Gratuity/Tips for guided hunting

[rbuoncri]

Baser on your handle your probably a Dentist. You can afford to tip like a grown adult...

No objection to tipping, just want it to be appropriate. That's all I asked. The thread has degenerated.

 

[Varmint Hunter]

I didn't read the last 100 posts, but I will say that tipping has been taken completely out of traditional context. Today, "tips" are essentially additional chargers and are expected by workers whether they provide good service or not. Who decides what services deserve tips and which don't? Exactly what special service does my letter-carrier and sanitation-worker do that they should expect tips? I tip them both at Christmas but only because I feel obligated, not because that outdid themselves providing me with good service.

A waiter/waitress does the exact same job whether they work at a mom & pop restaurant or a high-end restaurant but leaving a 20% tip gives one server MUCH more money than the other. How is that fair?

I've had guides that were terrible. They did things to make their job easier, not make my hunt better. Interestingly enough, they seem to be the ones who always mention receiving large tips from previous clients.

I have been on a guided hunt all week. I know my guide fairly well. He told me that he leaves his regular job for 4-6 weeks so that he can guide. He said that the money is so good that its worth all the travel and being away from home. He also mentioned that there is nothing like taking in the cash that Uncle Sam doesn't know about.

In the endless cycle of modern tipping - My friend recently took his wife out to dinner. He expected the added 8.5% tax and he anticipated that he'd leave a customary tip. But what he didn't expect was the added percentage for "employee health care". And let's not even mention the added 3.5% that many restaurants add to your bill for paying with a credit card. Actually - everyone seems to be getting on that bandwagon lately.

I worked for 40yrs before I retired. I provided the best service that I possibly could. I never expected a tip and didn't accept the few that were offered. Apparently, I was in the wrong (non-tipping) industry.

 

[Philward]

And let's not even mention the added 3.5% that many restaurants add to your bill for paying with a credit card. Actually - everyone seems to be getting on that bandwagon lately.

That 3% is built in to the price I think, and my dad many times says "I'm paying cash so what's the price for cash" and they remove the 3% from bill.

I believe restaurants automatically add 18-20% gratuity for parties larger than 8-10 or something like that.

Sounds like outfitters are pushing the majority of the guides earnings onto the hunters shoulders even though they should have paid for that with the hunt fee. The tip should be a little to show appreciation for the effort of helping, money under the table for cash in pocket. I don't want him to carry my pack or rifle, just be a hunting partner who knows his way around the area we would be hunting.

 

[Ronald W Schaefer]

How about if the outfitter clearly states the expectation of gratuity and you don't want to tip, you don't book a hunt with them? No one is making you go on a ten thousand dollar guided hunt. This is why I hated guiding hunting, bunch of out of shape cheapskate boomers. You get what you pay for.

Troutslayer, I'm a boomer and a very generous tipper (for services in general) respecting the amount of work the guides put in, also at age 68 I'm in pretty good shape--if you need a jogging partner gimme a shout. I hike Colorado 14ers with my son. I worked hard to go from a po' *ss in my youth to having the discretionary income I enjoy today and so I get the 10K hunt is totally an extravagance and a blessing for which I am thankful--so I spread the love. To answer OP question, I usually give $150 per day to the guide for the total number of days I booked the hunt, even if we tag out on the first afternoon because I blocked that guy's time. I do the same thing with other staff and usually go about $40.00/day per person depending on what services are provided. My business partner and I always book a 2X1 guided hunt, we hunt together, and we both tip our guide/staff the same amount each. So, we tip our guide about $750 ea. for a five-day hunt and about $200.00 to the staff each. Last season we collectively tipped our guide $1500.00 and the staff $400.00--the cost of the hunt was *8K each in Northern New Mexico. We were lucky and tagged out in two days, first afternoon hunt and next morning. My hunting buddy (also a fit boomer) is a doctor (flight surgeon) and I am the CEO/President of a US Govt contracting organization that I founded and before that I spent 26 yrs. in the Air Force as a fighter pilot and that's where I met my Doc hunting buddy. Most of the crowd I run with are generous with their time as mentors to younger folk and generous with their fortunes, supporting charities and non-profits, young entrepreneurs launching a start-up...and in pretty good shape. I've seen your "boomers" in camps too, and some young entitled smart *sses too so, I hear ya...

 

[BrentM]

Outfitters generally have a lot of expense too. Tents, stoves, food, horses, trucks, trailers, tack, Atv, utv, sleds, gear..... like any business they have overhead, variable, and margins. There is also market rate. For example, trespass fees or outfitter allocation tags where they do nothing but sell you a very desired tag. My personal opinion is that I find it interesting, not really judging, that people complain about outfitters and guides pricing and yet have zero issue taking a beach vacation costing 2x the price of a hunt and tipping every little hot server handing them drinks all day. Go to a resort and pay a guy to take you hiking, zip lining, snorkeling etc...... Then along comes these hunts..... every year there is a post about it and people upset. Usually, its people upset they hunted and didn't do well. The expectation is they paid for a successful hunt, not a hunt. There is a difference. We feel generous when we are happy and satisfied, not so much when things do not meet our expectations. When I brokered hunts I gave out stats...... sucess rates via outfitter and sucess rates via the fish and game general hunts. Outfitter was usually around 50-75% and over the counter was 10% or less. I tell them you are paying for a chance at success that is much greater than doing it alone.

 

[69precision]

That's actually illegal. You might buy them a bottle of wine at Christmas.

