Village Squire, 1975-11, Page 33111.0fte forme
It's New Zealand 1
BY KEITH ROULSTON
In this month's travel section Michael
Shelton describes New Zealand as an
excellent place to visit, where even the
cabbies frown on tipping.
To heck with visiting, I think I'll move
there.
I don't know about you, but I detest the
whole demeaning custom of tipping. Down in
New Zealand, the tippee seems to feel that
the tipper is demeaning him or her with the
money. Up here its the other way around. I
feel I'm being demeaned every time I have to
shell out to some arrogant waiter, bellhop or
doorman.
If you check into one of those classy big
hotels in the city today the chances are you
may end up spending more on tips than you
do on your room or your food. Everywhere
you turn there's a hand out.
.1 got fed up with big hotels in the past few
years after attending conventions in the city
and feeling a little like an automatic money
dispenser. I'm a little bit of Casper Milktoast
when it comes to tipping. My greatest heros
are those who refuse to give in to this subtle
blackmail. I have a friend who refuses to wilt
under the worst of black looks of assorted
service personel. (,•like most people, I think,
tend to chicken out and worry that the waiter
will think I'm a cheapskate hick from the
country if I don't leave a tip.
At a convention in one of the newer hotels
in Toronto a year or so ago, we saw the art of
tipping worked into a major business. The
only place you were allowed to go without
greasing someone's palm was the bathroom,
and even the little flush leaver looked
suspiciously like an outstretched hand.
It started at the front door where you
couldn't park your own car but had to leave it
with an attendant. He carried your bags 22
feet and got a tip (at this rate of travel I
figured it would take a billionaire to get
across Canada). Next there was the .check-in
desk where your key wasn't offered to you but
handed straight to a bell boy (boy nothing,
he's old enough to be a grandfather). Again a
tip. In fact he got into the room and it became
evident he was prepared to spend the night if
he didn't get his compensation. First he
showed us how to turn on the bathroom light,
then the colour television, then the air
conditioning and if I hadn't handed him a bill,
he'd probably have gotten so desperate he'd
have demonstrated how to use the shower.
When it came time to check out, I thought 1
was going to outsmart the system. I knew by
then the car was parked in a municipal
parking lot across the road. I decided to
wander over, find the car, pay the bill and
drive leaving some doorman -parking attend-
ant -highway robber without a tip. After 15
minutes wondering the subterranean floors of
the parking garage, I found the car. It was
locked. Using my wife's extra keys we got in,
drove out of the garage and paid the bill. But
where were my keys? They must be over in
the hotel, the attendant said.
The guy in charge of parking back over at
the hotel had a little bit of a smirk on his face
32, VILLAGE SQUIRE/NOVEMBER 1975
when I explained what I'd done and that I
needed the keys. He sort of wagged his finger
in a naughty -naughty sign as he handed me
the keys...after I had to give him a parking
charge of 52.00 presumably for baby sitting
my keys.
My best remembrance of the weekend was
a story told by an acquaintance about a friend
(Allis. The front desk pulled the same trick of
handing his key to a bellboy on this rather
large fellow. When the bellboy bent to pick up
the bags, the man softly said, "You touch
those bags and I'll knock your face in " He
got the keys and he got the bags. He was
probably the only person of the several
thousand in that hotel that had the courage to
stand up for himself. He was my hero.
The other thing that irks me is that not only
must you tip, but you're told how much you
must tip. This thing about a 15 per cent tip in
restaurant (or has inflation hit that too?)
really burns me. I go into some nice little
restaurant where you can still eat without
taking a second mortgage on the house, and
the waitress maybe works her heart out to
serve me a meal to 53.00 At 15 per cent her
tip is 45 cents. I go into some expensive
restaurant where the waiter only has half as
many tables to look after and the bill comes to
515-20. I'm still supposed to give a 15 percent
tip which means 52 25 to 53.00. And that on
top of his salary. New Zealand here I come.
Anstett
Jewellers
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SINCE 1950
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Watches & fine
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Graduate Gemmologist
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11 ALBERT ST., CLINTON
482-9525
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La Boutique
2! East It. 324-1012
Gederleli