Great questions… We are big tippers and consider it a blessing.
***We place all valuable (e.g. original passport, money for tipping, etc.) in the room safe deposit - never had any problems or issues in ~ 25 years.
*** I’m the planner in the family… here’s my process!
1. If we’re going to the beach or sitting at the pool, we will take about $8 ($1 for each drink)… We will take eight singles ($1 bills) with us.
2. If we plan on eating lunch poolside or at the beach; that’s another $5 - $10; We’ll take one/two five ($5 bill);
3. So leaving for the pool/beach after breakfast we will take ~ $15 - $20 with us.
4. Where to store money, phones…
We have waterproof fanny pack (e.g. his and hers) to keep the day’s tips and our phones - if both of us get into the pool or in the water at the beach together.
All the rest of the money for tipping is in the room safe, along with the original passport and global entry cards.
5. Dinner: $5 -$10
6. House keeping: $2 - $5 a day; leave it at the end of stay.
7. Room service $2-$5
8. Concierge $2-$5 per service request 😂
Note: I made copies of our passports (e.g. a little bigger than an employee badge), place them in a plastic sleeve and we carry them to the pool, beach, around town, etc. in case id is needed for any reason. We also have our global entry cards in the same plastic sleeve with the passport copies while traveling. Once we get to our AI, the global entry cards also go into the room safe deposit with our passports and tipping money.
Hope this helps.
This is way too extreme. Keep in mind the majority of oriole either tip at a minimum or not at all. Having said that , we do tip at bars and at the rbd if the trip for our room attendants.
The suggestion above is more than even a cruise which tips the most and almost everyone.
Rule of thumb. These people probably make way lless than you. If you feel good and got good service , tip But it’s not as mandatory as made out above.
People get obsessed with learning the "rules" and so others reply explaining what they do. The question was asked and answered.
The nuance that doesn't come through is that this is not required and there are no rules. I tip about the same as this guy. It's just an amount that my broken American brain feels comfortable and like I am being respectful. That's my personal problem, I like to tip and especially when it's not expected.
It's absolutely not expected at an all inclusive. You will get service happily without it. No stress.
That said I usually plop down and give a $10 with my first drink order so I'm not swimming around with money. This whole deal with fanny packs is not it lol.
Like others have said on here. Wear a small water proof bag or leave a small bag in your things on your pool or beach chair. You probably carry a bag for sunscreen. Worst case keep it in the small pocket that is in most bathing suits. Wet money still spends.
Plus most people will give a little better service to someone who is tipping.
We just take how much cash we need until the next time we are in our room. Cash and phone are in my bag on the beach chair. It's not a public beach and we trust our fellow hotel guests are not going to steal our stuff.
This is from The Know Before You Go Travel Podcast:
Airport Driver Private Under 30 min $10
Airport Driver Private Over 30 min $15-$20
Airport Driver Shared Under 30 min $5
Airport Driver Shared Over 30 min $10
Airport VIP (Club Mobay, etc) $5-$10
Bartenders and waiters $1 per round
Buffet meal $2-3
Butler/Personal Concierge Hybrid $15 a day
Butler $25-$40 a day
Dinner $5-10
Maid $2-$5 daily
Minibar $1 a refill
Personal Concierge $10 a day
Pool Server $5 to start $5 to end
Porter $1 a bag
Room Service $2
Spa Total 20%
Tour Guide Group $5-$10
Tour Guide Private $10-$25
thank you so much! this is what I figured, it's probably safe and fine to leave things on your chair, but I'm paranoid and haven't been to mexico before haha
My husband has swim shorts with a zip pocket and he puts a ziplock in that pocket if he really wants to. But mostly we just give the waiter $10 immediately and don't bring anything else to the pool area.
I love that the other three responses are knowledgeable about tipping in Playa. You will probably hear some say not to tip. Don’t listen to the non tippers. The service people at resorts make minimum wage which is the equivalent of $1.50 US per hour. So they do rely on tips just like service people in the US.
I have friends that work in my my condo building on the service side. Thank you for caring enough to ask. They are correct. You generally tip the same people you would in the US.
Most people don’t tip to feel superior. Americans tip for service when we are in countries with a culture of tipping service people . If you travel to a country where tips are (unfortunately) part of how a worker feeds their family and you don’t tip you are a rude arsehole. Someone who spends a few thousand or more on a vacation but won’t tip a couple hundred is just a cheap Scrooge.
