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How much did you (or do you plan to) tip your Maitre'D? (POLL)

bluegreen08 Posted:

How much did you (or do you plan to) tip your Maitre'D? (POLL)

Assuming everything goes well and there are no major problems, how much do you expect to tip? Just curious what is average/normal

You don't have to say who you are, but if you do reply please post how many guests you have

Edit: oops, don't mind the 'per person' next to $3
kimiequa Posted:

Re: How much did you (or do you plan to) tip your Maitre'D? (POLL)

haha my fh worked at a not so nice catering hall (i'll leave out their name to protect the nasty) and they told the brides that they had to tip the maitre d and led them to believe that the waitstaff would be taken care of. they even told the workers that they weren't allowed to accept tip.

haha this is turning into a long story that's going nowhere... anyway, he doesn't want to tip them at all, just the waiters. needless to say, we're still tipping anyway. i would say about 2-3 per person.
bluegreen08 Posted:

Re: How much did you (or do you plan to) tip your Maitre'D? (POLL)

I know some places say standard is 3-5, but I didnt know if that was overinflated.

How can we find out if the waiters actually get something?
madseason Posted:

Re: How much did you (or do you plan to) tip your Maitre'D? (POLL)

my hall the matire D spits the tip with the staff...I am giving her ALOT!! she is sooooo worth it...shes been like my coordinator,,,she has done soooooooo much and has jumped thru hoops and made things happen....has even been there when i had to vent about other htings! she deserves alot

PegaLega Posted:

Re: How much did you (or do you plan to) tip your Maitre'D? (POLL)

Supposedly-and this is going by what I was told-you dont HAVE TO TIP ANYONE!!! Its at my discretion, the gratuity gets split between the waitstaff and the MD is the only one not included in that-they recommend 3-5 pp (this is the norm) we did 2 dollars pp, I dont even make 300 for 4 hours. We tipped the bridal attendants, and the waitstaff was tipped very well by the parents.

Madseason-make sure that the one who is jumping thru hoops is your MD not your Banquet Manager-I didnt meet my MD until the day of my wedding.
bluegreen08 Posted:

Re: How much did you (or do you plan to) tip your Maitre'D? (POLL)

lol maybe it's like summer camp where the 'recommended' tip on the tip sheet they send home with each kid is X amount but nobody ever tips that, most tip about half of that.

I guess I'm relieved to see people aren't saying 5+++ because that sounds like a lot!
Wifeynella Posted:

Re: How much did you (or do you plan to) tip your Maitre'D? (POLL)

standard is 3-5 per person depending on what they do and how many people.

i'm putting 3 per person in the envelope but before we give it to them it may go down or up.
diva7531 Posted:

Re: How much did you (or do you plan to) tip your Maitre'D? (POLL)

I think we tipped $3pp, we were gonna do $2, but our Maitre D' was really good! We had 200 people at our wedding.

jtgarsik Posted:

Re: How much did you (or do you plan to) tip your Maitre'D? (POLL)

this was really tough on us because we had a FABULOUS BM who was a 'good friend of a friend'...he really treated us like family & said 'just make sure u take care of ur M'D.' - he told us that is averaged anywhere from $3-$6 pp....and that we should really go on the higher end...well that's a nice reccomendation but we had almost 250 people at our wedding....at $6pp we would've hit almost $1400 for a tip!!!!!! i'm sorry but at that point in that last stretch, we were lucky that we even had money to give. I know my bm was kind of aware of our situation so hopefully he understood - but we ended up giving him about $3pp - which was still about a $700 tip - which honestly i thought was still a generous amount of money. You do what u can afford...our BM & M'D were great - and to my standards $700 is a nice chunk of change!

Kris0703 Posted:

Re: How much did you (or do you plan to) tip your Maitre'D? (POLL)

I worked in a catering hall and the 'tips' for the waitstaff were NEVER seen - sorry to say. And I worked in a expensive/well known hall. When we questioned the Maitre d about it - he told us that the 'tips' is what paid our salary. Which I think is bullsh*t bc when you charge people $180 pp that's where our salary is really coming from! So, unless the bride/groom actually handed us the money we didn't see sh*t!!

edit to add:

we will be sure to hand deliver any tips we would like the waitstaff to have
GraceAndAdam Posted:

Re: How much did you (or do you plan to) tip your Maitre'D? (POLL)

I would say give what you feel like the person deserves depending on how good of a job they do. We had money divided into envelopes labeled for each person we wanted to tip and before we gave the tip we decided if we wanted to add to or take away from the envelopes. Just don't do what we did - DON'T give out any tips until the very end of the night, or you probably won't see any more of that person. Our Maitre'D was so helpful all day, but we gave him his tip a little too early and then never saw him again.
Jenn04 Posted:

Re: How much did you (or do you plan to) tip your Maitre'D? (POLL)

I worked at a catering hall at a gold course and never received my 'gratuity'. I only worked a few events but still...where does that 20% go????

