How much to tip your hunting guide?

[tpm231030]

If you can’t afford a reasonable tip, you can’t afford the hunt. Look, this is simple! A $5000 hunt doesn’t cost $5000. It costs $5500-6000, and that’s how much you need to budget. You just get to hold onto that last $500-1000 and only dish it out if YOU feel it was earned. I like that concept personally.

So true. The guide's tip, regardless of whether you later determine if it was earned, has to budgeted into the cost of the hunt. There are no surprises and tips are not a new concept.

 

[TaperPin]

As a residential contractor our profit is wrapped in the cost of the job - no tips expected - tips to employees are common, but not tied to the large cost of the job. For some reason I always assumed guided hunts to be similar - the outfitter already made his money with booking of the hunt - cooks, wranglers, guide seem like where the tips would go.

For instance with a fishing trip I asked the owner of the outfit what was normal for tips and it matched what I was thinking - he made his money on the booking, he said what amount was typical to the different members of the crew.

If anyone tips 10% of the booked price of an expensive hunt to the guy that does the footwork for your animal, that’s damn fine money. In the Rocky Mountain states guides don’t live year round on money made hunting, or else everyone would fight over the jobs. I’d be surprised if guides’ take home was $1500 week, much less and they can just work construction and make that, much more just isn’t needed to keep guys who enjoy hunting from doing the job.

$100 a day for the guide, $50/day for cook staff, and $50/day split between couple of wranglers is $1k for a week long hunt and I bet they would all appreciate it.

 

[IdahoElk]

What do you tip the guide that also happens to be the outfitter?

 

[MattB]

If the guide/outfitter can't afford to work for the base rate without a tip, they shouldn't be in this business.

The federal minimum wage for tipped employees is $2.13/hour. Do you think that anyone can afford to live on that if their wage is not augmented with tips?

A compensation structure that includes tips is good for hunters as it aligns the interests of the hunter and guide.

 

[TaperPin]

It’s clear there can be many misunderstandings about what’s customary for that situation. Every outfitter can have a different pay structure and expectations for tipping. I don’t think it’s tacky or unreasonable for tipping to addressed in a packet of misc. information given to client. Nobody that’s doing the grunt work is getting rich.

There‘s a one man band antelope outfitter/guide who has produced so many big antelope for his clients on public land that I’d tip him very well, send birthday and Christmas cards, pay for a wine of the month, and take him on vacation to Mexico, so the next time I needed him I’d be high on the list of favorite people. Lol

 

[AKBorn]

The federal minimum wage for tipped employees is $2.13/hour. Do you think that anyone can afford to live on that if their wage is not augmented with tips?

A compensation structure that includes tips is good for hunters as it aligns the interests of the hunter and guide.

I never said that tips should not be given when earned. What I said was that people trying to claim a 15 to 20 percent tip is customary or standard, at today's inflated guided hunt prices, are a little distanced from reality.

The federal minimum wage for tipped employees is $2.13/hour. Do you think that anyone can afford to live on that if their wage is not augmented with tips?

A compensation structure that includes tips is good for hunters as it aligns the interests of the hunter and guide.

 

[Mojave]

1. It is your choice to tip, or not to tip.

2. Just because it is customary doesn't mean it should be a percentage.

3. I have not heard of a guy making $2.13 an hour on a hunt. No one would guide, wrangle, or cook if they were making $2.13 an hour. This season on antelope a buddy of mine guided in New Mexico. He made $200 a day, plus mileage and fuel. 3 day hunt, dude killed on the 2nd day. About $800, plus a $500 tip. That is easy money.

4. He makes $80,000 a year and took a week of PTO, and made $3000 for the week. He gets 26 days off a year in PTO. He also drew a tag in the area and killed a huge buck during that week.

 

[MattB]

I never said that tips should not be given when earned. What I said was that people trying to claim a 15 to 20 percent tip is customary or standard, at today's inflated guided hunt prices, are a little distanced from reality.

What you said was clear - “If the guide/outfitter can't afford to work for the base rate without a tip, they shouldn't be in this business”. That is very different from what you are claiming what you said in your prior posts and we can all see that

 

[MattB]

1. It is your choice to tip, or not to tip.

2. Just because it is customary doesn't mean it should be a percentage.

3. I have not heard of a guy making $2.13 an hour on a hunt. No one would guide, wrangle, or cook if they were making $2.13 an hour. This season on antelope a buddy of mine guided in New Mexico. He made $200 a day, plus mileage and fuel. 3 day hunt, dude killed on the 2nd day. About $800, plus a $500 tip. That is easy money.

