Britpick Question

[amberfocus]

What's the deal on tipping?  Do you tip the bartender?  Or is tipping just a no go in Britain (I think I read that somewhere)?

Comments

[wendymr.livejournal.com]

Barman (or woman), not bartender :)

And tipping's not generally expected in a pub, no. The other thing to recognise is that British pubs are different from most I've seen in the US: there's no table service, at least not for drink (and mostly, if the pub serves food, you order that at the bar too).

If you know the barman fairly well - let's say you're a regular - or you're buying a round* then you might say "And one for yourself?" That's the equivalent of a tip. Either the barman pours a drink for himself, or he puts the cost of an average drink in his tips jar, and either way adds it to the total. And you pay as you order, rather than putting the whole lot together and paying at the end - unless you're having a meal, in which case, depending on the pub, you can add your drinks to your bill.

* A round, in case you haven't come across the concept, is where one person buys drinks for everyone in the group you're with. It's the normal practice when you go out for drinks with friends, or even business colleagues. You take it in turns to buy your round, and you'd be considered a cheapskate if you're always the last to say it's your turn, or if you order pints or shorts (spirits: whisky, brandy, rum etc) when it's someone else's turn buy halves or soft drinks when it's yours.

This page has a pretty good and concise explanation about pubs and traditions in the UK. A much more detailed guide is here, and go to pp9-11 for the 'and one for yourself?' ritual.

Hope this helps!

[rosetylersale.livejournal.com]

That is so interesting! We buy rounds here as well but tipping is expected everywhere unless it's a large group and then it's normally added on to the bill.

[draconin.livejournal.com]

The difference in Australia and, I think, in the UK too is that a server's wage is NOT calculated on the basis that a large portion of it is going to be made up of tips. We tend to tip rarely in Australia and generally in return for unusually good service, not as a simple expectation. Certainly that image you see in movies of hotel servants/bus boys routinely & blatantly holding out their hand for a tip after simply delivering your bags to your room would NOT happen here. In fact if anyone tried that on me (*expecting* a tip and being so brazen about it that they refused to leave the room and held their hand out) I'd put in an official complaint to their boss! Unfortunately this is slowly changing in Australia (as with many other things) under the influence of Hollywood and I've noticed that people are tending to routinely tip more. I don't think this is a good thing and resist it. To me, as I said, you tip when someone does something you *notice*, not just when they're doing their job!! I do understand though that this is different in the US where they don't get paid enough without the tips, so when I was over there I made an effort to tip as expected.
ETD: When I was in Orlando I went out to an expensive steak restaurant. I was very unimpressed with both the service and the meal and did not tip at all. When they brought out the slip to pay by credit card I left the gratuity box unticked, leaving the bill as it was. I was extremely angry to find back in Australia that they had added a 25%!!!! tip to the total without my permission (on a bill that was already over $100 for one person) and appealed against it with the credit card company. Unfortunately the difficulty was that I wasn't claiming that it wasn't a legit bill, just that they'd overcharged and nothing happened. I'm still very angry about it though.

[julisana.livejournal.com]

In the future, when in america, strike a line through the tip field or put a 0 in there. Some places assume an empty tip field means that you just didn't add it on to the total value of the meal and will "fill it out for you". Which is complete bullshit, but it happens.

If you expressly mark the field as 0, it leaves no room for question.

[wendymr.livejournal.com]

After my first response, I wondered if you were also asking about tipping in general. It wasn't customary - just, as draconin says below, if you feel service has been particularly good. More recently, though, tipping's becoming more common. In full-service restaurants - as opposed to cafeteria-style or fast food - many people will probably now tip something, but nothing close to US levels. They might add on a couple of quid to a £25 bill, for example, either added to the credit card or as cash left on the table.

In major cities, and in exclusive (high-priced) restaurants around the country, at times a mandatory service change will be included, usually around 15%. As far as waiter/waitress wages go, expected earnings in tips can be deducted from the minimum wage, and I did see a newspaper article on the subject commenting that at least one fashionable restaurant pays its serving staff nothing - though that's very unusual.

In a taxi, the tendency would be to say 'keep the change' when you pay; if the fare is £13.90, the customer would probably hand over £15. If you're on expenses, then maybe you'd tip more. *g* I did tip my hairstylist when I lived in England, but that would have been again a couple of quid as opposed to 15-20%. We certainly would not tip chambermaids or tour-bus drivers or the leaders of guided tours.

This is a pretty good guide to tipping etiquette as a whole.

[bloose09.livejournal.com]

My husband and I lived on the North West coast of England for a few years. We became regulars at a local pub where the staff had taken a particular liking to us. They went out of there way to make us feel at home and engage us in conversation. We always tipped them to show our appreciation.

I have to say that the first time we tipped them they ran after us with the money because they thought we had forgotten it on the table. After a brief discussion they kept it and we always had a laugh about it after that. The year was 2003.

[apurplepatch.livejournal.com]

I've just finished 16 day guided bus tour of the UK and we were told that we were to tip out tour-bus driver and guide 2 - 3 pounds per day spent with them. We were also told that a couple of pounds per half day was appropriate for local guides who joined out tour for the day/half-day.

[develish1]

Seems Wendy got here before me, and said pretty much everything I was going to say, and then some, lol.

She's correct, tipping in pubs/bars etc is basically unheard of over here, mainly because there's no actual bill, Each drink is paid for individually at the time it's ordered. If it's your local of course, where you know that staff well, it's not uncommon, as Wendy said, to make the offer of "one for yourself" while buying your drinks.

In most restaurants people will leave a tip, but it's totally at your discretion as to whether you do or not, and for how much. most people I know tend to round up to the nearest £5, depending on the size of the overall bill.

The only other time we "tip" is if we have food delivered, i.e. takeaway, and again it's more of a "keep the change" kind of thing.

[wendymr.livejournal.com]

Interesting! I do suspect that you were told this because you were foreign tourists - Brits, in general, would not tip in that situation :)

ETA: realised my meaning may not be clear. I meant that it presented an opportunity for staff to make a bit more money, which they wouldn't normally do with British tourists. Perhaps their basic wage was less as a result.

[corusca.livejournal.com]

I live in Orlando - out of curiosity, where was this? So I know not to frequent :)

[corusca.livejournal.com]

Also, on behalf of my city, I'm sorry. Unfortunately service tends to suffer when the servers know that you're not going to become a regular :-/

[draconin.livejournal.com]

Oh, good Lord! We're talking twelve years ago now so even if I could remember their name they're probably not still around or under the same management.

No, don't worry: I liked Orlando - mainly I must admit due my being a space nut and going to Kennedy Space Centre being the pilgrimage of a life time. :-) I got to touch a moon rock!!!!! :-D

[corusca.livejournal.com]

Ohhh okay, haha.

Despite living here for almost 3 years, I've yet to go out to Kennedy Space Center! I WOULD like to touch a moon rock though...hmn....