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Is it time to boycott cash tips to get Tauck to join the modern era?

BKMD

I have a trip coming up soon with my daughter and SIL, both millennials. I reminded them not to forget cash for tips. Of course they don't like this idea and want to use venmo, paypal, etc. I tend to agree that carrying around cash is silly in the modern era. What can we do to pressure Tauck into joining the modern world - such as providing an online portal for tips?

Comments

loves2travel2

I too, put the tip money in an envelope before we leave home. It stays in the hotel safe with my passport, extra credit cards and cash. I carry only one credit card, a copy of my passport and daily cash. When we move from one place to another, these valuables are left on the locked bus. Having had my credit card hacked several times, I am very reluctant to use it exclusively. We have also bailed-out fellow travelers with cash. (As an aside, this is a worse case situation. A month ago, friends were on a tour in Europe, and her husband died on the bus. The amount of cold cash - not a credit card- that was required was unbelievable. The travel insurance will reimburse not front the costs. And she still has not received his remains. Obviously, nobody can be prepared for this.)

Portolan

Again, this topic. I'm totally in favor of Tauck rolling in their suggested tip amounts into the cost of the tour. As previously noted, the tipping suggestion is not for all Tauck trips. Specifically, river cruises and family tours have the tips included so there is a lack of consistency across Tauck. Include those amounts in ALL tours, please. That would eliminate the (legitimate) concern of carrying a lot of cash for no other purpose. Then tipping would be optional for extraordinary service, as it should be. Everywhere...but that's beyond the scope of this thread.

British

Lovestotravel, I feel for your friends. My father died unexpectedly on vacation 30 years ago. My parents never had credit cards nor a bank account, just a British Building Society account, a common thing in the UK. My mother would certainly have not had much cash with her then, so the insurance then must have paid up. In fact, it was the insurance company who called to tell me, at that point, I didn’t even know where my mother was…no cell phones then and we had only just gotten an answer phone which we actually won in a raffle a couple of weeks before, no one else we knew had one. His remains took about ten distressing and heartbreaking days to be returned to us. Plus a death certificate in Spanish caused us problems back then.
I assume there is an investigation into the death, that can take a very very long time. In our case, my father had a heart attack, he was taken to hospital and died the next day, so cause of death was determined. Maybe reach out to your friend’s local state representative to see if they might help speed things up for them. Best wishes.

kfnknfzk

This is clearly a personal choice—no right or wrong. This is as bad as the “don’t wear a sports coat” mantra—yet another personal choice that really shouldn’t be so objectionable. With respect, aren’t there far more important concerns in this world? That’s rhetorical and not meant to start another “debate,” but go ahead…..

BKMD

Here's my rhetorical answer - I'm simply trying to change Tauck's inconvenient tipping mechanism, not the world.

Folsomdoc

Here's my rhetorical answer - I'm simply trying to change Tauck's inconvenient tipping mechanism, not the world.

This!!

British

Great companies learn to adapt to modern ideas and tech. And are open to suggestions from long time clients. Dinosaurs die out.

Ken from Vegas

BKMD and British,

I understood that BKMD was advocating alternatives to cash tipping, not the practice of tipping itself. What I was responding to was the title of BKMD's post: > Is it time to boycott cash tips to get Tauck to join the modern era?

To boycott is, by definition, to refuse to do business or have social relations with some person, company, or nation as a protest. To boycott cash tips would be to refuse to give cash tips as a form of protest. Since no other method currently exists in most cases, this means not giving a tip.

I understand now that this was apparently not the intention. Be careful using the word boycott in future.

British

I didn’t read it that way, I thought it meant boycott cash for another method of payment.

Claudia Sails

And since it's Trivia Tuesday - if you take the Ireland tour you'll learn where the term boycott came from. It originates from a historical event in Ireland involving Captain Charles Cunningham Boycott, a land agent who was ostracized by local communities for his eviction practices.

British

Looks as if the new law just signed does away with tax on tips.

MikeHenderson

Looks as if the new law just signed does away with tax on tips.

It's not unlimited - it's up to $25,000, which is a lot. Many of the people who rely on tips don't pay any, or very little, tax so for them, the law won't give much benefit (they don't make enough to pay much tax). I suspect that's why it was so easy to pass.

