Tipping Guide

Wow just received email from booking agent on recommended tips for a 10 day hunt $350 for PH, $150 for tracker and $500 rand for each camp staff 2 camps. Wow they must want you to keep them poor and not leave. Talk about poverty numbers.
Rest assured I will tip way better than that for good service.

'When in Rome, do as the Romans do'

When we travel to another country it is not decent to accept their customs?

As the concensus here suggests, a tip between 3% and 10% of the total costs (exc air travel) is part of the Safari culture and something that a PH and staff really value (and in some cases may need).

With all respect, if a hunter is not prepared to accept the cultural norms of another country/industry/culture, he/she should consider another hunt option.

The service I have had on African safaris has always been incredible. PHs and staff give so much of their time, tolerance, effort and kindness. I would feel really bad if I felt I had under-tipped in any way.

Badboy124 it's all relative to the cost of the hunt. If your plains game hunt is say $3500 then your looking at a good tip for the PH at 10% which is high end of the normal scale and if the cost is $7000 then 5% is in the middle of the scale at $350. If you are moving around from camp to camp tipping the staff 500 rand for a couple of days is good. It may not seem like a lot but for them it adds up over time in addition to the salary received. There is a great deal of commentary in this thread to read and digest. At the end of the day if the staff really gets after it and is friendly then a bigger tip is up to you of course.....and the same is true for the PH.

I just scanned this string and found a few items disturbing. First comparing tipping in Africa to USA is ridiculous. Jobs in hunting camps are highly prized as the base pay is much better than they could get elsewhere. I have never and will never tip 10%. I have been told to not tip as the hunters in the camp prior to me had over tipped and the camp staff disappeared for a week with a stolen camp truck and raised hell drunk in the nearby town. Last year I hunted Ethiopia (you know what those hunts cost) and left a $1,000 tip and was told it was too much and I should tip $800, the extra $200 was credited to my pack and dip bill. If my PH is the owner of the deal I do not tip him and have found in most cases the recommended tip is a bit much and usually use 75/80% of the recommended amount. Oh by the way I only tip 10% in the states. My first job as a youngster was bussing in a restaurant and the tipping was 10% and a good meal could be bought for $3-$4 so the tip would be .30 to .40 cents. Today people expect that 10% if you are at a buffet and SERVE yourself.

Jagter............you make a good point. I also follow this thread, and after 15 pages of diverse, and often biased opinions, I remain just as confused as before I read any of the posts. To me, the most useful, were the few posts which actually told what some people had given as a tip.

Go to the "deals" offered on this site. Of the 1900 plus entries, about 90% are offers, 8% requests, and 2% misc. Of the offers, over 1500 are from Africa. The services offered with the hunt are listed in two columns, 1. Included in the hunt, and 2. not included.............................things that are not included must be paid by the hunter. They expect you to pay these. In almost all hunts offered from Africa, gratuities are listed in the second column.............they are things you are expected to pay. The PH or outfitter is telling you up front he expects you to pay a gratuity.

Most offers from other continents leave this to your discretion. They don't mention "gratuity". For some of these places, a tip is given only as a reward for good performance. In the many years since my first African "safari"....and I use the term loosely...........I have seen the service quality decline markedly, but the desire for a tip remain un diminished. "This is the boy that fed the goat, that made the cheese, that was on your sandwich on Tuesday" as he is paraded up for a tip..........and so it goes......

Remember, on most of these hunts, there are only two things that YOU control
1. whether or not to shoot (despite the oft uninformed encouragement to do so), and
2. what to tip.

Do not give up your right to decide either of these things.............................................................FWB

I grew up in the UK where tips are not mandatory: the service was sh**; I now live in the states and the service is excellent.

If hunters stopped tipping well then prices would rise as outfitters would simply pass on costs.

Two simple correlations.

flatwater bill said:

The services offered with the hunt are listed in two columns, 1. Included in the hunt, and 2. not included.............................things that are not included must be paid by the hunter. They expect you to pay these. In almost all hunts offered from Africa, gratuities are listed in the second column.............they are things you are expected to pay. The PH or outfitter is telling you up front he expects you to pay a gratuity.

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I responded to this thread years ago as a client, and now I would like add something as consultant... Gratuities are listed as "not included" simply to inform the client that a gratuity has not been added to the cost of the proposal. With us, it's mentioned as a disclosure of costs to the guest, with no more or less emphasis than any other of the services that are not inclusive of the proposal such as dip & pack costs, taxidermy, etc.... It is in no way meant to imply that the client is EXPECTED to tip the staff regardless of circumstances.

Our staff members are held to the highest standards in the industry, and exceptional service is always expected of them...They are grateful for any additional gratuity they may receive from a guest. However, they NEVER EXPECT to receive a gratuity from a guest. The first one that does will no longer be a part of the staff.

Regards, Dan

Hi I have hunted in SA for the last 10 years and personal the the maximum I tip is 10% of the total cost of the hunt. However I only cull hunt.

