It’s a headache when you arrive in a new country. Should you tip the taxi driver? The friendly employee who carries your luggage to the hotel? The waiter at the restaurant? And how much should you leave?
“Tipping is a mishmash because it’s so different from one country to another,” says Lydiane St-Onge, a great traveler who recounts her adventures and gives advice on her website Lydiane autour du monde, with a sigh.
In some countries, such as Canada and the United States, tipping is practically essential. And it is quite high: in our American neighbors, you must leave 15 to 20% of the amount indicated on the restaurant bill.
In other countries, especially in Europe, the service is included. However, you can decide to round up the amount of the bill to leave a little something.
PHOTO TOMOHIRO OHSUMI, BLOOMBERG
In Japan, tipping can be frowned upon.
In some countries, especially Japan, tipping is frowned upon. The employee might interpret the gesture as a disapproval of the service provided, or as an encouragement to improve it.
Traditionally, it was the travel agent who provided this kind of information to travelers.
“Being able to book trips very independently online means that travelers take much more responsibility for these small issues,” notes Catherine Noppen, professor of tourism management at the Institut de tourisme et d’hôtellerie du Québec.
So the traveler has to do his or her own research. Unfortunately, it’s hard to find a definitive list of tips for the entire world. “There are no big directories on this subject, and if there were, it would be in flux,” says M.me Noppen. There would be constant updates. Whether it’s for reasons related to inflation, the economic situation, labor standards, you can see tips go up or down.”
Online resources
There are still some interesting sources of information online, such as HelloSafe, a young Canadian company that specializes in comparison tools for insurance, investment, savings and credit products. For the tipping data, it relied on an exhaustive search carried out by the site hawaiianislands.com. The latter consulted the TripAdvisor tipping guide for each country and, in each case, validated this information with at least one other source. This data dates from 2023, which is still quite recent.
Simply type the name of the country you are visiting into HelloSafe’s tool to get the suggested tip amount. The site provides additional, more specific information for several European countries.
The tool on hawaiianislands.com is more comprehensive, with charts on suggested tips for taxi drivers and hotel staff. The site is in English, however.
For its part, the site getours.com suggests seven applications to calculate the tip in different countries. “The one I downloaded is called GlobeTips-Travel Tipsconfides M.me Noppen. A calculator also allows you to split the bill. So it’s easier if you’re two couples on vacation.”
PHOTO BERNARD BRAULT, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
Lydiane St-Onge has visited many countries. She is seen here in British Columbia.
When she visits a new country, Lydiane St-Onge consults websites like Lonely Planet and Routard about practices at the destination. “There are sections on finances that often tell you what the practices are for tipping,” she says. “That helps a lot. And sometimes, I ask local people.”
Suzelle Chaput, a travel agent at Voyages Performa and a professor at Collège April-Fortier, suggests asking the hotel concierge. “These people are often underutilized,” she says. “They’re the ones who will make your reservations for restaurants, shows, and excursions. They’ll give you the right advice on tips, which would be a reasonable amount.”
She notes that it is difficult to generalize, even within the same country.
“There are restaurants in France where service is included and others where it is not,” she says. Hence the importance of finding out on site.
Catherine Noppen reminds us that tipping is a mark of courtesy. “It is a mark of appreciation, a mark of recognition because they welcome us into their territory and they keep smiling at the people who pass by one after the other.”
But tipping should not harm relationships between people.me Chaput is particularly upset about the “sly people” who, in an all-inclusive resort, pay a large sum to an employee at the start of their stay in order to get him to look after them almost exclusively.
She also laments the fact that some travelers are “reluctant” when it comes to tipping, arguing that it already costs them a lot. “Yes, it costs a lot, but that doesn’t mean that the person who provided the service was well paid.”
Check out the HelloSafe map
Visit the Hawaiian Islands website (in English)