spend. However a big Macquarie Street doctor, who returned from abroad recently, says that tipping is sternly discouraged by hotel proprietors pn the continent. They have arranged for .10 per cent, for tips to be added to the bill. Nevertheless, waiters and. porters push themselves upon the unwary ravel'ler and cadge; for extra t’p&.

Here are the opinions of some well known Sydney men : —

Mr H. T. Armitage (Deputy Governor of the Commonweath Bank) : The cost of tipping is not so large as it is rumoured. Stewards, porters, waiters, etc., can do all they can to help travellers, and it is only right that they should be compensated in some measure. Tourists, who may not be. very wealthy should allow so much money for tipping expenses when maikiiig an estimate of what their proposed trip will cost.

Mr Parr (manager of. Cook’s Tours, Ltd. : Tipping is no worse than before the war. Americans are big tippers, and a,re. inclined to give more than services are worth ; but I can t see that this affects the ordinary tourist. It is now recognised abroad that 10 per cent, is added to a bill for tips; and in France and Italy big steps have been taken to try and prohibit individual tipping.

Sir Arthur Rickard: Ifl a traveller wants individual, attention the only way to get it is to “stand out” from his fellow travellers by giving larger tips. Tipping on the Continent is very high and the arrangement of adding 10 per cent, to a bill is not often satisfactory. ' In Italy 1 had 15 per cent, added to my bill at an hotel, and in spite of this, there was a rorw of porters, maids, waiters, and messengers lined up, foi’ extra’ tips. Mr Duncan Carson (Winchcombe, Carson, Ltd.) : It is. no use shipping companies arranging to charge slightly higher fares, and give the extra money to their stewards' as tips, because there would still be people .who would give extra tips to get better attention. I may be Scotch —but I don’t see why a traveller should, not be allowed to tip a servant who has been specially good to him. Americans do tip too lavishly—but not the better-class American, and it is mostly the young men who give large tips to show off.

Mr C. Lloyd Jones (of David Jones, Ltd.) All this talk of tipping becoming terribly expensive is no doubt grossly exaggerated. .How z many times do rich men really give the enormous tips they are said to bestow on the boats, and in the hotels ? Anyway, if anyone does you a kindness, of course you want to repay him, and as far laws and arrangements to stop individual tipp’ng—well, they never have been effective, and never will.

American Consul, Mr Lawton : I always advise any friends who may go for a trip never to give more than the usual ten per cent. —otherwise, if the y give more, they get the reputation of being “easy marks,” to use a slang expression.