Does Anyone Pre-tip the suite butler?

[rjm11]

I've seen this mentioned, but wanted to have a discussion.... do you tip your butler anything at the beginning as a sort of "insurance" of good service? Or is that viewed as tacky? We travel with young-ish kids and tend to use our butler a lot, and as a result, tip a lot. I've thought of tipping at the start, and then again with more at the end (if warranted).... but don't want to offend. Thoughts?

[mpk218]

We tip at the end . But we also let him know that we will be using his services quite a bit and like to tell him our rough plans ( breakfast in , occasional dinner , etc. ).

I feel this way he knows that we know how the system works and he can expect to be tipped accordingly.

Its worked so far. ;)

 

Edit: When you tip a portion in advance then you in some way have to explain he will get the rest later , but why ? In case he's a lousy butler. You see , its wierd. ; )

[ColinIllinois]

I think tipping is way out of control if there is a need to "bribe" someone in advance. There should be an automatic expectation of good service and once that good service is given then an appropriate gratuity should be given at the appropriate time, i.e. when you are departing.

 

Just my two cents worth.

[chrispb]

I've seen this mentioned, but wanted to have a discussion.... do you tip your butler anything at the beginning as a sort of "insurance" of good service? Or is that viewed as tacky? We travel with young-ish kids and tend to use our butler a lot, and as a result, tip a lot. I've thought of tipping at the start, and then again with more at the end (if warranted).... but don't want to offend. Thoughts?

I'd view it as bribery:cool:

[time2cruise1]

Go all the way. Rip some $100 bills in half. Give the butler half of each bill and let them know if they do an exceptional job you will give the other half. Make sure they bow coming and going. :D:D:D

 

That's a joke folks. !!!!!

[fiftyguy]

I don't tip at the beginning of a cruise, but I do tip, during the cruise, if I feel the butler or concierge has done something beyond the norm. I do this in addition to what I give each of them at the end of the cruise.

On one cruise my wife and I were in a suite and the rest of the family were in OV cabins. I asked the concierge to arrange a dinner, for the family, in Cagney's. He not only made the reservation, he set us up in a private room, which worked out great, since we had my 18 month old GD with us. It was our most relaxing meal of the trip since we didn't have to worry about her bothering other diners with her constant activity. i thought this warranted a tip of appreciation.

[mpk218]

Go all the way. Rip some $100 bills in half. Give the butler half of each bill and let them know if they do an exceptional job you will give the other half. Make sure they bow coming and going. :D:D:D

 

That's a joke folks. !!!!!

 

 

Hhahahahaha ,, what is that wrong , that was my next suggestion :p

 

Of course I do insist he not look me directly in the eye ..

[mpk218]

Lets be clear , the OP has a legit question.

 

Any decent , well trained butler would find it inappropriate to take a tip in advance.

 

And thats a fact ;)

[time2cruise1]

Lets be clear , the OP has a legit question.

 

Any decent , well trained butler would find it inappropriate to take a tip in advance.

 

And thats a fact ;)

 

Not a fact. I normally tip at the end but have tipped in advance when I have a long list of expectations. Done the same with a cabin steward. Not to insure any better service but to make sure they know I am not a demanding bastard that will stiff them at the end. There are enough of those.

[Sea Monster 2]

DH tipped our butler in advance on our last cruise, which I probably wouldn't have done for the reasons many of you mention above.... ahem. :rolleyes: Anyway, it didn't really work to our advantage. He was not terrible, but when we asked for some extra bottles of water because that's about all we drink (we were in an Epic DOS and this is included) he tried to tell us we weren't entitled to additional bottles of water. We had trouble getting our third bottle of booze from him (which wasn't a crisis since it just came home with us and is probably still unopened...:p, but still) and we had friends on the ship, who we invited up one evening for cocktails. I spoke with the butler before we even invited them to ask him when would be a good day and time because I was aware that his time is shared amongst many of us, so he told me when would be best. He did set up a nice snack selection, but he bungled the drink order for four people three times.... by the time the last of us had our drinks, the others were long finished with theirs, so that was a bit annoying. He did keep the chocolate milk stocked for my son and brought him a piece of cheesecake every night, as requested, but his attitude was otherwise one of non-cooperation, please don't bother me. And so we did not otherwise bother him, I don't think we asked him for a single other thing. And then we had to tip him again at the end for very marginal service...

 

As I reread this it doesn't look at all like we are people who really just drink water. You will all just have to take my word for it!!:D:eek:

[marelind]

We don't tip the butler in advance. We did this once on Amtrak and the guy ignored us for the rest of the trip. I'm not saying an NCL butler would do that, but I ended up feeling awkward and realized I felt like I was bribing him or insulting him. It just didn't feel good to me.

