I'm glad you mentioned the evaluation forms, British. I no longer fill the forms out and instead send Tauck a letter with my thoughts. When the hotels are lumped together for rating and I want to rate four of the hotels highly and one hotel as so-so, it's not possible. I've talked to Tauck about this but they appear to like the one size fits all survey.
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.
I bring several sheets of blank paper to include in my evaluation. But then there isn’t enough time to write everything and even think about everything. The evaluations are just handed out the day before the TD wants them back. Maybe the TD gets an incentive as to how many are returned to him or her on the last day of a tour. We always ask for two evaluations because my husband can have a different opinion than me and sometimes a strong one about an aspect of the tour. We don’t have to be on the same page to think identically about the questions on the evaluation form. At times, a TD will not give us two. I often wonder how much does gets changed from the comments in these forms in the first place.
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.
Thank you Sam!
Ourtravels. We have never been refused two copies but only do one at times
The TD’s do get ‘Brownie points’ for how many forms they get back. They are mailed back to headquarters in a big envelope the next day and each one is read. Arthur Tauck still reads many of them.
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.
Include the tips! You can always supplement them if there was some extraordinary about the TD (or bus driver).
Perhaps not widely known if you've only done land tours, but Tauck already includes tips for river cruises and land-based family tours. Not sure what percentage of their total offerings fall in these categories, but it is substantial.
Our two other favorite tour companies both include tips.
And, absolutely agree with carrying a not inconsequential amount of cash along just to deal with this.
Way past time to end this. It is about the only thing we don't like about Tauck (20+ tours).
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.
I’m always saying I’ve observed so many inexperienced Tauckers who don’t tip. Some because they have taken the river or small ship tours, so assume their tips are included on land tours. Some on their first trip who ask me after the farewell dinner after which they won’t see the tour director again., so they have missed the chance. Many others who ask here what the tipping policy is when they should have been able to read it in their final document but haven’t bothered to read. Some who book through travel agents who don’t pass on all parts of the documents to their customers. My point is, include the tip in the price and then people who want to give more, or people like SeaLord who hope to get more favorable treatment by giving out extra dosh, can do their own thing.
I don’t take my fancy watch on vacation, I rarely take any jewelry, it attracts unwanted attention. We wear silicone wedding rings if we remember at all. I carry a laminated copy of the first page of my passport which will hopefully might help be less hassle to get a new passport if the original is lost or stolen.
I don't think how the tip is paid makes a difference. If a TD on a land tour will provide better service because they want the tip at the end of the tour, I don't think that will change if they get the tip in cash or through a credit card payment on the Tauck website. It's all money to them.
There's no correlation between being wealthy enough to pay $1,000 per day and being concerned about carrying a lot of cash. Whether I was rich or poor, I’d have the same level of worry about being robbed.
Like British, I don’t bring anything of value that I don’t absolutely need during the trip.
It surprises me how people would pay 15-20K for their trip, but complain about paying the TD $15 per day,, when they are the ones working hard to make sure you have an invaluable, carefree, amazing vacation.
Be grateful!
It’s carrying the cash that is the problem. That is what the main discussion is.
Our upcoming tour begins in Buenos Aires and last time we were there, the Tauck tour director firmly told us not to wear any jewelry and certainly not watches. Just take one credit card while out and about. Carrying cash was a no no. That was our ending city so that’s an example of not being able to go to an ATM safely to get money for tips.
Totally missed the point of the discussion. It's not about paying a tip, it's about carrying the cash all through the tour in order to pay the tip.
Not all people feel as secure in doing this as others, why not provide a method that allows people that don't feel comfortable carrying that amount of cash to safely tip, and still allow others to pay in cash. It really isn't that complicated!!
Another thought. When my wife has her hair done, if she pays in cash, they do not expect a tip. Go figure.
Sealord I would love to get more context on the "if paying by cash, no expectation of tip" statement. I have a standing weekly hair appointment. Sometimes I pay cash, sometimes credit card and sometimes Zelle...I always tip. I'm just wondering if the rationale about not expecting a tip if the customer pays cash is possibly tax related (less reported income) ??? Nothing important - just curious.
.
Sealord - A thought for Mike and others who think ‘cash’ is not important.
If someone can give me a good reason why cash is superior to a credit card payment at the end of a tour, I'd consider it and balance it against my desire not to carry a lot of cash. Hiding the cash payment so they don't have to pay tax on it is not a sufficient reason.
Yes, quite right Mike!
