Take the case of recommended tips for a 14-day elephant safari. Suggested tips for the PH on such a hunt ranged all the way from $50 to $5,800! Suggested tips on other hunts were simply all over the map. If you hunt internationally and you haven't seen this survey, you owe it to yourself to read it, if for no other reason that to see where your tipping behavior fits in with what others are doing. See below for ordering instructions. Our conclusion at the time was that tipping is an issue that deserves further study. "After all," we wrote back then "how does a safari company owner fairly compensate an employee who earns $50 in tips on one hunt and then $5,800 on the next hunt of the same duration?" We went on to note that clients' concerns about being "cheap" or "extravagant" were also a problem...All of this is a roundabout way of introducing a letter we just received from long-time subscriber Hubert Thummler on the subject of tipping. It makes us realize we need to get back into this subject in a big way, and I will have more to say on that in a moment.
First, though, Hubert Thummler's letter: "Dear Don, Tipping has always been something of great controversy, and I am sure all of us hunters have made terrible mistakes by over- or under-tipping. I don't know which one is worse, incidentally. You have already touched on this subject, and I remember that no real conclusion was reached. Too bad, for we will continue to make mistakes, I guess.
At any rate, this........(continued)
