Best Of

Initial response from Tauck for my Contact Tauck submission.

Good morning Mr. Gorman

Thanks so much for your recent email and concerns regarding carrying cash for gratuities.
We appreciate all your past travel and loyalty.

As you probably know, our Water Products, such as Riverboat and Small Ship Cruising do include
All gratuities. The reason is that there are more than one Tauck Director on board the ships and we
Feel it is easier for the guests to have it included due to the multiple number of directors.
For example, for the Budapest to Black Sea Riverboat, all of your gratuities, including the Tauck Directors, is included.

We will definitely forward your concerns to our management team. As of now, we do not have
Alternate plan in place.

We appreciate your feedback and thank you

Bernadette

I replied to the Tauck email, suggesting that it might be prudent for Tauck to expedite a safer solution for the suggested tipping (for Land tours) than to imply large amounts of cash should be brought along to tip Tour Directors, drivers, etc.

I will keep you posted if further responses from Tauck are forthcoming.

I’m probably starting to sound like a contrarian on this subject, but I enjoy tipping, and I think in many cases it affects the tour experience. I have noticed that on the rivers and small boats, the TDs seem to be a bit less connected. On our land tours, the TDs have been totally engaged. I find it interesting that people who are willing to spend more than a thousand dollars a day each for a tour, are concerned about carrying a few hundred dollars … or paying for laundry. Personally, my passport and my watch are far more valuable than the tip money. I take care to put all three in a safe place, but i think the TDs pay a little bit more attention when they know their ‘bottom line’ depends on it.

The evaluation process needs a rethink. I agree the forms don't give you much space to write comments and I've grown to dislike having to turn them in at the farewell reception. On a couple of tours some things have come up after giving it to the TD that I would have mentioned. Nothing so major it was worth calling Tauck when you've just returned and are caught up in other tasks . I also find they don't give you an easier way to comment on each hotel separately. Every other business including my health provider emails electronic surveys and certainly since Tauck is using them to get input in other areas it might be time to switch to that.

With the current change over of Tauck leadership, it's a good time to reconsider their processes.

It’s time for Tauck to reform their system. They have been doing things the same for the 40 years we have traveled with them. I really like Sam and Mikes suggestions. Amen.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/09/travel/how-to-avoid-pickpockets-and-street-scams.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

If you have access to The NY Times, this article more or less covers all we have been discussing, especially not carrying around lots of cash.

Noreen , ourTD in Namibia took Venmo. She lived in the US so dollars was the preferred currency and she was grateful not to have to deal with the cash also. I’ve done both of your trips, although separately. Enjoy!

Maybe a solution would be that we could go to the Tauck website at the end of the tour, sign on so they know who we are, and leave the tip at that time with a credit card.

We could also do the evaluation at that time - on line. It would be easier for everyone to read the evaluations if they were done on line, in any case. Easier to route the evaluations to whoever needs to read them, and it would solve the problem of unreadable handwriting.
Additionally, the paper evaluation form does not give you enough room to do a very extensive evaluation.