Tipping pointers: your gratuity guide

Anealla Safdar

• Last Updated: November 21. 2009 5:35PM UAE / November 21. 2009 1:35PM GMT

From the moment the plane lands in the UAE, expatriates face a difficult question: to tip, or not to tip?

Tips can be life-changing for local waiters, hairdressers, porters, baggers and taxi drivers. They can be used to pay for little things, like a trip to the cinema, or things as important as helping to feed a family in a distant country.

But tipping can be confusing and frustrating for expatriates: the gift-giver often cannot be sure who will actually benefit from the gratuity.

Policies vary even within a single industry. Tips could stay in an employee’s pocket at one business and be raked off by managers or owners at another.

The National surveyed several industries in which gratuities often are offered and discovered that tips frequently account for as much as 10 per cent of a worker’s income and, in some cases, such as restaurants in luxury hotels, actually exceed their salary.

Though in the minority, some companies do not allow their staff to keep tips, including the Emarat petrol stations in Dubai and some smaller cafes.

Starbucks, meanwhile, has tip boxes but their contents are not for employees; the money is accumulated and declared daily, then centralised and given to a charity of the company’s choice.

The Dubai Department of Tourism says on its website that “tipping practices are similar to most parts of the world”, adding that “some restaurants include service; otherwise 10 per cent is adequate”.

The Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority (ADTA), meanwhile, suggests on its website that “tipping is not expected, but is commonly practised in the emirate”.

The authority also advises that if a 16 per cent service charge is not added at a restaurant, diners should add a tip of 10 per cent to the bill.

“Taxi drivers do not expect to be tipped. Supermarket baggers, bag-carriers and windscreen-washers at petrol stations are generally given Dh2,” according to the ADTA.

At the Abu Dhabi International Airport, porters are paid Dh500 (US$135) per month in salary. Their services cost Dh10 per customer, which goes to their employer; anything above Dh10 constitutes a tip the porter can keep. The monthly average in tips is about Dh50, according to employees.

Their employer, the Abu Dhabi Airports Company (ADAC) discourages the practice of accepting tips.

“Porters are part of one team,” said an ADAC spokesman. “As salaried members of staff, we discourage porters from seeking tips or carrying cash during their shifts.”

Taxi drivers are also discouraged from taking tips but drivers can accept tips if they are offered.

Bob, a 30-year-old Nepalese taxi driver who has worked in the capital for two years, says he is paid Dh800 per month for working 16 hours a day, six days a week. He said he makes Dh100 in tips, on average, every month in his silver taxi and sends the money to his family in Nepal.

Drivers of gold-and-white taxis in the capital are also allowed to save their tips.
Tipping policies vary widely at restaurants.

Ahmed, a waiter from Zanzibar working at The Meat Co in Abu Dhabi, said his tips often exceeded his Dh1,200 monthly salary, and have been as high as Dh2,000 in one month.
The restaurant, located in the Shangri-La hotel in Abu Dhabi, attracts wealthy European guests, he said, who are the most generous tippers.

Each month, Ahmed said, tips are accumulated and shared out among all staff.
The same sharing-out policy exists in eateries such as Galler, Fuddruckers and The One cafe, but also in many smaller restaurants.

“Our waiters have a starting salary of Dh2,500 per month; accommodation and travel is included,” said Joe Cruz, a manager at Galler. “We get to keep the tips and 10 per cent of them are given to kitchen staff.

“We usually each get around Dh900 a month and the Europeans definitely give more. The most I have ever been given is Dh100 and I send half of all my money back home to the Philippines.”

Sumit Kumar, a director of the vegetarian Indian restaurant Chappan Bhog and the Asian cuisine Royal Orchid restaurants in Abu Dhabi, employs close to 100 serving staff.

“We have a shared-tipping policy,” he said. “Any cash tips go into a box which is then shared either every 15 or 30 days.”

At the Royal Orchid, tips are given out to staff depending on their positions. Senior staff receive a higher percentage of the cash.

At many hotel-based restaurants, diners will often see a tourism fee, which goes directly to the government. Often, a service fee is also added on to their bill, which in some cases goes back to the company.

The best way to ensure your waiter gets a tip is to ask what the policy is and then give the tip to the employee personally, in cash.

In some restaurants, such as Castello Restaurant in Abu Dhabi, employees may keep tips only if they are physically put in waiters’ pockets, one staff member said.

In supermarkets, the only staff commonly tipped are bag-packers and carriers. In Lulu, Carrefour and smaller chains such as Alam Supermarket, staff are allowed to take home their extra cash.

Beauticians at Nail Art, Tips and Toes and Nail Fashion, all in Abu Dhabi, are allowed to keep tips. Len, a nail artist at Nail Fashion, receives a monthly salary of Dh1,200 and most customers give an extra Dh5 to Dh20 per treatment which can add up to an extra Dh500 per month. She works six days a week and sends most of her money to her parents in the Philippines.

At hotels such as Cassells, Le Méridien, the Sheraton and the Emirates Palace in Abu Dhabi, staff are allowed to keep their tips.

At the InterContinental, employees are offered a choice of keeping or returning money guests give them.

“I always keep my tip,” said a maid at the InterContinental. “My family in India need the money and some guests are giving a lot so it adds on to my salary. I need the support for my children back home.”

asafdar@thenational.ae

Quick tips

• Tipping becomes more generous and more frequent during religious occasions such as Ramadan and the two Eids, when paying zakat, the Islamic duty to give to the poor and needy which is one of the fives obligations of the faith, is assiduously followed.

• Among expatriates, the attitude to tipping more often reflects the person’s origin. North Americans almost invariably tip between 10 and 20 per cent in their homelands, where such gratuities are deemed almost compulsory, and frequently carry on that practice in the UAE.

• Most hotels and upmarket restaurants automatically add six per cent to the bill as a “service charge”, along with another 10 per cent tourism tax, although it’s uncertain if these fees reach the waiters. Alka Patel, the public relations manager for the Fairmont Hotel in Dubai, said the 16 per cent did not include gratuities to staff.

• The Emirates Palace hotel revenue manager, Elena Chentsova, said tips to waitstaff, bellboys and housekeeping staff were entirely at the guests’ discretion.

• The expatriate website GrapeShisha says workers in service industries are often among the worst paid so tips comprise a large part of the money they send home to their families, and that the 16 per cent surcharge in hotel restaurants does not always reach the staff. The site recommends that if you choose to tip for service, do so in cash and directly to the person involved and recommends 10 per cent if it is not already included in the bill.

• Porters and valet attendants should get Dh5-10, taxi drivers should have the fare rounded up to the next multiple of Dh5, tipping in bars is justified for table service, bag packers at supermarkets do not require tipping, and salons and
barbers do not expect a tip. But if someone smiles or makes the extra effort, then a tip is warranted.

• Whether to tip the workers who fill cars at petrol stations has been one of the most vexing issues. Nobody would dispute that spending hours in the heat of summer marinating in petrol fumes during Ramadan is a tough job, but some reports are that such tips must be handed over to managers and do not end up with those doing the hard work.

• In Government offices tipping is forbidden because it could be construed as a bribe.

* Compiled by John Henzell