Is Tipping 20% Too Much in the Philippines?

[JJReyes]

In Spain, the Spaniards don't tip so leaving behind loose change or about 5% is appreciated. In tourist areas, foreigners have spoiled them so the expectation is 10% or more.

In the Philippines, the expectation is 10% or higher if you are a foreigner. The wait staff has no expectation if you are Filipino. 

Japan still has a no tipping policy except in western style hotels and restaurants.

The United States has gone crazy. To make sure you understand that tipping is importation, they print on the receipt what is 15%, 20% or 25% service charge to add to the bill. Oftentimes, the calculation is based on the amount after adding the sales tax, which could be 10% of your sub-total. What pisses me off is that the courts have decided that the restaurant owners can take all the tip money or redistribution to all their employees as salary. That means someone in the kitchen or accounting department is receiving a portion of your tip.

My personal tipping policy -- if it is a one time visit, the tip would be 10% or 15% of the amount in the bill before taxes are added. If my intention is to become a regular customer, then it would be 20%. 

 

[expatuk2014]

Aah the tipping thingy ! My wife has her senior Citizen card !

When we eat out its either her sister pays or we do and the wife will not give

Any tips at all as she says " why have a senior citizen card when the 20% discount is left as a tip ? "

She does however always give 10 pesos to the boys who push our shopping to our car at 

The south supermarket. 

[AlwaysRt]

10 hours ago, Happyhorn52 said:

I usually tip 20p for my morning breakfast, and up to 50p for a more expensive dinner with good service. In my opinion 200p is half a days wages and probably overkill. I also tip 10p for the guy who helps me park my SUV.

If you tip I agree with 20 pesos (my typical when at the monthly member meetup) and 50 pesos on the high end. I drive a motorcycle so I give 5 pesos for parking.

9 hours ago, Howard said:

I find in metro manila that 100 peso's or 50 for that matter has any server jumping for joy!

I do not live in Manila or a 'big' city and agree 50 pesos has them jumping for joy (and not thinking you are a sucker)

3 hours ago, Tukaram (Tim) said:

We have a regular waitress than gives very good service. The restaurant uses the standard tip pool.  A few of us have tried to slip her a tip and she always puts it in the tip jar. She said it is not worth losing her job over it.

An option would be to bring her some chocolates or something, I wouldn't think she would be expected to share a bit of candy.

[scott h]

15 hours ago, bows00 said:

What is the normal tipping practices there?

Ah the great tipping policy debate 

I know that I am hated by my Aussie and Brit friends. I lavishly over tip in their eyes. To ease the pain in my non mathematical brain, I used to look at the VAT amount and round up to the nearest bill from there. Onse my wife got her senior discount card we just leave that amount (rounded up). 

In my own defense, since my wife is not an adventurous eater, we tend to patronize the same 5 or 6  restaurants, when we hit the door we are greeted with smiles and great service (my bottomless ice tea is never empty) sometimes the cooks will even come out to say hi. To me, a few extra pesos spread around is well worth the special treatment we receive at our favorite places.

(as a side note to the Aussie habit of not tipping because of the higher pay scale. On our recent trip to Sydney, twice while we were dining at nice restaurants  we obviously must have stayed there over shift change and our server changed before we finished our meal. I found that a bit disconcerting but I got over it lololol)

[bows00]

4 hours ago, AlwaysRt said:

An option would be to bring her some chocolates or something, I wouldn't think she would be expected to share a bit of candy.

I like this idea, especially if your a regular customer there.  

[Clermont]

Yeah I've written on this subject before, Uncle Peter recond they get enough so why leave them a tip. Now when we go over there we make sure he's the first one out of our eatery, at least the poor buggers get their tip and not him.

As for the wife she always get a bakla to serve us if one is handy, I don't know why, I think we need a green eyed emoticon to describe PI women. 

[Happyhorn52]

On the other extreme, when I have a dispute with the server about charges on the bill, my usual response is "No problem, I will just take it out of your tip" and I leave nothing and walk away.

[Dave Hounddriver]

17 hours ago, Dave Hounddriver said:

So its still up to you.

I'm going to correct myself on this.  "Its up to you" if you are single.  If you have a filipina wife/gf with you then they will decide if you have left too much and pick it up off the table when you are not looking and leave a reasonable tip (if any).  That system works real great as the foreigner feels good for leaving a big tip, the wife feels good for taking care of it without letting her man lose face, and the waitress gets a fair tip. 

[scott h]

24 minutes ago, Dave Hounddriver said:

they will decide

Think my wife spent to long in the states then, she usually asks if I have left enough lol 

[Tukaram (Tim)]

My wife and I were in Boracay for christmas. We had a nice dinner, and the bill was p963.  I left a p1,000 bill and was walking away... my wife says "what about our change?"

...It is a never ending struggle ha ha