Article written by: Master Of Art: Mr. Windy Phong – Founder of Vietnam Tour Tailor (VTT) Company LTD who was also a Senior guide and tourism entrepreneur for 12 years before establishing the company in 2012.
Below are his sharing about tipping culture when traveling to Vietnam and Asia in common.
TIPPING CULTURE IN VIETNAM
Tipping or any “money related” issues are the quite sensitive to Vietnamese person and people here will normally try to avoid talking about it directly. For a traveler to Vietnam, it is quite needed to know who, when, where tipping is needed in each cases. Especially for non-tipping cultures, it is important to know before hand to avoid culture shock that can effect the tour atmosphere. This Tipping guides in Vietnam article will help you to know more about our country and also about the tour you are going to take.
When we opened the door to the world in 1992, tipping was just a strange word to most of Vietnamese. Now with over 10 millions tourists a year, tipping is becoming a common word.
It is quite largely understood that tipping is various to each traveler’s nationality and their budget and in any form, tipping is not a must in Vietnam but all restaurant – hotel staff or tour guides will wait to get tipped at the end of the satisfactory service and almost all workers in tourism field consider tipping is an appreciation of the clients to the service provider; it is also their bonuses and someone even called: 2nd salary.
When I opened my first boutique hotel in Hanoi Old Quarter in 2010, with around 13 staff, every month-end, we opened the tip box and divided it equally to everybody. It was said to be the 2nd salary of the staff that everybody was trying to work at their best, it is very common for a small hotel to get a tip box at the reception.
In a upper scale hotel and restaurant they will just simply include this as 5% service charge and then it is not needed to give a tip as you have given it already when you pay for the food or the stay.
TIPPING GUIDE IN VIETNAM
It is then needed to know about the tipping in Vietnam; it actually largely depends on the services you are using. Example: If you are in a local restaurant, tipping is actually not needed since Vietnamese people do not tip in the local restaurants but we will do with the high-quality ones. The amount of 50.000VND to 100.000 VND will normally be sent to the staff who serves the group of around 10 persons. If you are just a couple of 2, a note of 20.000VND is enough.
If you go to a local massage or Spa, a tip of 50.000VND to 100.000VND is suggested for less than 2 hours work. You will sometimes find that at the end if you do not give tip, massager can even ask for it which will not seem to be polite.
During your group tours, since the quality of the tours could not be great as the big number of travelers and also many factors that the guide/staff could not care for the group. But some great guides can manage to bring everybody a great tour and he will expect a tip at the end of the trip. If you are in a group of 2 persons joining the group of 20 another tourists, a tip of 5$/day can be considered an appreciation to his work.
If you are visiting Vietnam in a group of over 10 persons, a tipping of 3$/pax/day is normally stated in the tour package; it is for guide and drivers and you will not need to give anything extra.
Many companies focuses on Private tours like what we do and tour guides are normally at a better standard than group tours (normally newbie guides). With English speaking countries, tipping is quite common and tourists will give depending on their satisfaction of the guide’s and driver’s work but with a lot of small group with non-English speaking tour guides like Chinese, Thai, Cambodia, Indo, Korean, Japanese… please do not get surprised if in the confirmation we can stick with a sentence: tipping is not included and a suggested of 20$/day tipping for the tour guide is needed to know before hand. It is not compulsory and you will not give tip if you are not satisfied with their work.
WHEN TO GIVE TIP
There is a question that will your tour be effected if you do not give tip? The answer is No and Never.
Tipping is always given at the end of the tour/services. It is appreciation of customers to the staff’s services and all the staff understands that it will vary from culture to culture. They deeply understand it through training of their work or simply at the university/school.
NO TIP FOR SHOPPING TOURS
Common Asia tourists visiting Vietnam, Thailand or any other countries, they can get involved into shopping tours. Instead of visiting many locals as possible, the tour is designed to see bee farms, snake farms, bear farms, jewel show rooms…
Tipping is not needed in these tours since you already tip but in an another form.
Vietnam Tour Tailor (VTT) understands about the need of customers thoroughly and provide no shopping tours in our list. However, it is good to let everyone know.
THERE IS A FACT
Many other travel forums says: Vietnamese people earn 2500$/year so around just 6$/day. What is a proper tip for a guide and driver? Many suggested the tipping of 5$ for guide/day and half for driver consider it is too much for a private tour. But there is a fact in this 94 millions people country:
1. Vietnam is a country of 25% living in the cities and 75% of us still remain in the countryside.Vietnam is a country of 30% living on industries and services. 70% remains in the farm work which absolutely earns not much.
2. 14% of Vietnamese do not have the income over 1$/day (mostly remote area in the mountain). 44% of us living with the income of less than 1000$/year.
3. Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh city (14 millions people) average income is around 8.000$/person/year (Hanoi) and 10.000$/year (Ho Chi Minh City). income of a Vietnamese comes from 2 parts: Salary and bonuses (to avoid paying income taxes).
4. If you want to rent a room of 20 SQM in the city area (10 kms away from town center) of these 2 cities with a toilet inside, a 200$/month for rental fee is common.
5. English speaking people in particular and any foreign language speaking people will be counted as “intelligence” in Vietnam and normally get a better paid.
That is the reason why if you are going to get a local tour guide who lives in the rural area, tipping amount of 5-10$/day is considered generous. But that is not for big city tour guides.
We do hope this article about tipping guides in Vietnam will be best source of information for travelers in visiting Vietnam. It is all for a successful tour and your enjoyable journey full of fun and smiles.
MA. Windy Phong
