Tipping for Private Tour Guides in Scotland

I have friends who run a private tour company. They set their own tour prices and do not expect guests to tip on top of that. I guess it could be a little different for drivers working for someone else. Tipping comes up quite a lot on this forum, for example in this thread from 2022

It seems Americans are those most concerned about tipping, in general most Brits probably wouldn't tip a tour guide, or if they did it might just be a couple of pounds. However, a guide would likely be happy to receive a tip, while not necessary expecting one. Cash would certainly be the norm. A guide is unlikely to have their own card machine.

In September 2023, we took 3 small-group tours with Rabbies from Edinburgh. Our fellow tourists were from the US, England, Canada, Germany, and even a couple from Glasgow. Someone on this forum told me that they had tipped their Rabbies guides 10GBP in cash per day for the two of them. I noticed that every couple or group on the tours tipped the guides.

If your guide has a website, I would see if it mentions tipping.

As Americans which have the way we would at home and find that guides really appreciate this.

But as always only tip when you feel the service is amazing as you're already probably paying a hefty price for the service.

We took a few tours and some guides got five euro/pounds and some got 20.

It's not expected from them though.

It wouldn’t occur to me to tip a tour guide any more than I would tip the man in the post office who sold me a book of stamps this morning.

Someone on this forum told me that they had tipped their Rabbies
guides 10GBP in cash per day for the two of them. I noticed that every
couple or group on the tours tipped the guides.

My experience on two Rabbies tours was the opposite. We too had multiple nationalities on the tour, but it was only the Americans that tipped.