Tipping for services in Thailand

[JPonWeb]

Could someone please advise me on tipping for services in Thailand?  Eg.

1.  A genuine Thai Massage.   eg. Charge for I hour THB 150, what should be the tip?

2.  An oil massage (clean, no frills), charge THB 250, what should be the tip?

3.  After a meal at a Restaurant?

4.  At the hotel ?  Room cleaning lady, porter, reception?

Many thanks in advance.

[petermik]

1......50 baht

2......50/60 baht

3......nothing/50 baht depending upon cost

4......room cleaning lady 20 baht/day if she does a good job.......porter 20 baht......reception nothing.

Tipping by normal thais is minimal.....don,t go throwing silly money here tipping,they will assume you are stupid.....

[Lacessit]

Thais don't tip. It is optional for a farang. I'd agree modest amounts are OK.

I usually tip with coin change in a restaurant, and 50 baht for a massage. I won't tip if the service is poor. I don't go back either.

[Kwasaki]

27 minutes ago, JPonWeb said:

Could someone please advise me on tipping for services in Thailand? 

25 or 50 satang is fine.

[jackdd]

No tipping required in Thailand, so i don't do it unless i receive a very good service.

1/2. If she didn't play with her phone while doing the massage, properly massaged with both hands, didn't talk with the friend next to her all the time and the 1 hour massage was indeed at least one hour long and i felt she was paying attention to me, then a 50 baht tip.

3. I don't see how bringing me my food could be somehow exceptional good, so i never tip. In many restaurants the owner keeps the tips and doesn't give it to the people actually serving you.

4. Only if i would request a service which is not standard, no tip if they just do their normal their job.

Edited May 8, 2019 by jackdd

[Lacessit]

50 minutes ago, Kwasaki said:

25 or 50 satang is fine.

How many of those coins do you have?

[OneEyedPie]

I tip as I see fit much to my wife's chagrin.

[from the home of CC]

with these habits why all the worry about the 800k every year?

[CeeGee]

What would you usually tip a pre arranged taxi from Swampy to Pattaya?

[Kwasaki]

5 hours ago, Lacessit said:

How many of those coins do you have?

lots get them in 7-11 change.

Frankly I was taking the pee out of what I think is a stupid post, OP can hate me all he likes. ????

[baansgr]

Nada, nothing never tip...well maybe once every few years if service is exceptional

And the idiots that do have caused the expectation of a tip regardless...

 

 

 

 

Edited May 8, 2019 by baansgr

[OneEyedPie]

38 minutes ago, baansgr said:

And the idiots that do have caused the expectation of a tip regardless...

Hasn't impacted you, obviously, so not sure why you added the second sentence.  Just saying.

 

I tip the same as I do in the UK which is as and when I see fit.  You're effectively blaming me for something that doesn't impact you.  Very odd logic, almost Thai logic.

[JPonWeb]

Many thanks to ALL who replied, and enlightened me on etiquette in Thailand.

 

I was doing the same as most of you suggested.  Eg, giving 50 THB for a straight, clean massage costing 250 THB.

The youngish (30?) woman was very good with her technique, and each time I came here (twice a year) I kept asking for her and booking appointments with her each time and was very friendly and polite.

 

But, suddenly she was playing hard to get and was suggesting I chose someone else (one of the other old, fat, and ugly women). I was bewildered, and shocked.

 

I then somehow managed to get one last appointment with her the next day, (purely to find out) and then she muttered " the problem with you is, you give very small tip! (50,60,70... THB!). 

 

I'm a clean, professional, mid aged, brown asian living in UK.

I am confused!  Damned if you do, damned if you don't!

 

 

 

[Scutty]

On 5/8/2019 at 4:20 PM, CeeGee said:

What would you usually tip a pre arranged taxi from Swampy to Pattaya?

Nothing at all . NEVER tip in Thailand .

[Scutty]

On 5/8/2019 at 12:31 PM, petermik said:

1......50 baht

2......50/60 baht

3......nothing/50 baht depending upon cost

4......room cleaning lady 20 baht/day if she does a good job.......porter 20 baht......reception nothing.

Tipping by normal thais is minimal.....don,t go throwing silly money here tipping,they will assume you are stupid.....