Also, I'm not absolutely sure of this, but I belive the amount of tips must be reported and Social Security and Medicare tax is still taken out of them. It's only the Income Tax that is not taken. You get to deduct the amount of your tips from your gross income.

BKMD

NOthing is finalized or signed yet.

British

Ok. So we wait.

Ken from Vegas

Two competing bills: The bipartisan bill that passed in the Senate is as Mike described. The other bill is Trump's tax and budget bill that just passed in the House. As you can imagine, taxation of tips is a big deal here in Vegas.

BKMD

Back on subject...

My daughter contacted Tauck via their contact us page on the web site. She wrote (names and some specific trip info removed):

Hi there, my husband and I will be traveling on Reservation: (trip and dates removed). In this modern era with many ways to quickly and safely transfer money digitally, we've decided we will no longer carry around $hundreds in cash for weeks for TD tips; we will use paypal or venmo. We wanted to reach out in advance to ensure the TD is ready to receive in this format

Tauck responded:

Dear (removed):
Thank you for your email, we are looking forward to welcoming you on tour!

Cash remains the preferred and most common method for tipping your Tauck Director and Driver. While some Tauck Directors and Drivers may accept electronic or digital payments, this is not a requirement according to company policy. If your Tauck Director or Driver personally offers to accept a digital gratuity, you are welcome to use that option. However, they may not be equipped to receive tips electronically, so we recommend having cash on hand if that is the case. We appreciate your understanding.

The response seems to be a copout to me. How can a TD not be equipped to accept digital payment? Do some TDs not have cell phones and bank accounts?

Regarding an earlier comment about "Tauck handles everything," they will be arriving several days early, doing some hiking, train travel,
etc. Is it really necessary to carry hundreds of dollars in cash for 3+ weeks? In this case, they could find an ATM towards the end of the trip, as this is a European trip, but for some trips, ATMs may not be readily available.

British

I’m not surprised at their response. Annoying. My salon has just started to use a website called Tippy, You look the person up on their staff, do the tip and they instantly get it. If you add a tip to the credit card, they don’t get it for two weeks.

SandyFeet

Maybe pay with bitcoin/cryptocurrency? Seems to be all the rage these days. 🤣

Sealord

“No, Venmo does not support the use of foreign bank accounts. Venmo is designed for use within the United States and requires users to have a US-based bank account, phone number, and be physically located in the US to use the app.”

One of our American tour directors actually lived in Arusha, Tanzania. Another was from Australia, but lived near the Karen Blixen house/museum in Nairobi. Digital tipping to people from all over the world may work for some, but will not work for many. As said by Tauck in many places at many times, we need to control our expectations. This system has worked for them, and most of us for a somewhat shorter time, for a hundred years. The expectation that they are going to change now because millenials don’t use cash might be a ‘bridge too far’.

“No, Zelle does not work with foreign banks. Zelle is designed for domestic money transfers within the United States, meaning both the sender and recipient must have bank accounts based in the U.S. You cannot use Zelle to send money to a foreign bank account.”

, “PayPal can only move money between PayPal accounts internationally. “

AlanS

Other than credit cards and direct payments from my bank which require specific info about the recipient, I do not use any other digital methods of payment, and do not plan to. Carrying cash for tips seems to be a minor inconvenience. The forums have been full of stories of Tauck travelers losing or having tip money stolen - NOT!!!. You have several options to avoid that remote possibility- travel with a company that does not request tips, pre-pays tips, allows digital payment or don't tip or travel.

Claudia Sails

I know there is a whole generation who take care of everything they can with Applepay or the equivalent and I can see the convenience. But as someone (Sealord ?) has already made the point that you also have to safeguard your passports for the entire trip. I don't see that carrying cash is all that much more difficult. If you aren't in general ready to safeguard your wallet, smartphone, passport, etc then maybe you need to rethink international travel.

