Why empty restaurants in Las Terrenas ??

[jd426]

If you tip too much and its a Chica , you might even get her in trouble ( being sarcastic, but almost true) .. the boss may think you are trying to SALIDA her or something.. you get the same service if you leave 5 % or 20 %... 10 % is a nice tip. esp if the Food bill is like 1 mil pesos..
Most people dont leave 100 pesos tip on a 1Mil meal

Leave that 20 % + tip mentality back in the USA..
The owners see it , think he is not charging enough, and will raise the menu prices , and then you are back to square one, with your tip.

 

[harry myrtle beach]

If you tip too much and its a Chica , you might even get her in trouble ( being sarcastic, but almost true) .. the boss may think you are trying to SALIDA her or something.. you get the same service if you leave 5 % or 20 %... 10 % is a nice tip. esp if the Food bill is like 1 mil pesos..
Most people dont leave 100 pesos tip on a 1Mil meal

Leave that 20 % + tip mentality back in the USA..
The owners see it , think he is not charging enough, and will raise the menu prices , and then you are back to square one, with your tip.

very sad way of thinking,and dont tell me I have not been here long enough to know better. I have been coming here since 1984

 

[jd426]

very sad way of thinking,and dont tell me I have not been here long enough to know better. I have been coming here since 1984

I highly doubt you have more trips than some of us...cuz if you did you would not think that way..
If you BEFRIEND a person (assuming you speak spanish) , and she has like a need for medicine for her kids or something, then by all means give her 500 pesos, but do it discreetly... dont be tipping like a big spender in the Tourist Spots, you will ruin it for everyone. you would know that,,, if..


Wait, I just read some of your Prev Posts.
You are MARRIED to a DOMINICANA ?? and she LETS you TIP like this ??
Really ? this is a FIRST ever..
Is she from a Rich family, cuz that is the first time I have ever ever seen anthing like this.. So you 2 go to restaurants and she allows you to tip 20% ++ on TOP of the bill ...

not even trying to be a smart arse,, but i am fascinated by this now... you got my full attention
go,, tell me what she says.. her words..

 

[harry myrtle beach]

I highly doubt you have more trips than some of us...cuz if you did you would not think that way..
If you BEFRIEND a person (assuming you speak spanish) , and she has like a need for medicine for her kids or something, then by all means give her 500 pesos, but do it discreetly... dont be tipping like a big spender in the Tourist Spots, you will ruin it for everyone. you would know that,,, if..


Wait, I just read some of your Prev Posts.
You are MARRIED to a DOMINICANA ?? and she LETS you TIP like this ??
Really ? this is a FIRST ever..
Is she from a Rich family, cuz that is the first time I have ever ever seen anthing like this.. So you 2 go to restaurants and she allows you to tip 20% ++ on TOP of the bill ...

not even trying to be a smart arse,, but i am fascinated by this now... you got my full attention
go,, tell me what she says.. her words..

My wife is not from a rich family. She feels the same way i do about this.

 

[jd426]

My wife is not from a rich family. She feels the same way i do about this.

She feels 20 % + is a Fair tip ?, and she is Dominican..? fascinating

not trying to put words in your mouth, but I have NEVER ever heard of a dominican tipping 20%, it is strictly a North American thing..
by BS meter is on full alert, but go ahead and elaborate. if you care to.
YOU were the one trying to make a POINT
So please DO make it..
and please Include you lovely Dominican spouse
you are sitting in a restaurant, the bill comes , its 2,800 Pesos..u had a nice dinner.
what happens next ..

 

[reilleyp]

She feels 20 % + is a Fair tip ?, and she is Dominican..? fascinating

not trying to put words in your mouth, but I have NEVER ever heard of a dominican tipping 20%, it is strictly a North American thing..
by BS meter is on full alert, but go ahead and elaborate. if you care to.
YOU were the one trying to make a POINT
So please DO make it..
and please Include you lovely Dominican spouse
you are sitting in a restaurant, the bill comes , its 2,800 Pesos..u had a nice dinner.
what happens next ..

My wife is Dominican and she does not object if I leave 20% (It is my money but she does not spend much of it.). It must be good service. At least the waiter/waitress is trying, working, instead of sticking out their hand and looking for a freebie. Why not? Do you want to ensure that they stay in corrugated metal shacks and take home plastic from the kitchen to put on their children to keep them dry in case it rains and the roof leaks? They pay the same price for gasoline and food. If I am in the States and the bill is over $100, they expect 20%. Why not spread it around? They see you throwing money around, do you just want to wait until they steal it from you?

In the interest of full disclosure, I just consulted her ( my wife) . She said she would normally leave 10% if it was just her money. If it was a huge bill, then maybe less. Why tip a huge dollar amount if the waitress made the same number of trips to the table, but with more expensive wine? Same number of trips to the table, but wine is more expensive, so why a larger tip? However she said her Dominican friend might leave 50 pesos after a whole night of drinking. So I guess the bottom line is, if I can afford it I will leave a North American tip. I appreciate good service and I find no satisfaction in keeping someone in poverty if they are working hard.