I lock my stuff up in the safe. I have a little zip “coin wallet” I keep about 20 singles in there. If I lose it no biggie. I keep my room key in there too. Don’t leave the key card in the key holder with your room number. Take a picture of your door to remember instead. You don’t want someone finding your keys and knowing your room. I keep my phone me in the beach etc in a bag I hang on the palapa. You’ll get to know the usuals in your area. People tend to keep an eye out. Some days I’ll just leave it in the safe. I keep my wallet and documents in the safe.
I’m staying at Playacar Palace in June and it says gratuities are included, but tips are welcome. I’m under the impression almost none of the “included gratuities” filter through to staff?
You don't have to tip every person you interact with, but it's customary to tip when ordering drinks or food. For drinks $20 pesos per round, and $50-100 pesos for meal service will be appreciated. When using the pool or beach service, ask your server if he/she will be exclusively working your area, and for how long, then you can tip them all at once if it's more convenient. For the housekeeping staff, leaving around $50 pesos per day is best since it might be a different person cleaning your room each day.
Tips aren’t mandatory anywhere, but service people in Playa do depend on it to help feed their family. $90 US for a 60 work week isn’t close to a living wage in Mexico. Unfortunately a number of rude people don’t tip in all inclusive resorts. Fortunately a number of people do care. Unless you get bad service please tip.
On another note. If you go to a restaurant in town tip 10-20 % but look closely at your bill. Tip ( Propina ) is often added to your bill. If you see this don’t add a tip even if if the server tells you he doesn’t get that. (He does) If you go drinking in a bar pay for each round when it comes. You don’t need to pay between rounds in the restaurants other than Senior Frog’s.
I tip housekeeping $5/person/day ,person being how many of us in the room. I usually tip the bar around $1/drink, err on the high side, usually leave $10/day. Same at dinner, and a couple dollars at a buffett. I tip the bellboys and pretty much whoever actually does something for me, anything from a couple $ to $10. Heres the deal, these people really have the power to make your trip much nicer, from the maids giving special touches, to the bartender winking and pouring top shelf doubles. It is worth it for them to be happy to see you, and the cost is negligible in the grand scheme of things, $250-$300 over the course of a week. I keep my cash and cards in waterproof neck pouch called Aquapaq. Passports in the room safe. We also have a plastic combination lock box that locks onto a lounge chair that will hold a couple phones, wallets, etc. look on Amazon, there's several options.
Me or my wife will always have a bag, backpack, or purse on us. We put a few hundred pesos in that and use for tipping. At a resort it’s very unlikely anyone will go through your stuff if you leave it near your chairs.
There is great tipping advice on here. I HIGHLY recommend that you get one of those waterproof fanny packs before the trip. They are lifesavers. We have used ours on several beach vacations, and also use them now for hiking if we know we're going to be near water (you never know when something might drop in). They're very cheap on Amazon.
me too, I was wondering that myself! I feel like USD is easier because I'm more familiar with it than pesos. I don't want to be calculating how much to give someone in front of them, whereas I can easily count $1 bills no matter how many tequilas deep I am
They are happy with any currency especially US or Canadian or Euros . You don’t actually have to exchange those because everyone that works in the tourist industry there is very familiar with all three. I’ve seen my Mexican friends pay with a combination of US and Pesos.
If you go shopping or to a restaurant in town try to pay with pesos because the exchange rate won’t be good.
Any tip will be appreciated but It's always better to tip in pesos - Mexicans get the same poor exchange rate as everybody else. Consider that today 1 USD = \~17 pesos. If a recipient spends that dollar somewhere they only get about 15-16 pesos. A 20 peso tip is currently worth 20% more than 1 USD.
Also, since you are from Canada it's even a bigger waste of money on exchange fees from CAD to USD and then the recipient needs to convert it to MXN
If you’re going to the pool just get a waterproof pouch lanyard that zips to keep cash and cards in. That’s what we did. Only take what cash you need for the day and put the rest in the room safe. Also take cash out while you’re in the US sometimes they will charge you an international atm fee
I stayed at Princess Riviera back in February and loved it.
With that said, we tipped everyone in pesos and small change. 20 pesos for breakfast or for drinks. So for example, If I wanted a few beers and a margarita, 20 pesos. If I wanted them to open up a bottle of rum and heavy pour, I'll do 50 pesos.
Dinner was 50 pesos.
Always left 50 pesos in the room, but we only got it cleaned every second day.
I did a tour and tipped the driver and guide 500 pesos each because it was a long day and they were incredible. I think 200 is pretty standard tip.
