Tipping Tour Guides - One week tour

That's ridiculous. Are you sure it's not 5-10 Euros a day. That would about right.

It looks like the operator may have mixed up the $ and % on the keyboard. That is too much per couple.

When we have done guided hiking tours the suggested tip was 8-10 euros per person per day. So 150 euros (high end) for a week tour from my Hubbie and me (together, not each).

A friend of mine works as a tour director in Europe for an American tour company. She is one person herding some 20 to 40 people for one to two weeks, depending on the tour. Tour members don't have to worry about lugging their luggage (delivered and picked-up from the rooms), taxis and other transportation arranged as needed or requested, etc.

Tour guests are asked by the tour company to give an €8/day/person tip (~€60/week per person). Why, because the company does not pay very well, less than €100 per day (very American!). She has a very long day (usually a 16-18 hours) and on call 24 hours/day. And don't forget the paper work before and after the tour.

very American!

Explain

And if someone is asking you to tip, then its not a tip. Its a fee. Tips are for good service, better tips for better service. No tip for lousy service. If they are going to play that game, i would find someone else. But i would tip very well for very good service.

I have worked as a tour director so let me clarify some things.

Tour directors for most companies are paid the going rate. It's a very competitive field and there are more tour directors than there is work.

The tour companies suggest that if you enjoyed the services of your tour director you give them a gratuity and they suggest an amount. It is not a requirement, just a suggestion. This is unlikely some tour companies where the gratuity is included in the price if your tour whether you like it or not.

Remember, it is not a year long job as the tour industry is seasonal. And much of the work done by the TD is never seen by the passengers.

When we took a guided tour, it seems like the recommendation was the equivalent of $15 per person per day.

I would clarify with your company if they meant $ or % .

If they really did mean % then they are cheap twits who are making the guests pay the guides actual wages . I would never use a company like that myself .

"very American"...mmmm, have we forgotten about Rick and his tours?

that's not a tip that's a supplement

Bruce, you're paying the equivalent of a tip 8n your tour cost. Only the extra paid to your "guide" is not optional like other tours.

Paying guides decent wages, eliminating tipping and posting the full price of tours up front is my cup of tea (and coffee).

What is a decent wage?

Set aside for the moment the amount the OP has written and let's consider this:

The "tip" is NOT a Fee or a "Supplement" It is a Tip and it's is not required. (I wish the op had posted the actual language from the trip documents)

The printing of a suggested Customary amount of a tip is to help the passengers who have no idea what to tip and are afraid to ask the Tour Director. It also is meant to forestall that conversation as it is awkward and uncomfortable for all concerned.

Another reason for the tip information in the tour documents is that there may be people from countries where it is not customary to tip and they need to be informed about what is customary where the tour takes place.

Tour directors make money in several ways. Usually a small salary based on their days on the road sometimes with a per diem. (And I have personal knowledge of the following) and in many cases like China and Europe and Australia Commissions on what the group buys are a big part of their income.

Let me give you an example from Bucherer in Lausanne Switzerland. Bucherer is Switzerlands biggest chain jewelry store and a frequently visited place by tour groups. tour leaders (like those from Collette Vacations or Tauck here in the US) have accounts with their own credit cards from Bucherer to collect commisions. And here is the part that may surprise many of you. The Tour Director never takes the group to the store itself. On the way in to town to the hotel the tour leader points out the Bucherer store and tells them about the free gift coupon that is in the map they will get from the hotel. They are urged again (for the tenth time on this trip) to use their CREDIT CARDS! for their safety.

The TD gets the group settled in the hotel and his/her next stop is Bucherer where he drops a copy of his passenger manifest off in an office above the shopping level and accessed through an unmarked door near the rear of the store down a side alley.

On the last day in town before departure he may return to Bucherer and other shops where he has also left his manifest and collect his commissions which can be as much as 10-20%. Or at Bucherer they will load his commissions on his card.

In St Moritz a tour leader will distribute his manifest to all the major shops and the ones nearby the hotel. And they will all pay some percentage in commission.

All you need is ONE person to buy a Rolex and your week has just been made...and it happens often.

So Tour Directors/Leaders can and do make some very good money if they are working at the right "level" in the industry a bigger company like Collette. Also if you are at a bigger company like that the job is year-round not quite so seasonal as the good TD would typically do tours on two or three continents.

As for tip amounts or percentages it depends upon where the trip is and how long it is and how difficult. For instance an 18 day Yangtze River Cruise Trip in China could have 5 airline segments in China a boat segment and many bus moves and luggage moves. this kind of trip is high-end and deserves a bigger tip than a one-week jaunt around Croatia.

But what struck me the most about the OP's post is that he seems to be paying 5,500€ for a local one week tour of Croatia which I think is a bit high.

But in any case I think $200 Per couple for that trip would be a very good tip IF the tour leaders were great and you were happy.

I don't know where you get this stuff Aarthurperry but it's not true. I have been said Tour Director and the only commissions made are when the group is taken to the store or if the store offers discount coupons that have a code number on it so they know which TD gets the commission.