You know some tour directors only work enough to get in their time for benefits to kick in.
Just think a tour of 30 people for say 13 days, each giving $15 pp per day adds up to $4500. Pretty good when all you food is paid for and most wear very casual clothes these days.
I know tours don’t get full these days, but all those who give extra tips will help the bottom line. And if all tips are not being declared……
I don't know about people from other countries but in the US yes cash only will often get you a discount because the person is likely not intending to pay tax on the amount. We've definitely had workmen giving us a discount if we pay in cash.
I’ve seen businesses give a cash discount vs credit cards, because they are passing on some of the savings, of not having to pay the credit card fees when a customer pays in cash, to the customer.
Quite true, a lot of small businesses will bypass a tip or offer a discount when paying with cash. I have no problem carrying cash for the TD, do wish there was some other way to pay them.
As far as the evaluation form goes, to me is a waste of time because there is not enough space to describe the thoughts about the trip, when staying in 5 or 6 hotels it would be nice to be able to rate them individually. I the welcome dinner is awful, one can spend all the space just talking about that.
Thanks for your math assist Mike … I came up with the same number … $5,850. Tauck has been using this system for some portion of one hundred years. They have two hundred and fifty tour directors, and they speak forty-two languages. The tax situation for each of them is probably somewhat unique. Even the. U.S. citizens can ‘exempt’ much of their income from U.S. taxes if they stay out of the states for at least 330 days of the year. I worked outside of the U.S. for several years, and some of the people I worked with took advantage of that tax feature. I did not, but I did move my tax home to Florida. I would be surprised if Tauck decided to rock everyone’s ‘tax boat’ by including the tips in the cost of all the tours, and making it part of the TDs regular income.
Mil, We have no objection to giving tips. We have been extremely lucky in that all the TD's on all of our land tours have been exceptional and very often we have given more than the suggested amount and they deserved every penny. However, I am doing back-to-back tours in Africa and feel uncomfortable carrying so much money. We will be in Johannesburg and will stay two nights at the Intercontinental Hotel near the airport. Then we will go on to Nanimba and five days later after this trip ends we will join the Elegant South Africa trip. We have had a bad experience in Africa using ATM's in the past and had to wait three days before we could access our money. This was in Johannesburg, not a little town.
I don't understand your rational, Sealord. If the TD is reporting their income it would seem to be the same for tax purposes no matter the source (salary, bonus, or tips). I don't know of any country that exempts tips from income and doing that would cause some problems. Everyone would arrange for their "income" to be tips instead of wages (or other income). That's why I don't think we'll see that in the US, even though both parties said they'd do it.
Certainly in the US, if you're out of the country for the correct amount of time, it doesn't matter how you got the money - wages, bonus, or tips - it's all exempt.
My point is that there are many different tax situations or even cash flow situations. On one of our trips to Africa there were other guests who found a need for cash and thought they were going to find ATM machines or be able to cash checks at the hotels. Neither was the case. I ended up ‘cashing’ a few checks for people who needed cash. I have had credit cards go ‘inert’ on trips several times, so I am not comfortable if I don’t have a reasonable amount of cash with me. I once got caught in a restaurant with ‘dead’ credit cards, and no cash. I will not repeat that mistake. I made more than a couple phone calls getting one of the credit cards reactivated … which they said they could not do …. but they did when I told them we were getting ready to wash dishes. (;-). Those who think they can visit remote places with nothing but credit/ATM cards will eventually be proven wrong.
British is correct insofar as U.S. citizens are not exempt from paying U.S. taxes merely because they live abroad a portion of the time. With respect, there is some misinformation in this entire thread.
I understand and respect that some people herein are concerned about carrying cash and want Tauck to make changes to accommodate them. That, in my opinion, is short sighted given that on one has offered any solutions to the more far reaching implications of using credit cards to pay for gratuities after the fact. Sealord has touched upon some issues.
Is Tauck to absorb the administrative costs associated with modifying their accounting and payroll systems? Should they also absorb the costs associated with administering this change? These are rhetorical questions.
Sealord - Those who think they can visit remote places with nothing but credit/ATM cards will eventually be proven wrong.
It's not an all or nothing situation. The problem is the amount of cash. I always carry some cash, but not thousands of dollars.
Kfnknfzk - Yes, Tauck will have to absorb the administartive cost associated with modifying their website and payroll system. It's all part of running a business and keeping it up to date.
