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Tipping at Japanese hotels

thomas

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14 Mar 2002
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When travelling through Japan I'm usually on my bicycle, stopping over at local boarding houses (民宿, minshuku) or business hotels, where tipping is not common. I heard however that it's customary to tip at more formal Japanese inns (旅館, ryokan).

Last week I stayed with my family at a four-star hotel in Kyoto , and when the porter delivered the luggage to our rooms, we all had the feeling as if - at least for a moment - he was waiting for a tip. He did, of course, not hold up his hand in anticipation.

Therefore my question: what are the local conventions in regard to Japanese hotels?
 
No tipping is needed or expected. I tipped a taxi driver once only because he did something extra for me and saved me an added problem. He took it reluctantly, but he still smiled.
 
In some pricey onsen/ryokan, the kind where your food is served in your room by a person (sometimes two) dedicated specifically to you and your meal, tipping that person (before the service begins) is sometimes done.

I'm not sure how common this is, since I don't frequent that type of onsen...!
 
Wow thanks for share these all tipping information because after one month I am going to japan with my family on my 15 days vacation. Its just for refreshment. So I want this all types of information about japan culture and I also need to know about several good but less expensive hotels. If any one knows then please share with me.
 
This is one area of Japanese culture about which there seems to be a misconception held by surprisingly many "foreigners" including, I am afraid, those who have lived in Japan for a few years. Nearly all Japanese travelers tip at ryokans, period. When, where and how? Just when the waitress in charge of your room takes you to your room, prepares tea, explains the basic rules (emergency exit, meal hours, how to use safe, bathing hours, etc.), wishes you to enjoy your stay and gets ready to leave the room, you are expected to hand her some cash (bills only) either in an envelope or at least wrapped in some kind of paper (Kleenex will do). We Japanese often have this envelope ready before we leave home for a trip involving a stay at a ryokan.

In "western-style" hotels, however, this is not the case. No matter how expensive the hotel is, what great service you receive, you need not tip, period. In fact, the better trained staff will politely decline tipping even if you wanted to tip them.
 
Sorry, but I've lived in Japan for almost 15 years now, and have stayed in many Japanese hotels including ryokan (with my J wife). No tipping. Besides, nobody (including a "waitress") came to our room to show anything. Maybe you have experience in some very expensive ryokan...? That is about the only type she knows that has such a practice.
 
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Sorry, but I've lived in Japan for almost 15 years now, and have stayed in many Japanese hotels including ryokan (with my J wife). No tipping. Besides, nobody (including a "waitress") came to our room to show anything. Maybe you have experience in some very expensive ryokan...? That is about the only type she knows that has such a practice.
I have lived in Japan for over 5 decades since birth and have stayed in at least several dozen ryokans, perhaps more. Not once have I seen a Japanese traveler, including myself when I am either the boss figure or in charge of the money matters of my group, not tipping the ryokan lady in charge. Not even once! Because it is such a common practice, we naturally have a good word for it --- ツ心窶「t窶堋ッ, and the little envelopes for that purpose are readily available at convenience stores and stationery stores.

I am strictly talking about Ryokans, not Minshukus (or hotels as I mentioned in my last post), but I am not only talking about the expensive ryokans, either. In fact, the majority of the ryokans I have stayed at in more recent years are like 15,000 - 20,000 yen a night with two meals.
 
Then your experience is different than my wife's, and you aren't that much older than her. She confirms the envelope process but cannot confirm tipping is done as often as you say.

By the way, the woman in charge is not called a "waitress". That is who serves you in a restaurant.
 
The only gratuity (tip) I've ever given in Japan was for a tour guide. We took up a collection near the end of our 11-day tour of Japan and presented it to her in an envelope. Otherwise, I've never had to tip anyone.


The Japan tour guidebooks I've seen said that tipping is given when a person really goes beyond the call of duty and then it is a money envelope with new paper bills or a gift.
 
This is one area of Japanese culture about which there seems to be a misconception held by surprisingly many "foreigners" including, I am afraid, those who have lived in Japan for a few years. Nearly all Japanese travelers tip at ryokans, period. When, where and how? Just when the waitress in charge of your room takes you to your room, prepares tea, explains the basic rules (emergency exit, meal hours, how to use safe, bathing hours, etc.), wishes you to enjoy your stay and gets ready to leave the room, you are expected to hand her some cash (bills only) either in an envelope or at least wrapped in some kind of paper (Kleenex will do). We Japanese often have this envelope ready before we leave home for a trip involving a stay at a ryokan.

In "western-style" hotels, however, this is not the case. No matter how expensive the hotel is, what great service you receive, you need not tip, period. In fact, the better trained staff will politely decline tipping even if you wanted to tip them.

This is true. This applies only to RYOKANs, as masaegu says, and not HOTELs.

When my husband and I were young (and poor), we went to an onsen ryokan in Hakone. I asked my husband whether we should give the "nakai-san" a "kokorozuke." He said no, that was in the old days, etc. I wasn't sure but obeyed.
So, our stay there turned out to be the most unpleasant experience we ever had! My husband was sooo angry, he intentionally left the stream fish he fished early that morning in the room fridge (unplugged). I'm not going to mention its name, but it is one of the more reputable ryokans in Hakone.

The last time I went to an onsen ryokan (this time in Izu and it was last year), we prepared a "pochi-bukuro" and handed the money to the "nakai-san." She refused at first, saying that kind of money giving is no longer practiced, but accepted it at the end, thanking profusely. So, the practice may not be prevalent as it used to be, but it's still there.

If none of you foreign-looking people ever had to tip at a ryokan, it may be because these nakai-sans know that foreigners don't know the practice.
 
When travelling through Japan I'm usually on my bicycle, stopping over at local boarding houses (民宿, minshuku) or business hotels, where tipping is not common. I heard however that it's customary to tip at more formal Japanese inns (旅館, ryokan).

Last week I stayed with my family at a four-star hotel in Kyoto, and when the porter delivered the luggage to our rooms, we all had the feeling as if - at least for a moment - he was waiting for a tip. He did, of course, not hold up his hand in anticipation.

Therefore my question: what are the local conventions in regard to Japanese hotels?

If the place was a HOTEL, no problem. If IT SEEMED as if he were waiting for a moment, he probably gets lucky sometimes with some tourists handing him a tip (either foreign tourists tipping as they do in other countries or Japanese tourists thinking the "kokorozuke" tip applies to that hotel as well). 😊
 
Sometimes, Japanese nationals who work in the hotel and travel industry know about the tipping custom we have in the west. So, they sometimes think that they can get a tip from tourist from America and other countries who also have a tipping culture. I have been living in Japan for 14 years now from America and I have never tipped anyone. The customer is God in Japan and God does not tip.
 
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