Travel Tips

• Travel Tips
• Money Matters
• Getting Around
• Tipping
• Phone / Internet
• Business Hours
• Bargaining
• Street Wise
• Outward Bound

Tipping

Tipping is relatively new in Bali. Some restaurants will automatically add a service charge of between 5 & 10 percent to your bill while almost all hotels will add 10% to your bill which is quite sufficient. In such instances when a service charged of 10% is added the goverment then charges ann additional 10% tax on the total amount (bill plus service charge) resulting in 21% being added to your bill. For example, $100.00 plus 10% service charge equals $110.00 and this amount is taxed 10% for a grand total of $121.00.

However many smaller restaurants may not add anything extra for service but considering that the waiter's wage may well be less than $3.00 a day - a tip of 5-10 percent is very much appreciated.

Other tips. Bellmen generally get Rp. 3,000 for a small carry-on sized luggage, Rp. 5,000 for larger bags and Rp. 10,000 for heavy luggage and Rp. 20,000 or more for those house trailers some people lug around. For taxi drivers, rounding up to the nearest Rp. 5,000 - 10,000 (depending on the length of trip) is the norm. If you hire a car for an entire day it is good form to give the driver Rp.20,000 - 30,000 for each meal and tip (say Rp.30-50,000) at the end of the day. With tour guides and the like tipping is up to you - bear in mind that chances are your driver/guide has most likely already received a commission from anything you purchased during the day.