Tipping when brought meals

[SarahZ]

When traveling with B, we'd tip $10 per night for the room and then 15-20% for our "bill" in the diner. When we traveled over Thanksgiving or Christmas, we gave a little extra.

We are both tidy, so our room (hotel or train) never required extra work solely because there were two of us.

 

[Rush2112]

I'll be going through a lot of $5 bills between SAC and WAS starting on Saturday but I would be tipping at restaurants and hotels if not traveling by rain. I have "stop at bank" on my to-do list Friday to stock up with change just for this purpose.

If you are stopping by the bank anyway, here is a suggestion: get your tip money in $2 bills. There are four reasons to do this:

1) A lot of people appreciate getting a 2, because they consider them lucky or whatever, so it is just a nice thing to do;

2) It helps them remember you, so if you tip with a stack of twos at the first meal, they will remember you at the remaining meals (if you are eating in the Diner);

3) It helps make you a slightly bigger tipper, because you round up to an even number of dollars, instead of the next dollar, and being a big tipper is good for the tipper (karma-wise if in no other way) and tippee;

4) Off of Amtrak, it encourages you to tip in cash instead of with a card, which is all the same for you but generally advantageous for the person serving you.

Just a thought. I always have a stack of twos in my wallet just for tipping, on or off of Amtrak.

Happy travels,

Ainamkartma

I love that idea of using $2 bills. Didn't know you can still get them.

 

[Devil's Advocate]

I asked some servers one time what they thought of $2 bills. They said some customers employ unusual denominations in order to draw attention to themselves but that it doesn't actually mean anything special to the folks they tip. It's just harder for the staff to use when they're trying to pay for something and the cashier or electronic payment mechanism isn't familiar with that specific bill or coin.

 

[Austruck]

I asked some servers one time what they thought of $2 bills. They said some customers employ unusual denominations in order to draw attention to themselves but that it doesn't actually mean anything special to the folks they tip. It's just harder for the staff to use when they're trying to pay for something and the cashier or electronic payment mechanism isn't familiar with that specific bill or coin.

I did wonder about this. I know someone who had a rough time trying to use a $2 bill because a cashier kept insisting it wasn't real because she'd never seen one (and was young enough to not have been born yet when they came out).

Oops!

 

[Rush2112]

Lol. Maybe I'll use $3 bills. As I see it, money is money.

 

[neroden]

I have a personal fondness for the $2 bill, which has the best artwork of all the US bills, and I wish people would use them more often. The $1 should be removed from circulation in favor of the coin, obviously, like practically every other country in the world has done...

 

[Devil's Advocate]

Lol. Maybe I'll use $3 bills. As I see it, money is money.

If money is money then you may as well hand them Euros, Pounds, or Yen. At which point why are you leaving a tip at all? Kind of substantiates their point that unusual tipping practices are really more about satisfying the needs of the giver rather than providing any definable benefit to the receiver. You go to the bank and choose a rare denomination for little reason other than to draw attention to yourself.

 

[Triley]

I asked some servers one time what they thought of $2 bills. They said some customers employ unusual denominations in order to draw attention to themselves but that it doesn't actually mean anything special to the folks they tip. It's just harder for the staff to use when they're trying to pay for something and the cashier or electronic payment mechanism isn't familiar with that specific bill or coin.

To be honest, although I find the thought nice, and I will be more likely to remember you? The first thing I remit when I'm done my trip is $2 bills, $1 coins, and 50 cent pieces. The thought is very nice, but you quickly get over the novelty of them because with the volume of cash sales we take, we see oddball currency a little more often than most, and like you mentioned, it's harder to spend.

One trip I had some teen pay for a few purchases in gold dollars (damn Metro fare machines!), which amounted to $18 in dollar coins, in addition to the $5 in dollar coins that we're required to carry. I didn't even wait until Boston to turn them in, I went to NYP and got them to swap them for bills.

 

[PVD]

Funny, I always think about that when I take the LIRR to NYP to travel Amtrak. The TVM give change in dollar coins. Used to be handy for the Muni-Meter parking meters instead of 4 quarters, but now they all take credit cards (and a smartphone app is rolling out now)