 

[4*4*4]

My wife is Dominican and we generally leave 10%, just as is customary throughout Europe. It does pain me and many times we leave more, especially if we have a nice conversation. So little can make such a major difference in someone's life down here.

 

[Lobo Tropical]

very sad way of thinking,and dont tell me I have not been here long enough to know better. I have been coming here since 1984

You should give more!
Dominicans know that it is easy for you to get money and you're just a taca?o gringo.
Surely you know that after "coming" here since1984.
People will be grateful for your largesse.

 

[Lobo Tropical]

Just Wow

I visited las terrenas for the first time. Beaches are really nice. It was interesting the mixture of locals, italians, frenchies and visitors.

There are many beautful restaurants all on the strip.. the intersting thing is that they were mostly empty ? How do these places survive ?

I was there all weekend and rarely was any place few ??

Also sad was the kids prostituting themselves but thats another topic.

One waitress we met was telling us that its sad how some parents with the babies in the womb still... have plans to pimp to pimp their kids to tourist or pedophiles who will pay a steep fee to have them. just WOW

It is empty because it's low season, there are no tourists, LT is overpriced and run down.
Is it your intent to comment on tourism, or to editorialize about mothers supposed intent with their unborn babies?

 

[KITTU]

If you tip too much and its a Chica , you might even get her in trouble ( being sarcastic, but almost true) .. the boss may think you are trying to SALIDA her or something.. you get the same service if you leave 5 % or 20 %... 10 % is a nice tip. esp if the Food bill is like 1 mil pesos..
Most people dont leave 100 pesos tip on a 1Mil meal

Leave that 20 % + tip mentality back in the USA..
The owners see it , think he is not charging enough, and will raise the menu prices , and then you are back to square one, with your tip.

It's not true that owners will increase the prices of the menu, well atleast not an intelligent owner just because he sees the customer giving a good tip. The tips left by customers are useful to the waiters as it can pay their gasolina or used for the day to day expenditure. Since i am in the business, when i go out for dinner, leave atleast 10% more and if i really life the service then a bit more. It always helps the waiters.

 

[Cdn_Gringo]

Tips are a means for stingy business owners to justify not paying their staff a living wage. The whole idea of tipping has morphed from the concept of a voluntary reward for excellent attention and service into a seemingly "compulsory" surcharge. At home, laws allow businesses to pay the staff less than minimum wage solely because they are servers who can expect to receive extra money with every bill.

I have no problem withholding a tip from a server who is not attentive, not pleasant or makes mistakes. I have no problem voting with my feet when I see a notice that a compulsory tip will be added to a bill. I do not feel it is my obligation to be part of a scheme to double or triple the wages of the wait staff. When it comes to helping people out of poverty, tipping is actually a disincentive. If the job pays poverty wages there is the incentive for the staff to get an education and/or find somewhere else to work that offers more money and opportunity. One's lot in life should not be entirely devoted to slinging beers for tourists and there should be no expectation on the part of those doing so to be able to drive a BMW, raise a family and flesh out a 401K in what should be a temporary job to help cover tuition expenses.

I blame the owners for putting their staff in the position of having to rely on tips to survive. I blame the employee for having unreasonable expectations and relying on the patrons to tip regardless of the proficiency level of the service and I blame the customers who have been sucked into this system of worker exploitation. In the end anyone who feels compelled to automatically reward poor service "because it is customary", is a part of the problem and the intended solution of tipping only prolongs and promotes this exploitation.

If you justify leaving a tip because you know the staff is underpaid, then you know...

Want to help someone out of poverty, kick their a$$ off to school and pay their tuition. Your tip that gets spent on gasolina, a new purse, shoes, or cellphone minutes is not helping despite what you may be telling yourself. If your goal in tipping is to support the owner and prop up the business, carry on...

 

[jd426]

Here is the other little component of Tipping , people forget to mention, and there are a BUNCH of Videos on you tube proving this , if you want to do a little SOCIAL EXPERIMENT..
People who are physically more attractive , like lets say a young lady with ample bosoms, will make like TRIPLE the tips of a regular looking person.. and they provide the same exact service do they not ?
This is why I go out of my way to tip the Housekeeping Lady, who has kids & grandkids to feed, and is the unseen person , providing a real Service I need . Not some chica who is getting money thrown at her by plenty of dudes , esp where tourists are.you keep tipping her that 20% , fine.
And as Cdn Gringo just stated, they even EXPECT a generous tip in the USA, Canada etc . which makes the Insult 2x worse.
So now they even want no "demand" a $15 Min wage here in the states.. LMAO and tips too ? it just never ends.
But this is about Las Terrenas.. Sorry
and I actually DO tip close to 20 % on LOWER Tabs, like 400 pesos, of course im not gonna tip 40. more like 80 and I may leave 100.
But on a 2 Mil peso DINNER bill, NO way I will exceed the 200..that IS the Domincan way ,some of you just dont know it.

