u/MenaceToEarth

I’m from the US and recently came back from a group trip in Iceland. On the first day the Icelandic guide informed us tipping is not a thing in their country and it is not expected (this is normally when the guides in other countries bring up the pooled tip suggestion to the group that the guide recieves at the end AKA they expect it) and he mentioned they are paid well so i took that at face value and decided i wouldn’t be tipping him

Towards the end of the trip, two separate people asked me how much I was planning to tip because they didn’t know what was appropriate to give. I feel like i’m going crazy. You can just FEEL the judgement when you tell them “oh he said it wasn’t expected so i wasn’t planning to”. it’s like those words mean absolutely nothing. “but he was so lovely i feel so bad”. why do you feel bad???? he TOLD you he’s good. the underlying expectation to tip out of guilt no matter what they’re told is embedded in people at this point. that’s why you have places like Seattle where servers make a wage of over $20 an hour and yet nothing has changed in terms of tipping expectations. you are still a cruel POS that should stay home if you don’t abide.

Anyways, they ended up tipping but I did not. I feel like my attitude is very unpopular!