Comments
I'm glad you mentioned the evaluation forms, British. I no longer fill the forms out and instead send Tauck a letter with my thoughts. When the hotels are lumped together for rating and I want to rate four of the hotels highly and one hotel as so-so, it's not possible. I've talked to Tauck about this but they appear to like the one size fits all survey.
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.
I bring several sheets of blank paper to include in my evaluation. But then there isn’t enough time to write everything and even think about everything. The evaluations are just handed out the day before the TD wants them back. Maybe the TD gets an incentive as to how many are returned to him or her on the last day of a tour. We always ask for two evaluations because my husband can have a different opinion than me and sometimes a strong one about an aspect of the tour. We don’t have to be on the same page to think identically about the questions on the evaluation form. At times, a TD will not give us two. I often wonder how much does gets changed from the comments in these forms in the first place.
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.
Thank you Sam!
Ourtravels. We have never been refused two copies but only do one at times
The TD’s do get ‘Brownie points’ for how many forms they get back. They are mailed back to headquarters in a big envelope the next day and each one is read. Arthur Tauck still reads many of them.
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.
Tauck clearly feels quantity is more important than quality when it comes to the surveys. They do leave much to be desired, as described above.
Include the tips! You can always supplement them if there was some extraordinary about the TD (or bus driver).
Perhaps not widely known if you've only done land tours, but Tauck already includes tips for river cruises and land-based family tours. Not sure what percentage of their total offerings fall in these categories, but it is substantial.
Our two other favorite tour companies both include tips.
And, absolutely agree with carrying a not inconsequential amount of cash along just to deal with this.
Way past time to end this. It is about the only thing we don't like about Tauck (20+ tours).
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.
I’m always saying I’ve observed so many inexperienced Tauckers who don’t tip. Some because they have taken the river or small ship tours, so assume their tips are included on land tours. Some on their first trip who ask me after the farewell dinner after which they won’t see the tour director again., so they have missed the chance. Many others who ask here what the tipping policy is when they should have been able to read it in their final document but haven’t bothered to read. Some who book through travel agents who don’t pass on all parts of the documents to their customers. My point is, include the tip in the price and then people who want to give more, or people like SeaLord who hope to get more favorable treatment by giving out extra dosh, can do their own thing.
I don’t take my fancy watch on vacation, I rarely take any jewelry, it attracts unwanted attention. We wear silicone wedding rings if we remember at all. I carry a laminated copy of the first page of my passport which will hopefully might help be less hassle to get a new passport if the original is lost or stolen.
I don't think how the tip is paid makes a difference. If a TD on a land tour will provide better service because they want the tip at the end of the tour, I don't think that will change if they get the tip in cash or through a credit card payment on the Tauck website. It's all money to them.
There's no correlation between being wealthy enough to pay $1,000 per day and being concerned about carrying a lot of cash. Whether I was rich or poor, I’d have the same level of worry about being robbed.
Like British, I don’t bring anything of value that I don’t absolutely need during the trip.
It surprises me how people would pay 15-20K for their trip, but complain about paying the TD $15 per day,, when they are the ones working hard to make sure you have an invaluable, carefree, amazing vacation.
Be grateful!
It’s carrying the cash that is the problem. That is what the main discussion is.
Our upcoming tour begins in Buenos Aires and last time we were there, the Tauck tour director firmly told us not to wear any jewelry and certainly not watches. Just take one credit card while out and about. Carrying cash was a no no. That was our ending city so that’s an example of not being able to go to an ATM safely to get money for tips.
Totally missed the point of the discussion. It's not about paying a tip, it's about carrying the cash all through the tour in order to pay the tip.
Not all people feel as secure in doing this as others, why not provide a method that allows people that don't feel comfortable carrying that amount of cash to safely tip, and still allow others to pay in cash. It really isn't that complicated!!
I agree with Sam. Carrying $1,150 makes me extremely uncomfortable.
Sealord I would love to get more context on the "if paying by cash, no expectation of tip" statement. I have a standing weekly hair appointment. Sometimes I pay cash, sometimes credit card and sometimes Zelle...I always tip. I'm just wondering if the rationale about not expecting a tip if the customer pays cash is possibly tax related (less reported income) ??? Nothing important - just curious.
.
If someone can give me a good reason why cash is superior to a credit card payment at the end of a tour, I'd consider it and balance it against my desire not to carry a lot of cash. Hiding the cash payment so they don't have to pay tax on it is not a sufficient reason.
Yes, quite right Mike!
You know some tour directors only work enough to get in their time for benefits to kick in.
