How much should I tip for a private tour in India?

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Accepted answer

Those tips seem way too high. To put those figures in perspective, legal minimum wage in Haryana (state next to Delhi and one of the richest in India) is 5,800 rupees/month, and there are plenty of unskilled workers (live-in maids etc) getting paid much less than that. If you tip somebody Rs. 1500/day for a month, he's making almost 10x that!

I'd revise those figures to something like this, but please bear in mind it's been a few years since I was in India and these may be on the low side by today's standards.

Local Guides: INR 200/day for a personal tour (on top of the agreed fee and only if he's done a good job, that is; don't fall into the common trap of "pay me what you like" and then being pestered for silly amounts at the end!)

Drivers:

< INR 50 for airport transfers

INR 100/day if it's just point A to B, wait around, and back again. Maybe 200 if he's driving you around all day. If he's overnighting, his accommodations should be accounted for in the base price; again, be sure to sort this out beforehand.

Hotel Porters: INR 50 per bag

Housekeepers: Hotels often have central tip boxes that get shared out to everyone, and ~5% of your bill is generous; if you want to tip the housekeeper alone, maybe INR 50/night?

Upvote:3

I lived in India for 6 months. Those numbers are way too high as jpatokal mentioned. My usual way is to tipping is if I feel that the person deserves the tips, I'd tip. I don't really tip taxi drivers.

My local friends told me that tipping culture has damaged the country where taxi drivers only take foreigners because they tip and local people don't. However, if I hire a private driver and he's really really good, I'd tip him 10% or more. On one occasion we tipped the guy 20% but because the driver waited for us and took us anywhere we want and he's super polite.

For private tour guide, I use the same concept but I usually tip about 50-100 if I feel happy about the person.

Sometime, when you're in a restaurant the owner or waiters or waitresses might tell you beforehand that the price doesn't include tip and any tip would be really appreciated. My friend told me that you don't have to tip but generally I tipped about 5-10%. 10% is if you're happy. 15% if you're super happy.

Hope this helps.

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