Tipping Rules Changed After Covid?

There are no tipping rules. People get paid a salary you do not need to tip.

In short your travel agent is talking rubbish. There is a growing culture, as in other countries, of the service industry seeing Americans as a soft touch, and of deliberately adding a suggestive tip line on the bill or the card machine.
Tip what you want to. There is no set amount, many people do not tip anything. Here the bill or any shop price is as stated and is inclusive of VAT (sales tax). You don't have to do mental gymnastics to work out the real price.
If you don't culturally feel comfortable not giving a tip then 10% is just fine, rounded up if you want.

Nothing's changed, Covid related or not. More and more restaurants in the UK are adding a discretionary 12 - 15% on bills which you are within your rights to ask to be removed although most people feel uncomfortable in doing so. Others will add 10%, others nothing. I don't usually tip however I did last night at one of my favourite restaurants where the service is impeccable, they know my wife's dietary requirements and advise her on what she can eat from the menu, they know what wine I like and they know where I prefer to be seated. That's the level of service that warrants a tip in my opinion. 15-20% is approaching US levels and should be met with resistance.

The tipping culture has not changed since covid.

Unlike others here, I always tip 10% if I receive table service. If service is included on the bill, which is increasingly common, there is no need to leave an additional tip.

I don’t tip in cafes or pubs with bar service only where you pay upfront.

The old phrase of "tipping is welcome but not expected" still holds. Give what you think is appropriate including nothing at all.

Service charges are not the same as a tip in law as this is defined as an uncalled for and spontaneous payment offered by a customer. They are handled by the restaurant according to their own policy and may all go to the owner.

If anything I tip less since the pandemic. So many places are now card-only, the card machines often don’t allow you to add tips and I rarely carry cash anyway.

Some places have apps where you can pay - and add a tip - by phone. Chains like Wagamama offer the choice to pay by app and give options for adding a tip - I think they offer 10, 12.5 and 15% as options.

In London and some big tourist areas, you’ll find 10% or 12.5% is added as an optional service charge - this is a tip, so you don’t need to add any more on that.

Certainly losing loose change has gone away ... because there isn't any.

Service charges are a way for management to reduce their headline prices. Bit of a con really. If there wasn't the different VAT treatment for them I think they'd be gone.

My experience is that in London, and most of the tourist centers, a tip is expected, and often a 10-15% service charge added, which as others said, can be declined, but rarely so.

However, that only really applies to a sit-down meal with waiter service, not at a pub where you order from the bar, and generally not away from the tourist centers, where a tip is discretionary, appreciated, but not really expected. Many of the other places Americans tip (Fast food, Coffee shops, food stands) a tip is not expected.

I agree, the rise of tap to pay has muddled things, you no longer round up as when paying cash, and not all systems have a prompt for a tip.

Not London, but last September in Edinburgh and a few restaurants in Scotland, an optional 10% charge was added to the bill. Each restaurant was upfront about it and it could be removed if you didn’t want to pay it. Also, even some CC machines brought to your table to pay had prompts for a tip. That was the first time I had run across that in the U.K., so yes, things seem to be changing.

It’s nothing like here in the U.S. where, for example, a mandatory 15% tip was added to carry out orders at a restaurant I ate at in Oregon last month. It was printed on the menu and on the website.

if that is the level of knowledge that the "travel agent" has, I'd get my maps and car stuff from them and rely not a jot or a tittle on their "advice" about England. wow.

Sorry, they are wrong.

By the way what is AAA?
And as your friend is going on a cruise our Cruise Lines have a very different tipping policy as well. The American lines (which I expect they are on) are increasingly exorbitant amounts of basic tips, and then tipping on drinks as well.
UK cruise lines are either tips included in the fare (like P and O), or very notional tips (£6 a day on Ambassador, and no UK cruise based line either expects more tips or charges 20% or whatever tips on drinks as well. That is just double dipping.
On land if a restaurant puts on their menu that there is a service charge of any percentage, I am not going to argue it at the end, they aren't getting my trade in the first place. It is that simple- or let me go into the kitchen and plate it myself, then you don't have to serve me. It's a con to increase profits as I don't believe for one minute the 'service charge' is going to the wait staff.
I seriously question the basic competence of that travel agent.

AAA is basically the same as the RAC.

Many of the other places Americans tip (Fast food, Coffee shops, food stands) a tip is not expected.

You tip at McDonalds?

@isn31c,

AAA has different levels of their USA services.

There is a yearly membership for roadside assistance inclusive of towing, changing tires, refueling a few gallons of gas and other breakdown related issues.

They offer home and car insurances.

They also have a travel department as well as a finance department.

Car and home or rental insurance can be quite low and very competitive with all the discounts they offer as a member.

They also offer a discount on AAA approved automotive repair stations. It depends on where you live in the states if that percentage discount is worth it or, not competitive enough with your trusted auto technician.

I don't think people need to be a roadside assistance member to get the insurance, travel, and financial advice for those that use it.

I believe Canada has a similar auto, car, and travel assistance program.

Leslie! You are a good friend to check on this for them. Make sure they READ the thread themselves so they can see where many of the respondents are from and understand the quality of the information. We all know the regular US posters have good information as well but they may not understand that.

I also agree with Nigel and isn31c, I'd be suspicious of anything that travel agent has told them if this is the quality of advice they are getting. It does not sound like the travel agent herself has been international since Covid.

My good friend in Italy, born and bred, says no tipping necessary.

A family member who lived in and worked in London for almost 30 years, says no tipping is necessary.

