March 2004 Article                                                                   Back to March 2004 Email

Tips on Tipping:  Extra touches for extra special service
An interview with event planner and author Colleen Rickenbacher

Colleen Rickenbacher loves movies, licorice, and Swedish fish. Once during a business trip, she returned to her hotel room to find a movie book and her two favorite sweets waiting for her, a gift from a thoughtful and savvy hotel staffer. Colleen cites this as an example of how meeting planners can use personalized inexpensive gifts as thank yous that can be more appreciated than a lavish tip.

“Be attentive. Listen for clues,” she advises, and consider gifts, rather than cash, for higher level staffers such as CSMs, CVBs, and those who can’t accept tips. An autographed book, tickets to a show they may have mentioned, something truly personal, will be remembered long after your event. A speaker and author of Be on Your Best Business Behavior, Colleen says there are also occasions when cash might be preferred when you know that the manager is getting married soon, building a new home or is having a baby. Yet, those are other instances where your cash gift shows that you were attentive to that particular individual. She suggests that tipping varies tremendously depending on the length of your meeting or convention, services rendered and the level of service provided. 

Colleen always travels with envelopes and company note cards and includes a personal note and her business card with every tip. She also keeps small bills in reserve for those occasions when someone provides service above and beyond for such emergencies as AV breakdowns or tending to last minute extra guests.

WHERE TO START…

Knowing who to tip, how much, and how is not easy when so many people are involved. Colleen suggests at the beginning…

1. Talk to your CSM or sales manager. “They deal with it every day and are used to it.” They can tell you what their company policy on tipping is, including who usually receives tips, and give you an idea of how much to tip. “They generally won’t come out and suggest an amount, ” she says, “as that can be a bit awkward. But they will give guidelines.”
   
   
2. Be clear up front about how you plan to tip. You can handle it yourself with cash or you can have it built into the hotel bill. But, make sure you know and understand the tipping policies at that particular venue or facility. When she builds tips into the hotel bill or a master account, Colleen specifies who she wants to get the tips, and how much.

You’ll have a budget you must live within, Colleen acknowledges, and that determines what you can tip. Her budget usually ranges from $500 to $1,000 for tips for an event.

WHO TO TIP…

Among those high on Colleen’s tip list are:

• The bellman. “Bellmen are my heroes,” she enthuses. They handle deliveries and errands during her stay and she relies on them a lot. A tip for them may range from $20 to $100 depending on how much service they provided over how many days.
  
  
• Concierge. “They are like my staff when I am away,” Colleen explains. She recommends a tip of $50 or more for their help during the conference, and, perhaps another $20 if they take charge of shipping materials back to you after the event.
  
  
• Banquet managers. It depends on the service. If they arrange to handle extra guests at the last minute smoothly, for example, Colleen would write a thank you note with a tip. It could range from $100 to $300 for a 3-day event.
  
  
• Moving-in help. Colleen tries to hire college students for this job and pays them usually $10 an hour. If they have put in long hours, she likes to tip them a little extra if she has money left in her budget. 
  
  
• Servers. The only time you might tip servers, Colleen explains, is if you have a really small group and only two or three servers. Then $10-$25 each would be appropriate if they were particularly helpful.
  
  
• Other personnel. Front desk people, AV technicians, clean-up crews. Whether you tip or not all depends on the nature of the service performed, Colleen says.

BUDGET-SAVING, YET PLEASING BONUSES

“By all means consider giving your company logo items to people who have served you well, ” Colleen encourages. “Give a company jacket or T-shirt to a bellman and you may see him wearing it the next time you visit. Portfolios, clocks, canvas bags – people love them. Give them to your college-student move-in crew and others who you particularly want to remember.”

When presenting tips or gifts, Colleen prefers to do it herself. However, there are times when the employee can’t be located. In such cases, you can give the note and gift to the general manager and ask him or her to take care of it for you, she suggests.

Ultimately, it is up to you to decide who to tip and how much. And this should depend on whether or not the service you received was particularly exceptional. “There are people who come to the top of mind immediately ,”she says. “Those are the people you reward.” And remember that a letter of praise to a staffer’s supervisor is often most appreciated of all.

A CMP, CSEP and veteran of more than 30 years in the events profession, Colleen is president and owner of Colleen Rickenbacher, Inc. She can be reached through her web site or by e-mail at cricken@dallascvb.com.

Next Month: Tipping guidelines for the business traveler.

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