Love the idea on the envelopes! I will be doing that since I noticed myself getting "tip happy" on our first trip. True and having been in the service industry before I know what you mean. You all are going to think I am nuts here but I took $500 for tips for the week. I know, I know, "WTF are you thinking" I am always a heavy tipper. If the service is shit I still tip but you are not going to get a decent tip. I make it a point to converse when they are not busy as to not distract of make their job any harder. My advice, get there early! Learn their names and treat them like a human, not a servant! When you get something from them or have to ask them for something tip them and let them see you do it. don't do it on the sly cuz then you feel good about yourself but they think you could have stiffed em. I give the tip directly to whom I am dealing with. If housekeeping is not there I make sure to leave a healthy tip for them as I think we all know what our rooms look like after a night at PattyO's. I also found that when I did this, I tipped the bartenders on the first day $20 right away and every time filled up it was another $1. I found that every day there after all I had to do was a $10 in the morning and even when they were busy and people were crowding around, the bartenders saw right past all of the other people and waved me over and said the name of whatever the drink was I had for the day.... and they poured them strong!
We agree and usually take at least $75 per day! Last trip was 4 nights and we took $400 for tips! Staff are worth it
also remember... our us dollar has to be exchanged if the workers want to use in their local establishments... which means might be less value on exchange rate, or charges to exchange for pesos... i am horrible at math, which is why i stick with my US 1.00 bill process... win/win, lose/lose, break even... anyhoooo... the culture amazes me at their work ethic, while so many in the states live off the welfare system! I would love to have a mani/pedi for our trip, but my money is going toward our living expenses... while the lady in front of me at walmart swipes her card to pay for groceries, with her fake nails, tan, and purse.
We usually stay 10 nights so we get 100 $1 bills,we give the cleaning lady $2 a day,for breakfast the girl cooking the eggs $1 and the servers that take you to the tables $2 a meal.If they squeeze you into one of the fine restaurants I will give the guy $5.And to start the day off at the sexy pool throw a $5 into their tip jar.That will get you some of the better booze too.Still much much cheaper then when you go to Vegas,N.Y.,were $1 won't get you much.
Great idea to divide into envelopes. We get tip happy and then have problems at the end of the week! Thanks for sharing! We will have to do that this year. ~Jill~
Does anyone know if they can "cash" or spend the dollar coins or silver dollars? Will they know the value? Probably a dumb question, but the tipping a $2 bill was a neat idea so it got me thinking. ~Jill~
I am not sure about the dollar coins or silver dollars, but I do know that other US change is fairly useless in MX unless the staff can exchange it for paper US cash with a guest. I have seen the bartenders ask to cash up their US change.
Do NOT tip all the week's stay the first day, you might get one of the tenders who is there that day, then gone the rest of your vacation, that happens. They rotate in and out. Best way I've found is, when you've figured out where you're going "to be" most of the day, find the bartender most convenient and most personable to you and tip heavily right then, then perhaps once more during the day. Repeat at night. More often, true, but more bang for your buck, too.
