5 top guidelines for tipping a yacht charter captain

Chartering a yacht is a service-related industry, and as with most industries similar to it, tipping is in the hands of the customer. A common practice in this service-related industry is to pay some form of gratuity to the captain of your ship on charters. As with the restaurant industry, tips add up to become a substantial part of a yacht charter captain's income.  It is also a proper way for you to acknowledge good service and show appreciation of the good service received from the captain.

However, there are no set rules regarding tipping or not tipping the captain and crew of your yacht charter. Questions arise from the fact that by paying a reasonable sum on chartering a yacht, one has covered provisioning fees (often used to provide for the crew) and other expenses that most likely cover the Captain and crew salaries.

With these uncertainties in mind, this GetBoat article would provide you with 5 guidelines for tipping a yacht charter and answer your questions on tipping a yacht charter;

• Do you tip the captain of a charter boat?
• How much do you tip a charter captain?
• How much do you tip a Charter Crew?
• What is a good tip for a Charter?
• How are Tips given for a Yacht Charter?

1. Do you tip the captain of a charter boat?

If we had a dollar from the number of times this question was asked, we would give Jeff Bezos a run for his money. For example, let's take that you order a cake from a bakery for an agreed sum, the cake gets delivered, and no tip is required because a fair trade ensued. However, if you go to pick up the cake and the lady at the counter performs an excellent job to ensure the transaction is perfect to your need, again, no tip is expected; yet it is up to you to decide if you want to tip.

2.  How much do you tip a charter captain?

There is no handbook for tipping yacht charter captains for beginners; therefore, no specific sum is set to that effect. However, there is a widespread custom to tip a charter captain 5% to 20% of the yacht charter fee, but as stated earlier, there is no handbook guiding that. If you were to book a lodge for the night, you certainly would not tip the managers more than half your hotel bill except, of course, in some extraordinary event. That is also applicable to tipping a charter captain, there is no specified percentage to tip, but a reasonable man would be wise to stick to a 10%-20% of the entire yacht fare as a tip.

3. How much do you tip a charter Crew?

Most of the crews do not earn tidy sums of money per annum, and then you add to that having to live on a 50-ft sailboat; it does not exactly make up for quite a pleasant experience. Traditionally, a tip reimburses the crew the broker fee's cost and pays the service to the crew's services to guests. If the crew is employed by larger companies that cannot meet minimum wage, a tip is expected to help cover the lapses in their salary.

The generally accepted tip falls around 10% to 15% to cover any miscellaneous they might have incurred on your behalf. Also, the percentage to tip a charter crew is not fixed, and guests can vary the percentage in tandem to the services rendered.

4. What is a good tip for a charter?

From common usage and reason, a good charter tip falls between 10 -20% of the value of a charter; the price of a charter is not the standard but merely a yardstick for tipping. Here is our customizable guideline for tipping a yacht charter*.

* We  indicated yacht charter average price. The price depends on several factors: location, season, boat type, number of persons and other.

5. How are Tips given for a Yacht Charter?

Feedbacks from crews, hostess, and first mates seem to suggest the need for tips on good service and smooth entertainment. Good crews can't possibly be paid enough; Tipping is better handled by paying the tip in cash to the charter captain or crew members in person and not by proxy.

Now you know all about tipping a yacht charter. And Getboat will help you to charter it.