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How much to tip Gambia guide? (1 Viewer)

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BruceBerman

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How much should I tip my guide, who owns his own business, so is not working for a third party? We've hired him for 11 full days and he's included hotels, meals and a driver in his price. Let's assume he's going to so a good job and I want to be appreciative...but not more appreciative than I should be. How about the driver? Thanks!!
 
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No experience at all in Gambia, so hope that someone will have more local expertise, but I think a tip in recognition of good service is always good policy, even if the guy owns the business. It also helps to have a good link if you ever go back or have a friend go.
On trips, some tip around $20-50/day, others some percentage of the tour fee, usually 5-10%, recognizing that the guide is the critical link in making the trip successful.
Separately, the driver definitely should be on your list, especially if he also helps with route planning and spotting, maybe $10/day.
 
BruceBerman said:
Thanks, Etudiante. Yeah, I'm really surprised that there isn't more information out there on tipping guides.
Click to expand...

The paucity of information partly reflects the wide differences in tipping behavior. In Europe, there is usually a service charge included in the bill, so tipping on top of that is gilding the lily. In the US however, tips are held separate from the bill and often are a key element in the compensation of the service personnel.
I've no idea how other countries deal with the issue, but the various tour groups have open standards in part because of these differences. The boilerplate is that tipping is not required, but if you want to reward exceptional service, you should.
Africa by all accounts reported here on BF is an area where personal rather than formal interactions are more the norm, so presumably tipping is more the rule there. How much however is almost never discussed, but the 10% of the tour fee has been well received in the few instances I know of personally.
 
Again, thank you. Also, I mentioned the fact that our guide owns his business because I assume he is charging what he feels he is worth. An employee or independent contractor for a tour company would, I presume, not get paid as much and I would want to tip that guide at a higher rate.
 
My own policy if the guy owns a company, is not to tip. Different if it's a freelance guide and also of course, it depends if they were any good!

Recently in Rwanda, the company owner of the firm we used, accompanied us for three days. He enjoyed good accommodation and free food, I always had to pay for my own food (and my familys) from my wages so I already see that as a tip! We did subsequently tip another driver and guide that we used on another part of the trip, who had both been hired for us through the company.

let us also not forget, that over tipping, soon becomes the expected norm and leads to increased prices in the long run. Tipping is also very much something that has been adopted from America, Europeans and some others, feel obliged to tip these days though I still know plenty who don't.
 
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Mentions of 10% of the trip cost are way more than I would ever tip.

Recently I and five others paid about £4000 each for an Ecuador trip: the guide was the company owner and we gave him $200 dollars between us. The driver got a touch more. That was for a 17 day trip. Some might think that too little, but if somebody gave me $200 on top of what I have already charged (and made a good profit) I would be happy enough.

Gambia is a very poor country and an average wage will just be a few dollars a day. Bird guides charge much more than they would earn in a more mundane job and I don't think tips need to be particularly high. 10% of what they charge maybe? More if they are really helpful? I made the mistake of tipping a very likable guide quite highly one year only to have begging letters from him (I wrote my address in the BOU checklist I left him) and next time I visited found that he was last heard of in an asylum following drug abuse. I wonder where he got the money from...………...
 
Likewise, I see no reason to tip someone running a business/working for themselves - they charge a price that gives them the return they want. Waiters, waitresses in a restaurant, drivers or employed guides, maybe if the service was above the expected.
 
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I'm enjoying this discussion. So many opinions but I appreciate the help. I am also a fly fisherman here in the US, and we normally tip a guide at least 15%. Of course, they usually work their butts off rowing, but still, their daily rate is not inexpensive. It appears as though tipping is a bit cultural, also.
 
In general I would like to ask people to go easy on tipping in poor countries. If you tip a person more than the average wage in the country, you are doing something wrong in my opinion - why should people be so extremely rewarded just for having a job that faces foreigners, while their neighbors doing equally or probably more important work for local reasons are not? I know it's tempting, especially for people from "tipping cultures" to apply percentage from tour costs, but the tours are often absurdly overpriced in themselves and that should be kept in mind.

I am not a big tour-taker but I travel a lot and as a rule I do not tip in places where locals do not tip. A European is not a walking wallet to be squeezed.
 
Very helpful input, thank you all. It is not a topic that is much discussed, but I think it probably ought to be.
Evidently being from New York gives a warped perspective. New York is a place where the cab meters suggest a tip range of 20 to 30% and where the restaurant tip is 20% for routine service.
 
etudiant said:
Very helpful input, thank you all. It is not a topic that is much discussed, but I think it probably ought to be.
Evidently being from New York gives a warped perspective. New York is a place where the cab meters suggest a tip range of 20 to 30% and where the restaurant tip is 20% for routine service.
Click to expand...

I'm from Yorkshire where tipping is usually thought of as getting rid of rubbish.

Steve
 
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