Yes, I'd rather just have Tauck pay TDs & drivers well and not have to deal with this but it is what it is. There are way more important things I'm concerned about with our next tours coming up soon. Will all the flights occur safely and on time? Will the accommodations be ok? Will there be any more itinerary surprises? Will I pack the right stuff?

sevenseas

There is an option that may have appeal, if cash really troubles you, and digital transfer services don't work unless you have a guide who can accept via a transfer service. Look at Visa Travel Money and/or Mastercard Travel card, both of which are prepaid cards designed to be used internationally. I have not used them, nor plan to, and I believe there are purchase fees and fees on the redemption end depending upon how they are used, but at least you can safely store it in hotel safe deposit boxes until the time comes, and there are purchaser protections in case they are stolen, I believe. If a TD got paid everything with these cards it might be hard to pay their bills, but surely they have a modest amount of needs they could use it for.

MikeHenderson

I've posted this before, but one problem with smartphones is that tourist are held up at gunpoint, and forced to open their smartphone. If they have the app for their bank, or brokerage account, they are next forced to wire transfer money to the account of the guy with the gun. The money in that guy's account is quickly moved to other accounts and is very hard to trace - even if the cops were willing to do it.

Don't have money apps on your smartphone, especially if you go to areas of high crime - such as many places in Africa.

Sealord

During our sixteen tours with Tauck I’ve only heard of one person who had their tip money stolen … and it was the tour director. He got busy and left his backpack unattended and someone grabbed it. All his tip money was in the backpack. i have Appletags on all our stuff including my wallet. Actually, I once dropped my wallet at our gym and asked at the desk if someone had turned in a wallet. They said no. I took out my phone to track the wallet with ‘find me’, and got within three feet of it at the desk. I asked the attendant if he was standing in front of a drawer. He said, yes … why. I said because my wallet is in that drawer. He opened the drawer and gave me my wallet. I had no way of knowing who put my wallet in the drawer so I dropped the issue right there and was happy to get my wallet back.

British

On a recent tour when we were in Santiago, one of our tour group had his phone taken from a zipped pocket on his thigh which also had a flap cover and Velcro. I know numerous people who have been robbed in Paris. You do have to carry round your money a lot on hotel change days. I’m more worrying about carrying money around in Europe than anywhere else.

MikeHenderson

If you have an iPhone (I don't know the Anddoid phone) and someone steals it (with the phone not open, like it might be if they took it out of your hand), it's essentially impossible for anyone - even the police - to get into that phone (assuming you have a passcode set for opening the phone).

The only value that phone would have might be for the battery and the screen as spare parts.

Sealord

Did that Santiago tourist seek medical attention for the nerve damage in his thigh. I don’t think Houdini could do that. My first guess is that he lost the phone somewhere else and it was never in that pocket. Flap, velcro, zipper … you would need to be dead not to notice that.

British

We were all on a crowded train. He felt something. I think I recall he saw a woman bend down near him. These robbers are good at their job. I was totally convinced he had left his phone behind in the hotel, but he hadn’t. Maybe some people still don’t have a passcode.
These days, the best way to steal a phone is when it has not locked itself, like when someone puts it on a restaurant table and then it is swiped by a passing thief. We’ve been warned about this in several countries. Also about looking at your phone in crowded.areas, they can be swiped while in use.

inlanikai

British: I just bought an Apple Watch. One reason for doing it is so I can keep my phone in a zipped pocket out of sight as much as possible while on tour and pay by credit card, or look at a map while walking, or look/respond to a text, by using my watch. Going to Italy next month for its first try-out, Fingers crossed.

My 2 cents on tipping: There are no easy or universal solutions when traveling internationally, especially since the bus drivers are employees of contracted companies and not Tauck employees like the TDs. My assessment is the only solution at this point in time is for Tauck to do all the tipping on land tours like they now do for river tours, add it to the price of the tour and facilitate the payments to the appropriate people either directly or through the contracted companies. Not ideal, but they must have some mechanism set up for the river tours that have a mix of TDs and contracted companies and guides.

British

Yes of course, that’s true. I wish we could survey the tour directors to see what they prefer. I know they are not happy about the extra money they got from leading small group tours being taken away from them.
I still maintain there are people on tours who don’t tip. Especially if they have been on river cruises and then go on a land tour. If people would read all their tour information then they wouldn’t keep asking about tipping here. I also think there are people out there who tip less than recommended as well as those who give generously.
Of course the tours are getting more and more expensive and way less meals included. Twenty years ago, there was no ‘free time’ Not all inclusive any more. There are high end companies out there who include tips in the price of the tour on land tours. I’ve not taken Rick Steves, but doesn’t he include them?