How to Tip Valet?

DH and I will have a car for our NYE trip (12/29-1/2). We are staying at Caesars and plan on using the valet for our car. I want to make sure to be fair in my tipping and hope that you can give me some insight into what you tyipcally do. We will likely use the Diamond/7 Star valet (I'm Diamond).

1. Do you tip only when the car is retrieved?

2. What is a reasonable tip? $3? $5?

3. Does the tip amount change based on the number of times you leave during the day?

For reference, we tip CWs $1 per drink (if that gives you any insight into our tipping style) and dinners at 20-25% based on service.

Thanks!

-JEN

 

Items 1 & 2 yes but not Item #3! For the record I tip $2 on average.
But you tip whatever you like but only after they've retrieved your car.

PS: If you think you will be coming and going a lot use Self Park.

 

DH and I will have a car for our NYE trip (12/29-1/2). We are staying at Caesars and plan on using the valet for our car. I want to make sure to be fair in my tipping and hope that you can give me some insight into what you tyipcally do. We will likely use the Diamond/7 Star valet (I'm Diamond).

1. Do you tip only when the car is retrieved? yes

2. What is a reasonable tip? $3? $5? depends on your type of car ,if you bring him a honda and get back a mercedes a 20$ but if you get back your old honda a 1 or 2$ is fine

3. Does the tip amount change based on the number of times you leave during the day? no, every time you get you car you tip it will usualy be a differnt guy

now if service suxs thats another story

For reference, we tip CWs $1 per drink (if that gives you any insight into our tipping style) and dinners at 20-25% based on service.

Thanks!

-JEN

 

Thanks guys...self park is about a mile away from the Augustus Tower, which is the main reason to use valet. Good to know I shouldn't feel bad with $3 tips. And we would retrieve the car maybe 2x on one day and likely once the remainder of the days, so definitely not a revolving door.

 

How much you tip is your choice.

Personally, I only tip $2-4 at the time of pick-up. Some people give a few bucks at the time of drop off as well.

 

sorry to thread jack but how come people only tip when picking up the car? Why not when dropping off?

 

I do give a few bucks at drop off. But normally, that's when I get in after a long drive. We usually need a few minutes to get it together, and a tip seems to keep the attendants from rushing us.

 

Since parking and also valet is free, I tip $3-$5 on pickup and drop-off.

I mean....we don't pay for parking.

Hell, if I stay at hotel in Baltimore, MD, parking can run $30 a day.

Tip your valet nicely folks, pickup and drop-off, they can be different folks and they are both taking care of your vehicle.

 

On those rare occasions when I valet-park, I base the tip on what they charge (or don't charge).
In Vegas (for example), the charge is zero, so the tip runs $2 on drop-off & $3 on pick-up.
If they charge $10 (which seems common in the DFW area), I tip $2 on pick-up only.
At the horse track here, they charge $5 or $7 on drop-off (I think), so I typically tip them $2 on pick-up.

 

I only tip on dropoff when I get extra service like help with luggage or directions or recommendations. To me, returning the car is the completion of service and that's when a gratuity is due.

 

$2-3 for picking up, nothing for dropping off.

20-25% tip for dinner? Yikes! Coming from the UK, where we fortunately do not have a tipping epidemic, that is very generous. 10-12.5% is the norm here.

 

It depends.

I ALWAYS tip like $2 on drop off and another $2-3 on pick up

However, if it is a hotel/casino notorious for being very busy, I'll tip $5+ on drop off. Usually, you'll see they make some additional mark on the ticket they keep, that usually shows you're a good tipper and can get faster service that way.
I still drop $2-3 when I get the car.

 

I wholeheartedly agree, especially in summer when the guys are running in 105* heat.

 

I always tip 2-3 on dropoff and pickup.

I started tipping on dropoff mainly because I think the driver might take better care of my vehicle. That's probably not correct, but that's why I tip on both.

 

Thanks for all the replies…and for not turning this into a controversial thread on tipping!

20-25% for dinner is just a personal preference. The lowest we have ever tipped a waiter was 15%, and at that point we weren't impressed.

Our norm is 20. For excellent, over the top service, sometimes 25% is warranted.

My parents instilled in me that if you couldn't afford to tip, then you couldn't afford the meal.

*interesting thoughts on tipping at drop off.

 

$2 or $3 before I pick up my car.

 

As an ex valet I can tell you that the night shift really would appreciate tips on drop off as well as pick up. Has anyone noticed that the older/experienced crews work the morning shift, thats because most people believe in only tipping on pick up so when guests check out or get the car for the day its usually in the morning which is when most of the tips are generated. Also think about this if you tip on the way in you may end up getting your vehicle back quicker because the valet may leave a note on your ticket while tipping on the way out you already have been serviced and cant be taken care of better.

 

I always tip on drop off and pick up when especially when its my own car. on drop off it varies, depending on which car I brought with me to vegas, usually $5-40. i have 2 reasons for tipping when dropping off. 1) is i find my car comes out a lot faster when i pick it up. 2) my cars are expensive and high performace cars valets would most likely want to abuse or joyride than the normal cars the usually park, i tip them in hopes that they will take care of it and not abuse my car while parking. during pick up usually $5-10 depending how i feel and how long i waited. i had to goto PH once because some guys i knew stayed there for a bachelor party, i valeted my car and those ****** bag valet driver/s put 6 miles on my car joy riding it forsure. something like that has never been a problem at wynn or Bellagio type places, i guess when you goto lower tier places stuff like that happens.

 

So we have to "bribe" you to get our cars faster? :confused2:

 

You should never trusts valets, regardless of where you're at. There are instances of valets at internationally-recognized establishments that abuse the hell out of some cars. This is why I give the valets a $20 and park the car at the curb, so that they don't drive it.