If a TD gives out the tour roster information to an unauthorized third party --like a retail establishment--it is against company policy and grounds for dismissal. Additionally the stores must be reputable. If too many complaints are received, The TD will find himself in hot water with the tour company.

As for year round work, take a look at a tour company's brochure and see just how many tours are given in the winter. Not many. With a glut of tour directors,tour companies can hire more locally based TD's rather than send someone to numerous continents.

Colette and Tauck are two highly reputable companies that take their business seriously. They do not participate in underhanded operations.

And we would tell people to use their credit card over cash because should there be a problem, the credit card company can get involved. If using cash, you"re at the mercy of the retailer.

By the way, any demonstration where you can buy the product afterwards--ceramics, glass, cukoo clocks,etc--is a shopping stop even if it is not called that.

I still want to know what a decent wage is?

I have no idea what a decent wage is hopefully I will start to earn one before I retire in a couple of years time.

All

Thank you for telling me what my gut was already telling me.

Fred, from Seattle

I, too, would like to know what is considered a decent wage.

Most tour companies pay one of two ways. The first is being hired as a temporary employee and the pay is split between salary and per diem. Taxes would be taken out.

The other is as an independent contractor where the TD is paid a lump sum and is responsible for paying taxes themselves.

It may be surprising for some but I made more money in total running budget tours than I did running high end tours. The base pay was the same but the selling of optionals can really add up.

A decent wage is pay that doesn't require tips to round out income. Apparently Rick pays his guides decent wages as tour prices are all in, not tips, and his guides we talked to enjoyed employment through his firm and were not complaining about pay.

Per an email that we recently received from the operator, we should
tip the tour guides 5-10% ... which would be about 275 -550 Euros, Not
something I had anticipated. With probably something like 6 couples on
the tour, the tips would total 1650 - 3300 Euros, if all did as
suggested for the two guide-team.

What say you ?

As others have said, the above is not a tip; this an additional payment. You're asking this question on a Rick Steves Europe forum whose business model is providing tours whose tour guides are NOT tipped as the tour guide's compensation is included in the price of the tour package.

True it’s RS forum, but many of us have dealt with both models of travel—all included (RS, Road Scholar, ElderTreks) and other entities that strongly suggest a daily tip. Cruiselines tack on 13-15 dollars a day for reservations made in the US, but a passenger can reduce or raise the amount at customer service desk. Europeans from some countries are charged more at the outset for the same cruise because their laws require full disclosure of the price, so customers aren’t ambushed with added expense tacked on later.

When shopping for a tour, if gratuities aren’t listed as being included, then they will be expected from the customers. We have to read the documentation carefully. It’s a jungle on the internet.

A decent wage is pay that doesn't require tips to round out income.

I would like my income rounded out to about $1,000,000 a year.

That would make me a billionaire in Montenegro where the average day guide charges about 90 euro in a country with an average monthly income of 500 euro. We were talking about Montenegro, right?

@Frank II Well unfortunately it is all true and if you doubt me go look at the Bucherer store in Lausanne. (Do you really think I made up all those details?) And like I said I know this from a personal and professional association with the two companies i mentioned and others. I am reluctant to describe it as more than that due to the fact that this is NOT information they want their customers to know as a general rule. Some companies do prohibit or more properly "discourage" commissions to TD's, but most do not.

My guess is that you did tours in The USA and or Canada. And what you say is pretty much true for those areas. But in Europe, China, Hong Kong, Vietnam and Australia commissions are part of the business. Secondly there is nothing underhanded about it. And in fact the prices to the customer are the same whether they come in on their own or in a group.

Now I do have to say that my experience dates to pre 911 days. It may have changed but I seriously doubt it.

As for the passenger manifest almost everyone gets a copy, the hotel, airlines, the baggage handlers. ships etc...it is not a sensitive document at all.

Yes, Aarthurperry, your information is dated. I'm not saying that TD's don't get commissions but it is not done the way you are saying.

Only those who must get a passenger list get it. Retail establishments don't. There are some stores, tour companies and TD's but this is not a standard practice. My ex worked for Tauck in numerous countries and that was not something they were told to do. I worked for Globus/Cosmos and Insight and we could not hand out the passenger list to whomever we wanted. Usually they were sent out by the tour companies direct and all I would have to do is collect passport info. But even that is done nowadays by most tour companies ahead of time.

When I was touring, we could either take people en mass to a store--usually a type of demonstration that would be mentioned in the brochure--or could hand out discount vouchers. A commission would be discretely paid to the TD and in some cases the driver. The vouchers were numbered so the store knew which TD would get the commission. Handing out a passenger list or going from store to store to hand it out was not something done. And the retail establishments had to be reputable. Any problems and we would be told not to take people there or suggest it. If we disobeyed we'd be looking for work elsewhere.

And normally, we wouldn't have the time. Just because my group had free time doesn't mean I did. When the group was off on their own, I had paperwork to do, confirmations to attend to, and new problems to deal with. That's the work passengers don't see nor should they.