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.)
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.
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.
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…..
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Comments
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.)
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.
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.
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…..
Here's my rhetorical answer - I'm simply trying to change Tauck's inconvenient tipping mechanism, not the world.
Here's my rhetorical answer - I'm simply trying to change Tauck's inconvenient tipping mechanism, not the world.
This!!
Great companies learn to adapt to modern ideas and tech. And are open to suggestions from long time clients. Dinosaurs die out.
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.
I didn’t read it that way, I thought it meant boycott cash for another method of payment.
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.
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.
NOthing is finalized or signed yet.
Ok. So we wait.
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.
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.
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.