Original von Carsten
ok, I get the hint and answer

First of all I would like to point out one difference between Americans and Germans. In Germany a Service-Charge is always included in any bill you pay, hence a tip is purely a sign of good grace and recognition of special service. In America however, some employees don´t get a salary at all and PURELY depend on tips. Since everyone knows how things work in their home country, they apply the same to places they visit and hence you end up with such major differences.

How do I handle this? Well, first of all I have never been to such poshy places where one night per person costs 300-500 Euro, but more like 10-40 Euro

I believe, this also makes a difference on how much tip you give. Besides this, I always also consider the salary the person gets. If what I consider a reasonable tip is in fact a full months salary, I will definately not give it. The maximum for me would be a days salary (tip per day), and that only if the person really showed me exceptional effort.

This is not because of greediness, but because I don't want them to start thinking that money grows on trees but that we all have to work hard for it. But then again, speaking Swahili to them, they don´t have expectations like they have from tourists. They don´t apply "European Expectations" to me.

If they ask me for money or tell me how much they suffer, I usually offer them some silly job for good money. Either to get me something unique or wash the car or God knows what comes to my mind. You would be surprised how many times they turn the offer down. A clear sign, they didn´t really mean it

Where I would be careful is with giving the money to the manager to distribute it like Jan said. But then again, you know the place and I guess, you know they received it. Else I wouldn't be so sure.

carsten you know what:
we were told by some very experienced safaritourists to NOT give it to the manager for distribution! since then we give it to the head waiter when many waiters and staff is around.......hope that works in the end

one great experience we had at elephant pepper camp - the one and only so far we experienced this:
at the end of stay they ask all staff to be lined up and the guest is told to give the money (without envelope ) to the head of staff follwed by a handshake to each staff member!
i find this strange but a very efficient because we often were told that some guests leave the camp without leaving the smallest tip! i am sure this epc-system works very fine for the staff!

pippa

Pippa:

"at the end of stay they ask all staff to be lined up and the guest is told to give the money (without envelope ) to the head of staff follwed by a handshake to each staff member!"

I can see this if they don't have a tip box, and then the head of staff could evenly distribute the tips to all employees. This could apply only to a small facility though. If you had to shake hands with 40 - 100 people it would get a little tiresome. However, there are always some employees who go out of their way to do special things for you and you want to give them a tip over and above what they get from the tip box.

I am fortunate enough to always have the same driver/guide and most often I am alone with him with no other passengers. Most people like to go out on the 6:30 drive to see lions. I like to go later because usually the elephants are more active and come into the park around 9:30 or 10:00 - so he makes a special trip for me to see the elephants. He earns any tip I leave him.

My most unusual tip was in August when 28 men from Ol Tukai volunteered to save the life of the elephant that was stuck in the mud. I gave each of them $10.00 as a little way of saying thank you for the elephant's life. Wish it could have been far more.

Carsten, how do you find out approximately what their salary is? Only one person, a bartender, has told me their pay was $38.00 (don't know if it was for a week, two or a month).

I too have heard that there are quite a few people who don't tip at all. Apparently they think that their "all inconclusive" includes the tips - when it usually doesn't.

Many of these people work seven days a week for three months before getting a week off and then have to ride in a matatu for two days to get home to see their families. That would be illegal in some countries. Here if you work more than 8 hours in a day or 40 hours in a week they have to pay you overtime.

If I were going to different camps every couple of nights throughout the whole trip I would do things differently. However, I always stay a week at one place and nine days at another and I now feel like family so to speak

I just feel when people can spend thousands of dollars on their trip, they should be considerate enough to take good care of the people that made their trip special.

Jan, of course you can never be sure about how much their salary is, but it doesn´t change much, no matter which job or lodge.

The salary you mention is per month. An average employee will get about a dollar per day. Hence, if you give them a dollar per day tip, you double that salary. Imagine, someone gives you such a big tip And you are only one of the many guests!!

I fully agree with you that we spend so much money on our trips, we might as well be considerate to those that take care of us, but it (tipping) needs to be within limits, too.

For example: Last time I went to Lake Baringo I asked a local fisherman if he could take me around on the lake to show and explain to me anything he could think of.
The guy went out of his way so much, I nearly felt sorry for asking him. We spent the whole day on the lake, he prepared food, showed me all kinds of birds escorted with a little story about each one, how the lake has changed, how to deal with a hippo if it charges you on land, etc. etc.
He didn´t accept my 10 dollars until I explained that they are not only for him, but for his whole family.

Carsten:

Interesting story. I've never had anyone turn down money before. He must have been a special individual to do that.

I knew salaries were low but didn't realize they were as low as approximately one dollar a day. That makes me even more upset and determined to help even more.
Consider a camp owner who has 10 tents and charges $650.00 per night for one person (receives more per tent if a couple). In one month he has taken in 201,500.00. Lets say he has 40 employees which (at roughly a dollar a day so figure $40.00 per month per emplyeee) he pays out 1,600.00. He has 199,900.00 left. From that he would have to pay monthly payments on vehicles plus insurance for same, fuel, food for guests and rental fees for KWS or conservancies and reserves. That still leaves the owner with a huge sum he has collected for profit. With so many people out of work and willing to work, he is thus not inclined to share the profit with his employees thus raising their salaries and making life better for them. It is sad and maddening. I saw more Mercedes in Nairobi than I've ever seen in Boston so you know there are very wealthy people in Kenya (perhaps they don't tax them enough).

Thanks for your interesting story. Did you catch any fish?

Well, it's not quite so easy because he pays every month for the land that he leases but doesn´t have the camp fully booked all year around. Still - there will be a few dollars left for him at the end of the day, otherwise there wouldn´t be so many camps

Didn´t catch any fish, preferred to go photo-hunting instead

Speaking of fish, I have been dreaming of tilapia and rock fish to eat in January when I get there, but now with the heavy rains, flooding, pollution and cholera I'll have to think very seriously about it. If it is well cooked I think I'll take a chance anyway. It is SOOOO good.