Why shouldn't a doctor be able to accept a tip though? Why single them out?

 

[Ronald W Schaefer]

I feel badly for you.
Sadly it's not the first time I've heard about the hunter leaving with nothing but an empty pocket.
If you want to fly into YXS next fall, I'll pick you up at the airport, and take you deer hunting with me, for free. Get yourself a tag, and bring your gun, don't worry about the rest of the stuff except clothes. You can bunk in my cabin, I'll stay a few days at the main house. You can eat with me, I'm not a bad cook. You can ride my ATV, I'll be on my horse. Deer are plentiful, and typically 75 to 200 yard shots. If you have multiple rifles, don't bring the 'Canon' of your collection, you will not need it. You shouldn't have been ripped off like that in my opinion. You figure out the logistics and legalities of getting the meat home if you want it. If you don't want it, the guys will use it. Moose is a strong possibility to, you can shoot it on my tag if you want to. But the moose isn't guaranteed, where as a deer is most likely 99.9999999% chance of being harvested.

Dang, that's an amazing offer.

 

[69precision]

$10k for a mule deer hunt...I just threw up in my mouth...

If you want to throw up again, look into it a little further. $10k will not be getting you the top end mule deer hunt by any stretch. The good hunts in Mexico are more like $15k, plus $4-5k trophy fee when you harvest. Then tips for guides and cooks above that. I've been putting nickels aside for awhile to realize my 30" wide 190 plus mule deer dream. Earlier this year when that balance hit $12k I thought I might be in the ballpark. When I include airfare and the other things mentioned above, turns out I'm about halfway there.

 

[69precision]

Those cheap fat cats should be tipping 20%

Nah. By that logic they should pay more for everything. So Starbucks charges you $5 for a coffee, but they charge Elon Musk $500 for a coffee because he can afford it?

 

[69precision]

Outfitters run extremely lean and pay guides what they can afford(not much). Most guides leave their family and steady jobs to providing an experience, full filling dreams, and make life long memories. They should be rewarded otherwise it's just another job.

Agree but they should be rewarded consistently by being paid appropriately. If that means raising prices so be it. Making appropriate pay dependent on whether a random person is generous with a discretionary tip seems downright irresponsible and frankly weird.

 

[Ronald W Schaefer]

Was looking up big horn sheep--they cost more for a non-guaranteed hunt than my new dodge truck--and it cost more than I ever imagined I'd pay for a truck in my life...guess that noggin will not be hanging on my wall!

 

[asd9055]

Myself and four friends went on our first "guided" elk hunt ((5 days) in Idaho this year. We paid $4500 a piece for a pack in drop camp with one guide for the five of us. This is an unusual arrangement I know. The guide sent with us was a 22 yo kid who was being paid $150 a day. He was a wrangler, who the outfitter decided should guide us (his first time as a guide). We all had bull elk, buck deer, wolf and bear tags. I personally saw five mule deer (does). That was it. That's all we saw the whole trip. We covered about 20 square miles in five days of hiking. We brought and cooked our own food. We cut and split firewood.
The guide, poor kid, worked hard, but had no idea why there weren't any animals in the area. We tipped him $1000 total anyway. Would have been double that if we'd had a few opportunities to shoot something.
Personally, I feel like the outfitter didn't do his job, and let us all down, including the "guide".

Sorry to hear that. Inexperienced people have no business guiding. I would take issue with outfitter, demand full refund plus my time off

 

[Pa.Frank]

I only ever tipped an outfitter and he crew when i went to Africa. It was a real eye opener for me.. A group of friends had gone with this outfitter multiple time in the past so i kinda knew what to expect and what was expected of me.
One thing they told me what bring about 5 pounds of candy. Atomic fireballs. the trackers and skinners love them. Every morning when they outfitter and the crew picked me up from the camp for the days hunt, I always handed the crew a few candies first thing. Unbelievable how such a little thing affects how you are treated by the crew.
Another thing I noticed was that they all smoked.. they smoke the equivalent of Bugler (loose tobacco) and would roll it up in newspaper or whatever paper they had and made their African doobie. We had stopped in a small town for fuel, and I went in to the store and bought a few packs of American cigarettes and gave a pack to each of the crew that was with us this day. You would have thought I gave them a Cadillac. The Outfitter said that they will save those store-bought smokes for when they go out on the town to "show off.
The last critter I shot was a springbok, and had only one skinner/tracker with me along with the outfitter. When we were done, I gave the tracker my hat. Just a $5 Tractor supply hat. Very young guy and unbelievable grateful. He smiled for days and every time I saw him after that, he was proudly wearing that hat.
When was leaving, I left about 500 dollars US that was split between all the crew (not the outfitter) in addition, all my change and loose paper Rand for the girls that did the laundry and kept the camp. I gave my Knife to my favorite tracker along with a 200 Rand note and a wallet with 100 Rand to the next lead tracker.
I also left behind a pair of Timberland boots, all my socks and gloves and a couple shirts for the crew.
Unbelievable how appreciative and grateful these people were for such small gifts. Had I understood this better, i would have brought more give away stuff, including a couple cartons of Marlboro from the duty free shop.

Oh yeah. the outfitter got s nice cash tip too.

 

[flyguy1]

Why shouldn't a doctor be able to accept a tip though? Why single them out?

Considered unethical, as it could be seen as advantaging one patient over another. Also goes against the "single fee schedule", which is a requirement if you accept ins payments.

For the same reason, Senators and Congressmen never accept Money which might advantage one group of their constituents over another.