4. He makes $80,000 a year and took a week of PTO, and made $3000 for the week. He gets 26 days off a year in PTO. He also drew a tag in the area and killed a huge buck during that week.

I know of Americans who guide for mule deer in Mexico whose only compensation is tips. Fortunately their clients are well-heeled, understand how the world works and tip accordingly.

There is a lot of desert between the ranch and the US border for those who demonstrate their opinion that tipping is a choice….

 

[AKBorn]

What you said was clear - “If the guide/outfitter can't afford to work for the base rate without a tip, they shouldn't be in this business”. That is very different from what you are claiming what you said in your prior posts and we can all see that

Good point, you are correct - that is what I said.

I stand by the gist of my point - if someone is working in a business where their business model sets a base rate for labor that doesn't allow them to make a living, they need to either refine their business model or seek another line of work.

 

[Mojave]

I know of Americans who guide for mule deer in Mexico whose only compensation is tips. Fortunately their clients are well-heeled, understand how the world works and tip accordingly.

There is a lot of desert between the ranch and the US border for those who demonstrate their opinion that tipping is a choice….

I would not cross the border for a lot of money. I have lived on the border a signifigant amount of my life. It would take serious money. The Yucatan penninsula, is a maybe. But I have zero interest in that as well.

There is real risk in it. Way more risk than places less civilized in Africa. Just what it is.

Kind of like asking how much you would tip at the French Laundry. I don't care, I am never going to the French Laundry. I think it cost about $500 a person to eat there if not $1000. How much do you tip?

I don't care I am not going. Mexico is the same.

Americans that guide in Mexico are playing the risk game. A Marine spent 214 days in Mexico in jail because he crossed accidentally with a firearm in his car that he declared. I have almost driven into Mexico from El Paso. It isn't that hard to do.

You can say whatever you want about it. I have been in places that physically make Mexico look like a fun place to be.

Just because you can do something doesn't mean you should. I have about 80 nations under my belt and I have lived on 4 continents. I am not an expert on travel, but I wouldn't do it.

 

[JackButler]

It’s obvious some of the tightwads here have never worked for tips. Wow. You can be an ass and say well these service industry folks should get paid more wage so we don’t have to tip. Well guess what? That’s not the way the service world works. Never has, never will. And it’s not the employees’ fault the “system” works this way, so why short change the very folks who are just trying to make ends meet? They don’t give a chit about your philosophical objections, they care about putting food on their table and the good ones work hard to make that extra buck. All you non tippers are doing is short changing hard working folks. Don’t fault them for the system.

And from a hunting customer’s perspective, who wouldn’t want some sort of incentive system? Isn’t that good for us? You’d rather the guy or gal make all their money no matter what the results? No matter how hard they work for you? Remove the incentive? Yep, that would work out well! Gimme a break.

The beauty of a system including tips is you are in control of that last piece of compensation. You have the choice to dish it out or not! No one is forcing you to crack open that wallet if the service sucks. You can always hold back. Some of you want to give up that choice? Huh?

If you can’t afford a reasonable tip, you can’t afford the hunt. Look, this is simple! A $5000 hunt doesn’t cost $5000. It costs $5500-6000, and that’s how much you need to budget. You just get to hold onto that last $500-1000 and only dish it out if YOU feel it was earned. I like that concept personally.

They should just charge $6k then. Seems pretty straightforward.

 

[JackButler]

A $5K elk hunt where one guide leads you around the mountains for a week has very little in common to a sheep hunt up north (dall/stone/bighorn) where you are supported by all kinds of people and logistics...as an example, the bush pilot who flew you into a remote spot and then came and got your butt out during a tight window between bad weather. Pretty easy to see the lack of experience/ignorance in this thread. People talking about things they have no clue about

That’s why sheep hunts cost $70k. If they need to charge $80k to pay people properly, they should do that.

 

[Kodiak Special]

A $5K elk hunt where one guide leads you around the mountains for a week has very little in common to a sheep hunt up north (dall/stone/bighorn) where you are supported by all kinds of people and logistics...as an example, the bush pilot who flew you into a remote spot and then came and got your butt out during a tight window between bad weather. Pretty easy to see the lack of experience/ignorance in this thread. People talking about things they have no clue about

That is very accurate. I used to tip $700-1200 on bear and elk hunts. They were earned and deserved, and as a ratio of the hunt cost they were under 10%. The tip went up with sheep hunts, where you have a whole team supporting you. It was still way under 10% of the hunt cost. I suppose the ratio approach breaks down as the hunts get more complex and expensive, the tips increase but not at the same rate.