“Tipping Etiquette for Guide Trips”
A tip on a fishing trip is sometimes a clumsy or even awkward conversation. I wanted to take this time and share my thoughts on guide tipping which hopefully clears some muddy waters for some. First of all a tip is always earned. If your guides do a good job we do hope you consider a service industry standard tip of around 15%-20% depending how you feel. That is the simple answer. If the trip cost you $750 then ideally between the two clients you tip around $120-$160 for the boat. A hard working, service minded guide does count on tips as part of their income. The guide has a number of huge expenses such as the boat and vehicle, your tackle, insurance and licensing. Tips go a long way to helping the guide cover these expenses so they can bank some paychecks to help get through the year.
Here are some reasons to consider tipping more. A special fish that you’ve been dreaming of that you will hang a picture of in your office home or post to social media. If the guide worked hard with you to earn that fish consider a bigger tip. If a guide makes an effort to fish with you every year and keeps days open just for you and your enjoyment of your day is enhanced year after year by this same guide, consider tipping more than you would someone you just met. Also there are stories of guests loosing their cool and damaging or breaking a guides rod or other equipment. I don’t mean regular wear and tear but if its your fault, you probably know it and you should help make up for that.
Reasons you should tip less are the same as any other service industry. If you feel your guide gave you bad service then feel free to tip less but also please let the outfitter know. Most outfitters would prefer to remedy the situation with the guide and figure out how to fix it or possibly not pair the clients and guides again in the future. This also gives us opportunity to coach up a guide who did not perform well that day. We appreciate all feedback, positive and negative.
Always tip with cash. Most guides prefer that and most even have Venmo now which is usually acceptable. Please do not tip on a card or with a check at the fly shop. Some outfitters will accommodate this request if there is no other option but you should know this is an inconvenience to the guide who now has to wait until payday and have deductions taken as well as added payroll work.
Did you forget to tip? It happens occasionally and if it does, usually the guide brings it to our attention. Our first move in that situation is to call the guest. One of three things has happened. The client didn’t know there was industry standard tipping, this happens with first timers. The client simply forgot. There is a lot of moving parts to a day of fishing trips. Accidents happen. We can figure something out to get the guide taken care of. Bad service is usually not the reason as our guides are excellent but if so, we want to know what happened and how we can fix it. We take customer service very seriously.
Also thank you to all those who do tip appropriately and even bigger thank you to those who tip generously. We appreciate it very much and plan to work as hard as we can to provide you the best experience possible.
-Steve Wilson
15-20% on a day trip is certainly reasonable, but what’s a fair percentage for a big-ticket/week-long trip? If I’m laying out $10K for a week, another $2K on top of that seems like a lot…10-15% seems like a reasonable range…thoughts?
Doug,
For those remote lodges they often have a recommended tip amount. If not, you can consult either your booking agent, or whoever handled your booking. Often times at lodges like that there is a much larger staff. These can include, airport shuttle drivers, chefs, bartenders, housekeeping, and laundry services. While 2k for the guides is excessive, you may approach that 15-20 percent when tipping the remaining staff. Other lodges pool tips and each staff member is tipped out appropriately. Remote lodges typically have large operating costs and staff are often far away from family and loved ones to provide you a world class experience.