The number 1 thing I hate about traveling

The number 1 thing I hate about traveling

In some countries this is not a problem, including Switzerland, French Polynesia and South Korea. Others are virtually impossible to get right. I'm talking about the tipping minefield, of course. It is without a doubt the number one thing I hate about traveling.

Before you all launch an attack on living wages, let me just explain that I hate tipping, not because of the cost, but because of the unbearable embarrassment of the whole thing.

I won't lie that I don't feel a pang of regret when this happens:

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alt=““>The unintentional excess

And I feel really terrible when this happens:

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alt=““>The accidental bottom tip

But most of all, more than anything else about traveling, I hate the embarrassment when this happens:

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It's the horror of not knowing. And I'm British, so take that horror and quadruple it. We are a nation unnaturally obsessed with maintaining decency. You give a Brit a terrible haircut and instead of considering the humiliating option of voicing a complaint, he'll smile and say he loves it. Accidentally dial his number and he will gently tell you that he thinks you have the wrong number, even though he is 100% sure he is not a dry cleaner. Step on his foot and he will insist on telling you how sorry he is that his foot got in your way. My point is that we Brits are very careful not to rock the boat, especially in social situations - which brings me back to tipping when traveling.

In some cities, it seems that everyone and their uncle expects a tip just for letting you breathe in their area code (Marrakesh, anyone?). In others, locals seem incredibly embarrassed by the gesture. For example, our taxi driver in Jordan refused to accept a tip, as did the cleaner who found and returned Peter's lost phone. “Please – I’m just doing my job,” he insisted.

What I want so much is a clear and simple indicator of how much I should tip for different things in different countries. And with that I bring you to my suggestion: an app that tells you the average, median and mode tip for a specific activity in a specific country. (In my mind, I named it "Tip Advisor," even though I'm sure we'd get sued.) Similar to TripAdvisor, the app would use crowdsourced data against an existing database of points of interest (hotels, restaurants, activities) divided into different roles. So the next time I have my luggage delivered to my room, say at the Klaus K Hotel in Helsinki, I'll know how much to tip the doorman, or if I go to a fancy dinner at Veeraswamy in London, I won't under-tip (or over-tip the waiter). With this app I can be sure that I am decidedly average. That's where the British feel most comfortable: safely in the middle of the field.

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