You tip how you feel, everyone is different. We're modest tippers, but holiday 6-8 weeks a year (it adds up!) Top tip though....tip housekeeping a little every day. The maid (sometimes a guy) has a day off, if you tip big at the end it may not be your regular maid that picks it up. Boy, did we notice when our regular maid had the day off! We tend to tip the bar guys who actually listen to what we want (Malibu, not Coconut rum for example), waiters (if good service - every night this last trip) and personal things, like the guys at breakfast at Sea Flirt learned how to make English tea, in a pot! They were well looked after. We're English, we don't have a big tipping culture. We tip for that little bit extra. You'll find your way.
We try n tip everyone a couple of dollars when possible but the tarbenders at the sexy pool are the keys for us so we tip them more. Rather than having to tip them small here and there we give 20$ as soon as we meet them and continue every day or other day the same, they remember and will take good care of you. Thats where we plan the bulk of our tips.
I went to my bank and they don't do currency exchange. Is it okay to tip if you haven't exchanged the Cash?
I am not sure where you are from, but yes you can tip in USD. There is exchange(at the fair rate) at the airport if you wanted pesos. I actually stopped changing the money over through. I get too drunk and too confused sometimes when I have both forms of currency and just starting handing out cash. Then I get back to the room and Elyse is wondering where the money went. Hmmm I might have just drunkenly tipped $100+, hahaha oh well they all desive it.
Funny story about this... Tried to purchase something on the resort in Jamaica with $20 CAD and she would not accept it, because frankly, if you have ever seen it, compared to the greenback, it looks like monopoly money. Thing is, at the time, our money was worth a lot more than the US currency and I was overpaying for the product because I didn't have any smaller bills. It was like a $12 purchase, tried to explain that she was making at least a $10 surplus plus her profit if she would only accept the bill. Nope, she refused and lost a sale. It was frustrating because she didn't know enough about my currency to know if I was telling the truth. ScubaSteve wasn't far off when talking about using US dollars though. A pro tip for anyone travelling South is that you can't go wrong when using either the local currency or green backs. Use any other currency at your own risk...
Having travelled all over, cash is always King. CDN dollars are always tough and local currency can fluctuate 10% or more in a week so USD work everywhere. Our Tips start high and go up or down from there. We always leave money for the maids daily and get to know people by their names.
Steve, you've replied to some of my queries and I think I may finally be in a position to return the favour! It's an old trick apparently, but because I am not a big drinker, I only learnt it on my second trip to Hedo years ago. So, in an effort to pay if forward, here's the "drunk proof" tip on how not to overtip: Fold the bill in half 3 times until you end up with a small square. Now fold a bunch more and put them in your pocket handing them out willy nilly without a care in the world... I usually do it as we are having drinks, getting ready to go out for the evening. There's another advantage to this method. Whenever you go to the no tipping resorts where your tip is already included in the price. Even on these resorts you get better service by tipping. However, you have to be careful since they can get fired if seen accepting tips. So, the method is to put the small folded square bill in the palm of your hand, holding it with your thumb. Raise your hand and wave at the bartender, he will see that there's a tip in that hand of yours and will rush right over to help you out. You would not believe the amount of times that other guests, who were already waiting for the bartender to be free before I showed up, asked me what my trick was lol, good times!