Which idiot decided to start tipping Thais . ? This is not necessary ...GET IT YET ???

[Enki]

Thai only tip in rare cases. E.g. a restaurant where you have a server at your table who is refilling your glasses and when plates gets empty removes them imediately and asks if you have more wishes, but basically is at your table all the time.

 

Caps and massage only westerners tip ...

 

So, you gave 50TBH tip on a 250TBH bill, increasing her wage by 25% ... if she is allowed to keep it. 

 

I have no real rule, but when I'm out with my wife, I obviously don't tip, and if I use a cap I round up the next 5 TBH or 10TBH if it is close to a 100TBH border.

[SteveK]

I'm one of those people who only tip for really great service, but when I do, I tip heavily. I had an issue once at a Thai restaurant where I needed to deal with something urgently, but my phone was dead. The waitress let me use her phone and stalled the food until I got back (I had had a couple of drinks already at this point), and ended up being late due to Bangkok traffic. My bill was about 600 but I gave the lady 1000 baht tip, she was over the moon, but would rather give 1000 to someone who deserved it than 50 lots of 20 baht to people who did nothing special. She was rather attractive too.

 

But I agree - tipping in Thailand is really not necessary, but if someone goes out of their way to help me I will make sure that I help them back.

Edited May 22, 2019 by SteveK

[DingDongLing]

On 5/8/2019 at 1:07 AM, jackdd said:

 

 

No tipping required in Thailand, so i don't do it unless i receive a very good service.

1/2. If she didn't play with her phone while doing the massage, properly massaged with both hands, didn't talk with the friend next to her all the time and the 1 hour massage was indeed at least one hour long and i felt she was paying attention to me, then a 50 baht tip.

3. I don't see how bringing me my food could be somehow exceptional good, so i never tip. In many restaurants the owner keeps the tips and doesn't give it to the people actually serving you.

4. Only if i would request a service which is not standard, no tip if they just do their normal their job.

1) All that for a 50 baht tip?  Which is decent.  I think the minimum should be 50 unless she upset me by cheating the time or horrible massage. 

 

I usually tip 100 rarely 200 for a 90 min-2 hour massage.

 

REMEMBER, 12 hour massage shifts, she only works a few hours at most, some days 0.   A 100 tip could double her salary but still below living conditions

[DingDongLing]

9 hours ago, JPonWeb said:

Many thanks to ALL who replied, and enlightened me on etiquette in Thailand.

 

I was doing the same as most of you suggested.  Eg, giving 50 THB for a straight, clean massage costing 250 THB.

The youngish (30?) woman was very good with her technique, and each time I came here (twice a year) I kept asking for her and booking appointments with her each time and was very friendly and polite.

 

But, suddenly she was playing hard to get and was suggesting I chose someone else (one of the other old, fat, and ugly women). I was bewildered, and shocked.

 

I then somehow managed to get one last appointment with her the next day, (purely to find out) and then she muttered " the problem with you is, you give very small tip! (50,60,70... THB!). 

 

I'm a clean, professional, mid aged, brown asian living in UK.

I am confused!  Damned if you do, damned if you don't!

 

 

 

 

What can she buy with 50 baht tip?  A small bottle of milk for her baby?

 

If u have money, help her out if the service is good.  If its bad.  tell her WHY its bad so she can work on it for the next customer. 

 

While she is massaging you, she is missing out on someone giving her a huge tip since it was probably the best massage of their lives coming from the west. 

[CharlieH]

3 minutes ago, DingDongLing said:

1) All that for a 50 baht tip?  Which is decent.  I think the minimum should be 50 unless she upset me by cheating the time or horrible massage. 

 

I usually tip 100 rarely 200 for a 90 min-2 hour massage.

 

REMEMBER, 12 hour massage shifts, she only works a few hours at most, some days 0.   A 100 tip could double her salary but still below living conditions

Most of the massage places I know they are not paid a daily rate at all. They are paid on a percentage basis, so if trade is slow they get nothing !

[DingDongLing]

No one should tip if the service is bad for anything.  Do not make them entitled. 

 

But if it was good, help them out.  How can thais survive with such high prices on goods?

[DingDongLing]

1 minute ago, CharlieH said:

Most of the massage places I know they are not paid a daily rate at all. They are paid on a percentage basis, so if trade is slow they get nothing !