Just think a tour of 30 people for say 13 days, each giving $15 pp per day adds up to $4500. Pretty good when all you food is paid for and most wear very casual clothes these days.
I know tours don’t get full these days, but all those who give extra tips will help the bottom line. And if all tips are not being declared……
I don't know about people from other countries but in the US yes cash only will often get you a discount because the person is likely not intending to pay tax on the amount. We've definitely had workmen giving us a discount if we pay in cash.
I’ve seen businesses give a cash discount vs credit cards, because they are passing on some of the savings, of not having to pay the credit card fees when a customer pays in cash, to the customer.
Quite true, a lot of small businesses will bypass a tip or offer a discount when paying with cash. I have no problem carrying cash for the TD, do wish there was some other way to pay them.
As far as the evaluation form goes, to me is a waste of time because there is not enough space to describe the thoughts about the trip, when staying in 5 or 6 hotels it would be nice to be able to rate them individually. I the welcome dinner is awful, one can spend all the space just talking about that.
Actually, it comes out to a bit less than $6k, if everyone pays the $15 per person per day. (301315 = $5,850)
mil - I wholeheartedly agree. It's nice to see you back on the forum.
Thanks for your math assist Mike … I came up with the same number … $5,850. Tauck has been using this system for some portion of one hundred years. They have two hundred and fifty tour directors, and they speak forty-two languages. The tax situation for each of them is probably somewhat unique. Even the. U.S. citizens can ‘exempt’ much of their income from U.S. taxes if they stay out of the states for at least 330 days of the year. I worked outside of the U.S. for several years, and some of the people I worked with took advantage of that tax feature. I did not, but I did move my tax home to Florida. I would be surprised if Tauck decided to rock everyone’s ‘tax boat’ by including the tips in the cost of all the tours, and making it part of the TDs regular income.
Mil, We have no objection to giving tips. We have been extremely lucky in that all the TD's on all of our land tours have been exceptional and very often we have given more than the suggested amount and they deserved every penny. However, I am doing back-to-back tours in Africa and feel uncomfortable carrying so much money. We will be in Johannesburg and will stay two nights at the Intercontinental Hotel near the airport. Then we will go on to Nanimba and five days later after this trip ends we will join the Elegant South Africa trip. We have had a bad experience in Africa using ATM's in the past and had to wait three days before we could access our money. This was in Johannesburg, not a little town.
I don't understand your rational, Sealord. If the TD is reporting their income it would seem to be the same for tax purposes no matter the source (salary, bonus, or tips). I don't know of any country that exempts tips from income and doing that would cause some problems. Everyone would arrange for their "income" to be tips instead of wages (or other income). That's why I don't think we'll see that in the US, even though both parties said they'd do it.
Certainly in the US, if you're out of the country for the correct amount of time, it doesn't matter how you got the money - wages, bonus, or tips - it's all exempt.
I thought that you paid US taxes wherever you live in the world to retain your US citizenship? In fact, I thought the US was unique in that respect.
My point is that there are many different tax situations or even cash flow situations. On one of our trips to Africa there were other guests who found a need for cash and thought they were going to find ATM machines or be able to cash checks at the hotels. Neither was the case. I ended up ‘cashing’ a few checks for people who needed cash. I have had credit cards go ‘inert’ on trips several times, so I am not comfortable if I don’t have a reasonable amount of cash with me. I once got caught in a restaurant with ‘dead’ credit cards, and no cash. I will not repeat that mistake. I made more than a couple phone calls getting one of the credit cards reactivated … which they said they could not do …. but they did when I told them we were getting ready to wash dishes. (;-). Those who think they can visit remote places with nothing but credit/ATM cards will eventually be proven wrong.
British is correct insofar as U.S. citizens are not exempt from paying U.S. taxes merely because they live abroad a portion of the time. With respect, there is some misinformation in this entire thread.
I understand and respect that some people herein are concerned about carrying cash and want Tauck to make changes to accommodate them. That, in my opinion, is short sighted given that on one has offered any solutions to the more far reaching implications of using credit cards to pay for gratuities after the fact. Sealord has touched upon some issues.
Is Tauck to absorb the administrative costs associated with modifying their accounting and payroll systems? Should they also absorb the costs associated with administering this change? These are rhetorical questions.
It's not an all or nothing situation. The problem is the amount of cash. I always carry some cash, but not thousands of dollars.
Kfnknfzk - Yes, Tauck will have to absorb the administartive cost associated with modifying their website and payroll system. It's all part of running a business and keeping it up to date.