It’s not only our quintessential British Gray Dawes colleagues who love to be polite and hate to cause a scene, but nothing creates a flutter of anxiety quite like the question ‘how much are you supposed to tip?

It’s even more confusing when you’re on a business trip outside of your home country and the customs are different. When should you tip, how much, and who do you give it to?

Different countries have different customs and expectations, so we’ve done our best to come up with the definitive guide to tipping around the world.

And no tip necessary. We’re just happy to help.

How to Tip around Europe

Whether you’re tipping in Spain or tipping in Paris, fortunately most European countries have settled on following the behaviour of their neighbours when it comes to giving gratuities. But before you follow our tipping guidelines below, check that a gratuity or service charge hasn’t already been added to the bill.

Dining out

If you want to err on the side of caution and look polite – and show appreciation for a particularly good meal out – consider adding a tip of around 5-10%. A couple of extra euros or rounding up to the nearest 10 will usually do the trick.

Ordering drinks

When it comes to ordering drinks at a bar it’s not customary or expected for you to leave a tip each time. Throwing some loose change into a barista’s tip jar or leaving a few euros for someone after a few cocktails might be appreciated, though.

Taxis

There’s no expectation for you to tip your taxi drivers, but it’s always appreciated. Rounding up to the nearest euro is a polite gesture, and it’s also helpful (so the driver does not have to dish out change). For help with bags or a long journey, a tip of around 10% is the norm.

How to Tip in South America

Generally the most popular destinations in South America – including Brazil and Argentina – don’t have a tipping culture. It’s considered polite to give a little tip as a thank you to hotel workers or guides.

If you enjoy the service at a restaurant or bar, it’s a nice gesture to round up the bill or leave a 10% tip, but it’s not a major faux pas if you don’t as this can sometimes be included as “servico”.

The main exception is if you visit Paraguay. Service workers usually get paid a low wage here so a generous tip here and there will be much appreciated. A few hundred Guaranis for good service, or adding 15% of a bill will usually do the job.

How to Tip in Australia and New Zealand

The general consensus around Australia and New Zealand is that a tip isn’t necessary, but always appreciated. Apply a similar approach as you would for a trip around Europe.

How to Tip in Dubai and the Middle East

Most restaurants in the United Arab Emirates and Middle Eastern countries will include taxes and a service charge on the bill. Tipping in hotels isn’t necessary.

Many business-to-business and technology companies performed remarkably well during Covid, given the incredibly strong headwinds that they faced. Employees adapted to working from home and maintained productivity. Sales teams still brought in new customers without meeting them face-to-face.

Based on this, it’d be easy to say that Zoom has killed business travel. But the evidence shows the opposite.

A recent Emburse/GBTA survey showed that 53% of travel managers anticipate maintaining pre-pandemic levels of travel for sales teams, with a further 8% even increasing the amount of sales-related travel. It’s clear that while video calls will still be heavily used for everyday communications, when it comes to high-value, high-touch interactions, face-to-face is still key.

Any successful sales person can explain why in-person interactions are so important. There are so many things that you can’t do on Zoom. Body language is harder to read. Side-bar chats before or after the formal meeting can’t happen. You can’t quickly pop your head into the office of a decision-maker on the way out of the door. While Zoom levelled the playing field by stopping these for all sales teams, when one company realises that these interactions provide a competitive advantage, others will soon follow suit.

On the other hand, the survey suggested that travel not directly linked to revenue generation will be significantly reduced as we emerge from the shutdown. Sixty percent of travel managers think that travel to events and conferences will be lower than before, and an even greater amount – 65% – anticipate that internal travel will be less than pre-pandemic levels.

Eighty-five percent of respondents see “cost control” as one of the most important issues for their travel programmes. So, it’s not surprising that training and team-building travel will be reduced, as it’s far harder to determine tangible return on investment levels than with sales travel.

However, companies shouldn’t fall into the trap of thinking that ROI and value are the same, especially when comparing revenue-generating and non-revenue-generating travel. Many companies have a network of offices, be they in different parts of the UK, across Europe, or even around the world. One of the biggest challenges that many business leaders have cited about working from home is the impact on a company’s morale. When teams do eventually return to the office, re-establishing that culture will be critical for employee retention – especially given that 40% of employees are considering changing jobs this year, according to a Microsoft survey.

A key component of this is ensuring that executives spend time in each location, as re-establishing with employees simply can’t be done as effectively over Zoom. Just like the sidebar conversations in a sales meeting, quick chats by the water cooler or waiting for the kettle to boil can deliver far more insight than a formal, scheduled meeting. While these meetings may be very hard to measure in terms of pounds and pence ROI, the value that they could deliver to a company in terms of improved recruitment and retention may be enormous.

Whilst your T&E solution makes it very easy to track travel spend, and your finance team can determine how effective your sales team members are, leadership shouldn’t forget the human aspect of work. Cost control is certainly important, but don’t let it blind you to the bigger picture.

To help you navigate the changes of business travel, we’ve created the brand-new Traveller Toolkit. This invaluable online resource is packed full of easy-to-use guides and checklists for every stage of every journey. We detail exactly what you need to know and do before, during and after your trip.

You’ll also find innovative and interactive virtual trips, which walk you through each step of  being at the airport, on the train and in the hotel. You can even check the travel restrictions and health status of your destination with our comprehensive COVID-19 Country Tracker, updated five times daily to ensure you have the very latest information to help keep you and your travellers safe.

Travel is changing. But with common sense and a good TMC behind you, travellers should have the confidence to once again take to the skies. It’ll soon be business as (un)usual.