 

[KITTU]

Tips are a means for stingy business owners to justify not paying their staff a living wage. The whole idea of tipping has morphed from the concept of a voluntary reward for excellent attention and service into a seemingly "compulsory" surcharge. At home, laws allow businesses to pay the staff less than minimum wage solely because they are servers who can expect to receive extra money with every bill.

I have no problem withholding a tip from a server who is not attentive, not pleasant or makes mistakes. I have no problem voting with my feet when I see a notice that a compulsory tip will be added to a bill. I do not feel it is my obligation to be part of a scheme to double or triple the wages of the wait staff. When it comes to helping people out of poverty, tipping is actually a disincentive. If the job pays poverty wages there is the incentive for the staff to get an education and/or find somewhere else to work that offers more money and opportunity. One's lot in life should not be entirely devoted to slinging beers for tourists and there should be no expectation on the part of those doing so to be able to drive a BMW, raise a family and flesh out a 401K in what should be a temporary job to help cover tuition expenses.

I blame the owners for putting their staff in the position of having to rely on tips to survive. I blame the employee for having unreasonable expectations and relying on the patrons to tip regardless of the proficiency level of the service and I blame the customers who have been sucked into this system of worker exploitation. In the end anyone who feels compelled to automatically reward poor service "because it is customary", is a part of the problem and the intended solution of tipping only prolongs and promotes this exploitation.

If you justify leaving a tip because you know the staff is underpaid, then you know...

Want to help someone out of poverty, kick their a$$ off to school and pay their tuition. Your tip that gets spent on gasolina, a new purse, shoes, or cellphone minutes is not helping despite what you may be telling yourself. If your goal in tipping is to support the owner and prop up the business, carry on...

Then this applys for US? cos they have minimum legal tip of 14% atleast! Above all tipping is compulsory in the United States. It's not the owners CDN_Gringo. It's the system. You cannot come into a country like dominican republic and start paying waiters 3000$... there will be chaos. If you do not know anything about the food and restaurant business then it is wise not to say anything. I am not generalizing every owner, cos surely there are owners who are dishonet. But you cannot generalize all the owners as dishonest.You need to hire 5 waiters here equivialent to 1 waiter of Europe. I am telling you this first hand experience.

 

[robbiee]

how LT is overpriced ? what exactly is overpriced there ? it may be overpriced only for people who like to overpay...

It is empty because it's low season, there are no tourists, LT is overpriced and run down.
Is it your intent to comment on tourism, or to editorialize about mothers supposed intent with their unborn babies?

 

[Salsafan]

And what is run down in LT (at least more than elsewhere) ?

 

[KITTU]

What i learnt from the hotel management school in Switzerland, it is not mandatory but when you go to a restaurant in the US you should leave atleast 14 to 20% of the bill as tip in a normal restaurant. I was in the the hard rock cafe, time square, my bill was 22 dollars for a burger and coffee, i gave the waiter two bills of 20 dollars each and the waiter insisted on me leaving the remaining 18$ as tip because they were being paid low salaries etc and telling me his woes. I left an eight dollar tip finally. Average salary of a waiter in the states is anywhere between 2.13$ to 4$ an hour, why? because they are expected to earn their money from tips.Everytime you recieve the bill you get a calculated percentage of the tip already on the bill, anywhere between 14 to 20% . Here it is not cumpulsory also! Few restaurants in Bavaro do not charge the 18% and the 10% but in the end you end up paying the same amount because the owners calculate the prices which includes the 28% on the food.

 

[windeguy]

Wow you live here pay a fraction of what it would cost you to live in your country,and can't give at least 15 if not 20% tip. Not for me to judge,but wow.

One could live in Florida more cheaply than in the DR.

 

[KITTU]

My point is not to argue or prove i am right or something. We all are looking at different point of views so we may differ in opinion depending on our experiences.

 

[Africaida]

What i learnt from the hotel management school in Switzerland, it is not mandatory but when you go to a restaurant in the US you should leave atleast 14 to 20% of the bill as tip in a normal restaurant. I was in the the hard rock cafe, time square, my bill was 22 dollars for a burger and coffee, i gave the waiter two bills of 20 dollars each and the waiter insisted on me leaving the remaining 18$ as tip because they were being paid low salaries etc and telling me his woes. I left an eight dollar tip finally. Average salary of a waiter in the states is anywhere between 2.13$ to 4$ an hour, why? because they are expected to earn their money from tips.Everytime you recieve the bill you get a calculated percentage of the tip already on the bill, anywhere between 14 to 20% . Here it is not cumpulsory also! Few restaurants in Bavaro do not charge the 18% and the 10% but in the end you end up paying the same amount because the owners calculate the prices which includes the 28% on the food.

You should have left 0. When I waited tables, it was forbidden to ask for a tip (even to tourists who are not aware of the way things work), we could lose our job over that.

 

[VJS]

I was in the the hard rock cafe, time square, my bill was 22 dollars for a burger and coffee, i gave the waiter two bills of 20 dollars each and the waiter insisted on me leaving the remaining 18$ as tip because they were being paid low salaries etc and telling me his woes. I left an eight dollar tip finally.

Simple: the waiter pegged you as a sucker, and it appears he was right.