In special circumstances as JC referred to, if one wants to leave a "token of appreciation."

I've done that in Rome with a particular little family style restaurant I frequented. I would usually have the same waiter. He never asked for a tip but he was very, very good. A couple of times, I slipped him a couple Euro privately.

I learned a lesson in Sicily.

On my last full day, I tipped a few Euro for both our waiters at a restaurant my friend and I frequented during our stay. They were gracious but immediately held up the tip so their boss could see and brought it into the restaurant. He promptly put it into the cash register. I was not pleased about that since the waiters deserved it and not the owner boss.

@Girasole- Thanks for the clarification. Yes we have an AA-it was originally, and still legally, called the Automobile Association. And, as the RAC does, they offer exactly the same range of add on services as your AAA.
Way back in the day the AA used to have motorcycle patrolmen looking for motorists in difficulties, and roadside call boxes to summon assistance. Anyone who drives up (or on the bus) to Keswick in the Lake District on the long hill north of Grasmere (called Dunmail Raise) one of those call boxes survives at the summit (no longer used) and there are a few others preserved around the UK road network.
Just been reading your story about the Sicilian restaurant- that is what many think happens to tips here as well.

You tip at McDonalds?

Me? No, but if their system had a prompt, like more and more places do in the US, then many would, believe it or not. When I am in most larger cities, about every bakery, coffee shop, sandwich place, food truck, brewery tap room, all use systems that prompt a tip, some forcing you to go out of your way to decline (choose "custom tip" rather than one of the pre-calculated options, then input "0", accept, confirm amount, approve)

In regards to the discussion, I define fast food as any place you go to a counter, order an item, and it is handed to you, not just the large chains...but you can bet McDonalds or another large chain will soon add tipping capability.

It’s nothing like here in the U.S. where, for example, a mandatory 15% tip

Generally interested, what is the difference between a mandatory added extra and, you know, the price?

@Nick! That is an awesome historical side note.

(It also shot me back to an old Andy Griffith show where Barney buys an army surplus motorcycle with a side car, wears white leather gauntlets, goggles and sets up Checkpoint Chickie.)

Thank you all for your replies. I was already suspicious of this travel agent since she didn't answer my friends' questions, just gave them a print-out of things they "had" to do in London including the HOHO bus, and buying the London Pass with travel card because "you'll need that to travel around London"! I could set her straight with confidence on those last items, but thought I might have missed something with the tipping since I have not been to London after Covid. (Was supposed to be there in 2020, but we all know how that year went.) Again, thank you--I will let my friends know that my gut feeling was right, and why. They are not extravagant tippers at home, but they wanted to follow whatever the local customs were about tipping.

@ Leslie. Have your friends flee from the advice of that travel agent!

@ Leslie- Moving on from London I hope your friends at least got proper advice about how to travel onwards to Southampton for their cruise, and about which of the 5 terminals they will be embarking at.

He promptly put it into the cash register. I was not pleased about that since the waiters deserved it and not the owner boss.

But that really goes to the heart of the fallacy of tipping. You have no idea what agreements they may have regarding the tips they get. Maybe they are shared evenly, I mean why does the waiter deserve a tip, and not the guy that prepared your meal? What about the guy that came by and took your dirty dishes, maybe informed the waiter you needed more wine? What about the owner? If he is doing things right, he needs to know what you tipped so that he can record it and pay taxes on it, at least taxes on the income, but also additional taxes if it is given to the waiter as wages.

@isn31c,

Thank you also for the interesting information.

@Paul,

The restaurant / outdoor cafe was on a major street in Catania.

I really don't know about all that you wrote.

[Anyone could apply all that to restaurants in America as well.]

What I do know for a fact, is that they both offered my friend and I excellent service. Whether they plated the meal and/or washed the dishes afterward; I have no idea.

They were extremely professional. We enjoyed their singing and jokes at our table (others too.)

They did not even expect a tip and were rather surprised.

I can't control what an owner or manager does with the restaurant business, surely, but I can control how I handle things.

What we observed, is the owner would sit on his stool under the canopy between the outside cafe area and the entrance to the restaurant and watch everyone. I told my friend he resembled the late actor Miguel Ferrer.

Every time we went there or even walked by day or night, he was there. He had some interesting friends who would come to visit him and my friend and I joked that we are in the middle of a mafia movie.

The food was not expensive, plentiful, and very good. Restaurant was always crowded.

I don't know the practice of how he handles money or how he treats his employees. The way the waiters held up their euro like they were holding up a picture was just really odd. Walking it into the restaurant with it held up to give to him was even more odd. It is almost like they were afraid.

My Italian friend told me not to tip, but because they were nice guys and it was our last full day, I did.

@Carol--there is no chance of them going back to the AAA agent. They were already disgusted that their questions were ignored, but finding out that the list they were given was either wrong, or just the agent's opinion, made them a bit angry.

@isn31c--they are returning to Heathrow to use the transportation provided by the cruise company (not booked through AAA!). That seemed to be the simplest solution to them, and guaranteed to get them where they needed to be when they need to be there.

A contrasting experience in Catania compared to the other one.

In the city center, my friend and I went to a nice restaurant after spending the day there.

Restaurant seemed to be popular and crowded with locals and visitors alike.

Our waiter was very nice and very professional.

Our fish dishes were very good.

When it came time to present the bill, the waiter asked for a gratuity. I was surprised. My Italian friend was annoyed.

She looked up at him and said something to him in Italian, lol, and he graciously bowed away.