Hilka's Tips for Gracious Holiday Tipping




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Providing business solutions via the Web.

Considerations:

  • tipping is part of the price for using the services provided by service personnel
  • tip service personnel; give gifts to professionals and salaried employees
  • my ideal solution when you don’t know whether to tip or to give a gift is to give the American Express Gift Cheque because it has the cachet of a gift and the convenience of cash
  • your budget, what you can reasonably afford to give, then to whom you have to tip
  • whether or not you have been tipping the person throughout the year or saving it all for that one lump sum at the holiday time
  • the quality of the service that has been provided and the attitude of the service provider
  • how long you have been the beneficiary of that service
  • how tony the address or establishment

Quantities:

Building:

  • superintendent/building manager: $50 - $300
  • doormen: $25 - $100
  • elevator operator: $20-$50
  • porters/handymen: $10 - $20
  • garage: 1/3- of one month maximum

Household:

  • housekeeper/cleaner: equivalent of 1 week’s salary
  • nanny: equivalent of 1 week’s salary plus a nice gift
  • baby-sitter: gift plus the average of 1 evening’s fee

Delivery:

  • newspaper: $5-$15
  • mail: ethically they should not be accepting a gift, but many will accept $5 - $10
  • UPS: $15
  • Fedex: no cash but a gift under $25 is acceptable

Personal:

  • manicure: $10 - $50 (or the equivalent of 1 week’s charge)
  • hairdresser: at least $25 - $100 (more if your weekly cost is more)
  • masseur: $50 - $100
  • personal trainer: $25 - $300

Restaurant (where you are a regular patron):

  • maitre d’hôtel: $20 - $50
  • captain: $20 - $30
  • waitstaff: $50



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