Went on my first safari in May of 2014, stayed at the Afton House spoke with a safari owner who stayed the night waiting for his client about tipping. His suggestion was, to tip the PH 10% of the total cost of the animals hunted. At least $10.00 a day for tracker/driver/cook, $5.00 day for maid/laundry service, so that is what I did $500 for PH, $80 for cook, $80 for tracker, plus boots and sneakers, $40 for maid /laundry service plus some candy, $700 in tips for 8 day 7 animal hunt. By the way I tagged out on morning or day 7, I guess everyone was happy, least I hope so.

So in other words a extra $100 per animal.

Die Ou Jagter said:

Today people expect that 10% if you are at a buffet and SERVE yourself.

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Off the subject of safari tipping but totally relevant. I have started to see tip options pop up on electronic pads at fast food places and such where they do nothing but grab a burger off the heat lamp and give it to you, my tip for this is 0, im not sure why it would warrant a tip, whats next tip the cashier at the grocery store?

A perfect example of the mandatory tip mentality happened to me just a week ago, I ate with my wife and friends at a run of the mill restaurant. The waitress left while we were in the middle of ordering and I had to go get her to finish our order. she then only returned with the food and then with the bill, she did not check on us or our drinks once. We tried to order desert but again she left while we were talking to her??? apparently a few second pause signifies that we are done ordering to her. I went and got her (again) and she took the desert order and then ran off while I was yelling to her to freshen our drinks (which she didn't hear) so I planned to ask her when she returned with desert. Almost 20min later desert arrived and I asked for refills (since she hadn't been by in the meantine). The refills came well after my wife had finished desert. When my wife paid the bill I told her not to tip, she gave her 10%!!! I was furious but she said and said it was an insult since the MINIMUM TIP is 15%!!! My minimum tip for servers is 0% my max tip is as much as you EARN!!! Having said that I do tip well for good service.

Shumba Safaris said:

By the way , what does the tipping structure look like when hunting in a country like Canada for example ?

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Back when I was guiding the expected tip for good service was the cost of the tags which was $100-400 on a 7-12 day horseback trip where we wrangled, cooked, guided, skinned, tracked, the works from well before the client woke up until he was asleep in his tent, this was over 20 years ago. A Stone sheep tag was $250 and the total hunt cost was $16000 or 1.5%. We worked hard and most tipped $400-500 and $250 for a week of whitetail hunting. Nowadays I am not sure what it is at.

I tip mainly on the actual service and what I feel it is worth. In things such as hunting I will tip but the amount varies. If I had an exceptional safari I'd tip higher but if things were bad then expect a lesser tip, its also varies based on my budget, length of the hunt, animals hunted etc. I may not have a 10% tip in my budget but may be able to give only a 6% tip. I wouldn't tip only if the PH is getting wasted or something bad like that. tipping in places such as restaurants etc is a whole different thing. The guy/gal that delivers pizza or Chinese I generally only tip 5$ as all they did was their job and didn't go above and beyond. I also tip much less when a tip is already charged to the bill such as 10% and then wanting a tip in addition, even though they already took one. At restaurants and other services your tip starts at zero and goes up from their. If you provide exceptional service and are always on top of my needs I'll leave an exceptional tip. If I'm the last of your priorities when I'm the one paying the bill expect nada.

The other part with tipping the locals too much is they often lack a good sense of saving money so a lot of the money goes to the bars instead of improving their families. While this not always the case it happens a lot. Another aspect is tipping game guards. Some game guards just sit around watching but I've had ones that help load shot animals, help spot animals, are very relaxed etc and I feel giving them a tip for their help is nice.

I went in May 2014 on PG hunt.... took 9 animals/7 actually hunting days. All were excellent trophies. I had a wonderful experience from the get go.... from the time I was picked up at airport, until the time I was dropped off..... Specifically, the tips were as follows:
PH- $750
Chef- $150
Driver- $90
Maid- $60
Tracker- $50
Skinner - $40

The "staff" tip amounts were the recommendation of the PH, I really was not sure how much to give to who. They were all very grateful. Hugging it up, etc.... A real joy to see their appreciation. One I will never forget was the little maid. She knew that departure day was payday.... like Christmas morning for a kid. She was so excited, hopping around. Very cool!

BWH that sounds about exactly what I tipped on my first hunt and it was for nine animals. Cook and laundry/room upkeep was all the same guy so he got $165. The PH asked that I give the tracker/skinner $15 per animal but he did such a great job I tipped him $200 .

CA... yes sir.... On a few of the days the tracker, skinner, driver were kind of the same... so those funds were kinda commingled. I had thought about just giving it all to the PH and letting him disseminate. However, seeing the personal joy & appreciation with the people I had a awesome relationship with for 10 days, was a supercool.

BHW what percent of the actual hunt was the $1100 tip? If the hunt totaled $11,000 then you tipped 10 percent, was wondering if a good formula could be figured out.

The package that we contracted was $6800 (6 animals).... The "opportunity" came knocking.... shot 3 more ($2200).... So total was about $9000. Obviously, in the original $6800 was partly the "Daily Rate of 1x1"..... 7 full hunting days.

Jeff... based on the total cost & the total tip worked out to be about 13%..... with the PH getting about 65% of the total tip. Hope that helps.

Thanks BWH..............these are the posts that are most useful............what somebody REALLY tipped. It sounds like money well spent to me.............FWB