Lastly, at Giorgio's they are charging us $450 which is the Maitre D and Bridal Attendant Tip. I like this and think it is fair. (We also get charged the 20% gratuity but I need to ask where that goes!)
kimiequa Posted:

Re: How much did you (or do you plan to) tip your Maitre'D? (POLL)

Posted by Kris0703

I worked in a catering hall and the 'tips' for the waitstaff were NEVER seen - sorry to say. And I worked in a expensive/well known hall. When we questioned the Maitre d about it - he told us that the 'tips' is what paid our salary. Which I think is bullsh*t bc when you charge people $180 pp that's where our salary is really coming from! So, unless the bride/groom actually handed us the money we didn't see sh*t!!

edit to add:

we will be sure to hand deliver any tips we would like the waitstaff to have


crazy! yes, we definitely plan on tipping each waiter/bartender.
SherinJeff Posted:

Re: How much did you (or do you plan to) tip your Maitre'D? (POLL)

The problem is with the Catering hall charging the 20% gratuity on your base price of your package.
Then.. you are supposed to tip extra to the Banquet manager, Matre d'
and staff? Because like others are saying.. they dont see the tips alot.
I would tell your manager that you want to see how they give that 20% out that you are paying for.. LOL, Im sure they wont but still its frustrating.
Just another FEE IMO.
I have a big enough problem with mandatory tipping to begin with.
Also.
Those that are doing the heavy work should be the ones getting the big tips.
flairforfashion Posted:

Re: How much did you (or do you plan to) tip your Maitre'D? (POLL)

3 PP is the average.

B22 Posted:

Re: How much did you (or do you plan to) tip your Maitre'D? (POLL)

we tipped $500.00 and we have about 146 people at our wedding.

he really went above and beyond for us... i wish we could have tipped him more.
o17range Posted:

Re: How much did you (or do you plan to) tip your Maitre'D? (POLL)

I tipped towards the higher end of the spectrum, because I thought the event staff did an excellent job.

To answer a lot of the side comments, the 'service charge' is just that. Your per person price in general covers the cost of your food and the preparation of it. But in most cases it doesn't cover your banquet manager's salary, the higher wages your event staff receives (those of you who worked at halls didn't receive the standard $3.13 an hour for servers, did you?), the heat or a/c for the building, the time your banquet manager spends coordinating things for your event, the groundskeeping for the facility, etc. The 'service charge' should not be thought of as a tip, because it's not--it's a charge for all the work a facility will do prior to your event, which for most LI weddings is a LOT and usually well worth it too.

I can answer this because I'm an event manager for a catering company in NC now and I often get asked that question--it's very confusing and I know I was annoyed while planning my wedding. Now it makes sense! HTHs!
july06bride Posted:

Re: How much did you (or do you plan to) tip your Maitre'D? (POLL)

Posted by Kris0703

I worked in a catering hall and the 'tips' for the waitstaff were NEVER seen - sorry to say. And I worked in a expensive/well known hall. When we questioned the Maitre d about it - he told us that the 'tips' is what paid our salary. Which I think is bullsh*t bc when you charge people $180 pp that's where our salary is really coming from! So, unless the bride/groom actually handed us the money we didn't see sh*t!!

edit to add:

we will be sure to hand deliver any tips we would like the waitstaff to have


I agree- I worked at two catering halls on LI, one very well-known and I never saw any tips...only what the guests tipped me!
beram63 Posted:

Re: How much did you (or do you plan to) tip your Maitre'D? (POLL)

Posted by o17range

I tipped towards the higher end of the spectrum, because I thought the event staff did an excellent job.

To answer a lot of the side comments, the 'service charge' is just that. Your per person price in general covers the cost of your food and the preparation of it. But in most cases it doesn't cover your banquet manager's salary, the higher wages your event staff receives (those of you who worked at halls didn't receive the standard $3.13 an hour for servers, did you?), the heat or a/c for the building, the time your banquet manager spends coordinating things for your event, the groundskeeping for the facility, etc. The 'service charge' should not be thought of as a tip, because it's not--it's a charge for all the work a facility will do prior to your event, which for most LI weddings is a LOT and usually well worth it too.

I can answer this because I'm an event manager for a catering company in NC now and I often get asked that question--it's very confusing and I know I was annoyed while planning my wedding. Now it makes sense! HTHs!


i was going to chime in here to answer some of the questions above about the whereabouts of the 20%. you handled it pretty well. from what i understand, the 'gratuity' goes to pay the waiters, who usually make an hourly wage that DOESN'T force them to depend on tips. when i did catering back in college, i generally got paid anywhere between $8-$12/hour. I think the problem is that many places call it 'gratuity,' which is misleading. service charge is a much better term. i still don't necessarily feel that the couple--who's already paying exorbitant prices for a catered event compared to the national average--should feel obligated to tip out a salaried employee (i.e. BM). Can I put a tip jar on my desk for parent conferences? it just seems like they want to bleed you for as much cash as possible.
colleen1117 Posted:

Re: How much did you (or do you plan to) tip your Maitre'D? (POLL)

yeah - I'm baffled on the service charge v. tip thing also. I see your explaination - but i was told the service charge was for the staff (not facilities and prep). i would think that facilities and prep would be included in the 'per person' price that we pay. that said - if the service charge DOES go to the wait staff...why are we paying tax on it??? isn't it illegal to tax on services??
soooo confused. I grew up waiting tables in college so i'm the first person to be generous to servers - ESPECIALLY on the biggest day of my life. however, i can't help but feel this all falls under the 'get 'em for what you can' category. i really really want everyone to be paid approapriately for good service - but i don't want to pay double. also i'm starting to see comments in contracts like '20% gratuity is due 3 days before your wedding in cash' waaaait a minute. tips are based on service - how am I paying before i even have the service performed? - this was in the hotel agreement that i got regarding booking the shuttle they had. the tip is for the driver. granted i'd probably tip 20% anyway....ugggg

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