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Tipping confusion

Cleveland, Ohio
63 posts
Tipping confusion

We are leaving in a few days for a vacation with a tour company through Spain. From reading many posts here and on other forums, I was led to believe that tipping at restaurants, bars, bistros & such is not the norm. We received some info from the tour company today and they suggested a 10% tip for restaurant and hotel personnel. We have prepaid gratuities for our tour director and driver, but are very confused about tipping in restaurants, bars, and taxi drivers. Thanks for any advice!

6 replies to this topic
IOP
Europe
1,489 posts
1. Re: Tipping confusion

Hi. I live in Spain now and can confirm that Spanish people do not generally leave tips, preferring to warmly thank and compliment the establishment on their food, service etc. UK visitors ( where I used to live) think that they should tip because it’s expected in UK restaurants and generally leave between 5-10%. To be honest it’s up to you. If you think a meal was really excellent and the service matched, leave a tip, but no more than 10% or they will think you have made a mistake. If the experience was naff, don’t leave a tip.

Stourbridge, United...
2,964 posts
13 helpful votes
2. Re: Tipping confusion

I think part the problem here is that you have to tip in the US to from how it seems to be portrayed to subsidise the servers income. So you probably feel strange if you are not tipping.

As said it is not routinely expected in Spain. So you do not have to tip. What I routinely do if I am happy with the service is round up by a couple of euros but as said it’s not expected like you may be used to at home.

Toronto, Canada
6,425 posts
4 helpful votes
3. Re: Tipping confusion

Some in the tourism industry have caught on that Americans are used to tipping and so are taking advantage to encourage people to tip when that's typically not been the norm.

Munich, Germany
Destination Expert
for Oman, California, Yukon, Chile, Argentina, Road Trips
47,761 posts
10 helpful votes
4. Re: Tipping confusion

We are on a roadtrip through Spain at the moment. And I thought, it would be the same as in Germany: rounding up a bit. But I had to recognice, that even this small money is not accepted. Everywhere, if we want to round up we where told: the price is the price. Nothing more.

But, I have to say, we always have lunch or dinner at local restaurants, not where the tourists are.

United Kingdom
Destination Expert
for Cornwall
32,152 posts
200 helpful votes
5. Re: Tipping confusion

I think the statement about prepaying gratuities clearly demonstrates the difference in cultures.

Most Americans expect to tip regardless of the level of service (even before receiving any service - good, bad or indifferent). Europeans generally don’t and certainly don’t tip the large amount expected in the US (on my most recent visit to Florida the options on the check were to add 20/25/30%)

Most servers in areas attracting lots of tourists will know that so Americans might find they get poorer service than others because they’ll likely tip anyway.

Edited: 27 September 2024, 04:37
Lincoln, United...
9,825 posts
59 helpful votes
6. Re: Tipping confusion

Given that we almost always pay by credit cards in restaurants, we pay the exact amount, and then, depending on the service, leave a few Euros in cash on the table. At a bar, depending on the amount, we will either tell the waiter to keep the change (in Spanish) eg when giving a €5 note for a €4.70 bill, or, when the change arrives, leave a small amount behind.

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