Tipping?

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ctrbabe1

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I'm just wondering what the general rules for tipping are here in HK? We ordered pizza last night and I didn't tip the delivery guy. Should I have? What about at restaurants? Hair salons? etc? I know at restaraunts they all include the service charge, so only if the service has been really good do we usually leave a tip. Are we being cheap? Thoughts? Advice?
 
Hi Katie: My husband said they dont really expecting a tip in HK. But we gave them anyway. I gave around 20 HKD per service if their good-- Such in Salon and 10 HKD for Food Delivery. For taxi (if they are driving safely enough because am with baby) I gave them 5 HKD more. People said this is a bit too much but I dont really know how much.
 
tipping is a western custom.

if i go to a western restaurant and the service is great, i'll tip.
if i go to a chinese restaurant, i leave the change (ie the coins).

if i go to a western hair salon, if i like the service and i get a great cut, i'll tip.
if i go to a little chinese place for a shampoo, i dont tip.

if i go to a place for a mani/pedi, it depends on the charges. (i'm a qualified beauty therapist and i know what the costs are...some of the places are so over-inflated, i dont' tip). when i had my own salon, i had some people that always tipped, some that never tipped and some where i gave the tip back and told them to buy something for their kids with the money. i NEVER expected a tip. it was appreciated, but not expected.

for restaruant delivery, i rarely tip.
 
This is also a question I constantly struggle with. My hubby says, I'm being too "westernized" by saying that service oriented groups expect tip (restaurant, delivery, salons).

When we moved here, I did ask a local, re: restaurant and he told me that if you're in a restaurant and you pay by credit card (these establishments most likely already have the service fees anyway), it's not expected of you to tip, but if you pay by cash, you can leave coins as token tips.

Re: salon, I asked a local mom who works in a salon, she said if service was very good, you can choose to tip, but it's not expected, if service was only ok no tip needed.

For food delivery, I tip a round off figure like restaurants since I pay cash. But I don't tip for grocery delivery (can't recall why I was told not to). . . however, sometimes the delivery guys don't seem too happy leaving. . . so maybe tip is expected?

For massage, some places accept tips, and even have tip guidelines, but another salon claim that no tips will be accepted. So depends on where you go I guess.

Taxi - I just hand them the money and whatever change they give me (which the typical practice is rounding off the fare to the nearest dollar) is ok, don't believe they expect more. . . my friend from LA tried to tell the driver to keep the change last month, and he just didn't quite know what to do, so I told her, no additional tipping beyond what they round off.

Don't know if this helps or just added to the confusion!
 
[I'm local]

Food delivery - we assume the delivery guys live on tips so we always tip, between $5 and $10 depending on the amount of stuff being delivered and how old the person is.

Movers - $50 per mover

Park n shop delivery - don't think they accept tip, at least that's the impression they gave me

Hair salon - $20 for the guy who wash the hair. No tip for the stylist - somehow I fear he might be offended?

Taxi - I accept whatever change the driver gives me, usually they'd round off to the dollar.

Restaurant - we always use credit cards so we just sign with the exact amount and tip in cash, depending on how happy we are with the server - between $5 to $30.
 
i'm local, i'm exactly like ELT, except the following

taxi, usually rounded off to the closes dollare except if the taxi went out of the way to make my trip more pleasant, e.g. not getting stuck i in traffic, i tip $5.

restaurant, tip between $5 for a local restaurant to highend western resturant - 10% of the bill under HK$1000. to 5% for over $1000.
 
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