Is Tipping 20% Too Much in the Philippines?

[Kuya John]

3 hours ago, Jollygoodfellow said:

The restaurant across the road from me sit down with at least 2 staff or management and security guard to count the tips. Its is then recorded in a book so I guess in this case its done correctly.

JGF....I presume they declare their tips to the tax- man..... 

[jimeve]

9 minutes ago, Kuya John said:

JGF....I presume they declare their tips to the tax- man..... 

Of course John. Lucky if they declared their takings.

[Jollygoodfellow]

18 minutes ago, jimeve said:

Of course John. Lucky if they declared their takings.

This is a large establishment and the company owns several different restaurants so I would say yes. 

[davewe]

Here's my story after living in Dumaguete for 14 months. We go out to lunch and dinner a lot.There are I dare say a couple of restaurants we have been to 25 times or more in those 14 months and a large handful of restaurants we've visited 10+ times.

We are 20 peso tippers. Once in a while if the bill is high, I might go to 40-50 pesos. I have never had an instance where anyone mistreated us because we had not left some large, American-style tip. On the contrary the staff at many of these restaurants know us, like us and give good service (most of the time). Frankly I suspect the 20P is higher than their normal tip. Whatever - that's not my issue. The beauty of our system is we don't have to calculate, debate, divide a tip if out with other couples, or try to determine what the service was worth - I am too old for such stress and just leave my 20 and go. 

Edited September 25, 2018 by davewe

[fillipino_wannabe]

I tip 20-50 pesos normally aswell. That's more than enough in my opinion, if every customer did that then the waiter would be earning more than most jobs here already.

[bastonjock]

I was at the hof gorai resort on samal , I got the bill after 4 days and it had a service charge on it , I spoke to the waiting staff and they told us that the owner keeps that money. to herself , also they told us that if we have them a tip she would take it off them

As we left I slipped both of the waiters a 500p thank you too for excellent service , this was from 4 people for 4 days 

[Dave Hounddriver]

55 minutes ago, davewe said:

I am too old for such stress and just leave my 20 and go. 

Sounds like you have a good plan.

I spent years surreptitiously watching middle-class Filipinos to see if there was a standard tip I should leave.  It seemed to me they left a tip as the mood struck them.  Sometimes they leave more than the average expat, sometimes they leave the coins only, sometimes they leave nothing.  If there is a method to it then it escapes me.

So I devised my own method, that is similar to yours.  I leave approximately 20 pesos per person if the bill is more than 100 and less than 1000.  If less than 100 I leave a couple of coins and if more than 1000 I do some soul searching and come up with something I feel is fair.  Why 20 per person?  If I am going out by myself I leave 20.  If Lynne goes out by herself she leaves 20 so that about sums it up.  20 each.

YMMV.  Extremely cheap bastards and extreme showoffs piss me off but anything in the middle is quite reasonable, IMHO.  Those who want to be cheap or extravagant are going to do it no matter what others think so it's easier to talk about them than to them.   

[Ryan.]

Not so much percentages for me:

Short Answer: 20 and very liberal about it. Ex: coffee to go. 

As with life their is always exceptions. Low: 0 High: 200.

 

 

[jimeve]

Depends on the service and the food, if it's decent food and decent service I give 50 p. 

[earthdome]

In our current visit to the Philippines I find that my wife, after living in the US for 4 years, now wants to tip much more than I do!