[Leeroy-Jenkins]

do you tip your butler anything at the beginning as a sort of "insurance" of good service?

 

Nope.

 

is that viewed as tacky?

 

Yes.

[johnsak123]

I tipped in the beginning and the end

It sort of lets them know that they should be attentive because you are a tipper.

I hope that doesnt sound weird lol

Enjoy!!

[cmdchiefthom]

I always tip the staff who have made my cruise special, the night before we disembark, and that includes the butler. The concierge on the other hand, I will seek out on the morning we disembark if they deserve a tip. I find the butler does far more for the passenger than the concierge and has more personal contact with us, therefore gets more if not all my tip bucks.;)

[valleyvillage]

We have always tipped at the end of the cruise except for our second cruise with Patrick as our concierge. My sister was excited to see him and gave him a nice tip at check in and said "We're so happy you're here!"

 

He seemed very touched, did not give the impression he thought it tacky, and later he said "Thank you very much for my early present!"

 

That is probably the only time we tipped at the beginning.

[Relax@Sea]

I usually will give an additional tip before the end of the cruise if the Butler and gone out of his way and did something special and I let them now that I appreciate what they did, I have never had poor service from any Waiter, Butler, or Conceirge.

[time2cruise1]

We have always tipped at the end of the cruise except for our second cruise with Patrick as our concierge. My sister was excited to see him and gave him a nice tip at check in and said "We're so happy you're here!"

 

He seemed very touched, did not give the impression he thought it tacky, and later he said "Thank you very much for my early present!"

 

That is probably the only time we tipped at the beginning.

 

I would do the same thing with Patrick. I expected to see him again next month but he is taking vacation early.

[rjm11]

Thank you to everyone who responded... by no means do I want to come across as "tacky" or offending... I think I wanted to make sure that the butler knew that I was not only aware of the importance of tipping (ie, that they are not included in the general tipping pool), but also the fact that what I am asking of them is perhaps more than your average suite passenger (2-3 meals in suite, milk stocked in fridge for kids, the general extra hassle that comes with having young kids to tend to, etc). But I'm hearing that perhaps there are better ways to convey this? Maybe tipping after each service would be better?

[valleyvillage]

:D

I would do the same thing with Patrick. I expected to see him again next month but he is taking vacation early.

 

Isn't he great?!? I hope it gets back to him when he is praised on these boards. I always write a letter to NCL after the cruise to let them know about our Vacation Heroes!:D

[DMH15]

I do not tip in advance. Ever.

[FEckeT]

We will be staying in our first suite this May.

 

Although we are looking forward to breakfast and lunch at Cagney's, I can be very slow moving in the morning . . . so usually we do room service for breakfast and also use it as our wake up call.

 

I read on one of these threads that your butler has to serve you room service.

 

Would we tip each time s/he brings us room service or would we still wait until the end of the week?

 

:confused: :o

[drbeamer]

We will be staying in our first suite this May.

 

Although we are looking forward to breakfast and lunch at Cagney's, I can be very slow moving in the morning . . . so usually we do room service for breakfast and also use it as our wake up call.

 

I read on one of these threads that your butler has to serve you room service.

 

Would we tip each time s/he brings us room service or would we still wait until the end of the week?

 

:confused: :o

 

I would still tip at the end of the week....I don't think you should miss the Cagney's breakfast though...I'm an off shift worker and also have a hard time in the morning. The suite will have a coffee maker. I usually get a wake up call, have coffee in the suite, and then run up to breakfast at Cagney's 15m before it ends. Usually a nice buffet, plus made to order selections.

[mpk218]

A little lite reading: ;)

 

Spencer International School for Butler Administrators in London.

 

Butler

The Job: Shines shoes, runs out for flowers, secures concert tickets, gets you into the business center at 3 in the morning , breakfast in.

 

The Tip: Hotel butlers vary widely, from dedicated, salaried professionals to room service lackeys dressed in uniform. Take context (quality of hotel, difficulty of errand) into account and tip accordingly. For example, procuring a map and giving directions might be worth $5, while getting the hotel kitchen to scrounge up room service even though it's officially "closed" might be worth $50. Tip at the end of a stay .

 

[Husky61]

So what is an average tip for a butler for an 11 day cruise?

 

Thanks

[time2cruise1]

So what is an average tip for a butler for an 11 day cruise?

 

Thanks

 

1000s of posts on that subject no simple answer everyone would come close to agreeing on. For me the minimum would be $10/day.

 

 

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