My friend owns a place and on business days (not weekend) and esp in slow season. they will only have a few customers at most for the ENTIRE spa

 

Imagine being at work 12 hours a day and not even getting one customer while your kids can not go to school because they could not afford the uniform.   Then mr.professional clean from the UK comes and leaves a 0.30 cent euro tip to a great massuse

[DingDongLing]

Yes the commissio0n is 40-50%

[georgegeorgia]

I had a foot massage in one of those shops at the back of Pattaya’s Tukcom last year.

 

A ladyboy was massaging my feet, he/she didn’t speak to me which i prefer and i laid back to relax , I could hear him/ her ranting away in thai to the next foot masseur and a couple of screaming screeches but i chose to ignore it.

 

after the massage i gave him/her 100baht which i thought was fair enough.

But.....no .....he/she screeced on seeing it and slammed it down on the floor where it was sitting.

 

I actually was shocked, and looked up to see the boss guy also shaking his head, then the ladyboy looked up at me .” You only give me 100 baht huh ?

 

This was done in front of other customers sitting next to me getting foot massages.

[colinneil]

Quite funny reading some of the posts on this thread.

Me i tip the porters at the local hospital (100 baht), before i started doing this i could wait sometimes for over an hour to be lifted back into our pickup, now i never wait more than 2 minutes.

In big C, whatever staff members packs the bags and places them in the basket behind me gets 20 baht.

[OneMoreFarang]

On ‎5‎/‎8‎/‎2019 at 1:07 PM, jackdd said:

No tipping required in Thailand, so i don't do it unless i receive a very good service.

Legally it's not required.

But many people in jobs which normally receive tips get a very low salary.

I know i.e. from 5 star hotels which pay their waiters 6,000B per month, less than minimum wage, because they know they get tips.

In bars and massage places it's sometimes even worse. I.e. 3,000B salary per month, rest tips.

 

For me the consequence is that I give at least a little tip like 20B plus coins almost every time. If the service was really bad or not existent then I don't give tip. If the service was really good then normally I give that person cash into their hands = personal tip, not shared with all the others.

 

And then there is of course the 10% service charge. In some places the staff receives that in full. And in other places not at all. If I go regularly to places like that then I just ask the staff how much they see from the service charge and maybe how much salary they get. In my experience many Thais are open about this and it's not a no-no to ask about their income. With that information it's easier to decide how much tip they should get.

[OneMoreFarang]

12 hours ago, colinneil said:

Quite funny reading some of the posts on this thread.

Me i tip the porters at the local hospital (100 baht), before i started doing this i could wait sometimes for over an hour to be lifted back into our pickup, now i never wait more than 2 minutes.

In big C, whatever staff members packs the bags and places them in the basket behind me gets 20 baht.

That's a good point.

I also tip from time to time to people who don't expect it like i.e. security guards in motorcycle parking areas which I visit regularly. Those tips guarantee that there is always a good parking spot for me.

[Enki]

On 5/22/2019 at 11:59 PM, DingDongLing said:

 

What can she buy with 50 baht tip?

A meal ... or a beer. You have no clue about prices, have you?

[thaibeachlovers]

On ‎5‎/‎8‎/‎2019 at 6:40 PM, Lacessit said:

How many of those coins do you have?

I have loads as 7 11 kept giving them to me but what would I be able to buy with them, unless taking a big bag full?

[thaibeachlovers]

On ‎5‎/‎23‎/‎2019 at 12:01 PM, georgegeorgia said:

I had a foot massage in one of those shops at the back of Pattaya’s Tukcom last year.

 

A ladyboy was massaging my feet, he/she didn’t speak to me which i prefer and i laid back to relax , I could hear him/ her ranting away in thai to the next foot masseur and a couple of screaming screeches but i chose to ignore it.

 

after the massage i gave him/her 100baht which i thought was fair enough.

But.....no .....he/she screeced on seeing it and slammed it down on the floor where it was sitting.

 

I actually was shocked, and looked up to see the boss guy also shaking his head, then the ladyboy looked up at me .” You only give me 100 baht huh ?

 

This was done in front of other customers sitting next to me getting foot massages.

Easy solution; take the money back and walk out.