Show your gratitude with these tipping tips
It felt as if I had been waiting forever for my car to be delivered by the valet at a great restaurant in San Diego on the last night of a very hectic business trip. Although I was well satiated, I soon was out of sorts when I watched another diner hopping into his Mercedes and leaving the premises.
The reason I was so miffed was because the man in the fancy car was just starting to eat dessert when I was already paying my bill. By then, I was tired and raring to go, having no idea it would take so long to be presented my rental car in order to do so.
This blatant display of line-jumping didn't bode well with me. In fact, it made me downright angry, so much so that I expressed these sentiments to the head valet in a not-very-friendly tone of voice.
He smiled in return, which just made me even madder.
Quickly noting my great dissatisfaction, the professional parker explained what had happened. Apparently, the man behind the wheel of the Mercedes is a regular at this establishment. He knew that getting his car was going to be an ordeal, so after he was presented his bill for the meal, he hesitated paying it and instead asked his waiter to do him a favor.
His request: to have the man serving his food take his ticket to the valet so that when he was ready to leave his car would be, too. Possibly noting that the amount of his tip might be in the balance, and even though this was not the traditional way of doing things, the eager waiter did exactly as he was told.
The result was a beautifully choreographed transaction that flowed from waiter to valet to patron driving off in his car as soon as he stepped out the restaurant door.
Well done, I thought, vowing that the person sailing right through the red tape would soon be me. Indeed, I was already planning to use the waiter/valet ticket exchange technique the next time I went out to a popular restaurant where valet parking is the only option.
That said, following are a few other good tips that can make tipping work for you when you're on the road:
• If you plan to ask your hotel concierge for something complicated or seemingly impossible (like getting you in to watch a play that has been sold out for months), try tipping in advance. You need not hand over the full amount you plan to give at the end of your trip, but you can at least show willingness by giving financial gratitude of some sort before asking this hotel professional to jump through hoops.
• If you really want to do the proper thing with regard to tipping the hotel maid, do so every night instead of at the end of your stay like most people do. Leaving a few bucks on the bureau in an envelope marked "housekeeping" before you leave each evening to go out to dinner means the person who conducts your turn-down will get that money. The reason this should be done is that people who work in the hotel housekeeping department work in shifts.
• Finally, don't forget the person who works the hotel pool. Say you have an hour off, long enough to take a fast swim. Sadly, the place is packed and you can't find anywhere to sit and stow your things. Happily, that's when the pool attendant magically appears, dragging along a nice lounge chair with the offer to keep track of your valuables. At that point, immediately come up with a few bucks to thank this person for coming to your rescue. Not only is this the right thing to do, it also ensures you will have the chance to really enjoy those 60 minutes off-duty, relaxing in the sun without any worries.