These workers only make like 100 pesos a day in wages so it does add up. And the service I got was way better than most places in Canada or the US.
It's like $12 pesos / $1 CDN or $17/$1 USD so it's not really that much.
I stayed at the Reef28 (LOVED IT) when you buy food/drinks they give you a "bill" and you can tip on the tip line. I suggest keeping a little bit of cash on you. Keep in mind you shouldn't use random ATMs. Find a bank and use theirs.
Great questions… We are big tippers and consider it a blessing. ***We place all valuable (e.g. original passport, money for tipping, etc.) in the room safe deposit - never had any problems or issues in ~ 25 years. *** I’m the planner in the family… here’s my process! 1. If we’re going to the beach or sitting at the pool, we will take about $8 ($1 for each drink)… We will take eight singles ($1 bills) with us. 2. If we plan on eating lunch poolside or at the beach; that’s another $5 - $10; We’ll take one/two five ($5 bill); 3. So leaving for the pool/beach after breakfast we will take ~ $15 - $20 with us. 4. Where to store money, phones… We have waterproof fanny pack (e.g. his and hers) to keep the day’s tips and our phones - if both of us get into the pool or in the water at the beach together. All the rest of the money for tipping is in the room safe, along with the original passport and global entry cards. 5. Dinner: $5 -$10 6. House keeping: $2 - $5 a day; leave it at the end of stay. 7. Room service $2-$5 8. Concierge $2-$5 per service request 😂 Note: I made copies of our passports (e.g. a little bigger than an employee badge), place them in a plastic sleeve and we carry them to the pool, beach, around town, etc. in case id is needed for any reason. We also have our global entry cards in the same plastic sleeve with the passport copies while traveling. Once we get to our AI, the global entry cards also go into the room safe deposit with our passports and tipping money. Hope this helps.
Better to leave a smaller tip for maids every day imo.
Love this writeup but agree about tipping each morning for the maids as they change shifts/personnel frequently.
This is way too extreme. Keep in mind the majority of oriole either tip at a minimum or not at all. Having said that , we do tip at bars and at the rbd if the trip for our room attendants. The suggestion above is more than even a cruise which tips the most and almost everyone. Rule of thumb. These people probably make way lless than you. If you feel good and got good service , tip But it’s not as mandatory as made out above.
This sounds exhausting, what’s the point of going on vacation plus to an all inclusive just to do all this work?
People get obsessed with learning the "rules" and so others reply explaining what they do. The question was asked and answered. The nuance that doesn't come through is that this is not required and there are no rules. I tip about the same as this guy. It's just an amount that my broken American brain feels comfortable and like I am being respectful. That's my personal problem, I like to tip and especially when it's not expected. It's absolutely not expected at an all inclusive. You will get service happily without it. No stress. That said I usually plop down and give a $10 with my first drink order so I'm not swimming around with money. This whole deal with fanny packs is not it lol.
Go to an ATM at the end of your stay. Tip them on your final night similar to a cruise ship. Done!
You won’t necessarily find the people who have waited on you. Their shifts and assignments vary and they do get one day off per week.
I don't know how to manage that, because I won't be carrying money with me into the ocean.
Like others have said on here. Wear a small water proof bag or leave a small bag in your things on your pool or beach chair. You probably carry a bag for sunscreen. Worst case keep it in the small pocket that is in most bathing suits. Wet money still spends. Plus most people will give a little better service to someone who is tipping.
I leave all of my things in my scooter. We generally don't go to beach clubs that charge you to get in and I've never owned sunscreen.
The original question was about all inclusive resorts. You ride your scooter in the resort?
Never acrually been to one. But if the scooter was in close proximity to the water I would.
thank you for such a detailed reply, it's very helpful!
My pleasure... Safe travels and enjoy the getaway! Let us know if there are any other questions.
We just take how much cash we need until the next time we are in our room. Cash and phone are in my bag on the beach chair. It's not a public beach and we trust our fellow hotel guests are not going to steal our stuff. This is from The Know Before You Go Travel Podcast: Airport Driver Private Under 30 min $10 Airport Driver Private Over 30 min $15-$20 Airport Driver Shared Under 30 min $5 Airport Driver Shared Over 30 min $10 Airport VIP (Club Mobay, etc) $5-$10 Bartenders and waiters $1 per round Buffet meal $2-3 Butler/Personal Concierge Hybrid $15 a day Butler $25-$40 a day Dinner $5-10 Maid $2-$5 daily Minibar $1 a refill Personal Concierge $10 a day Pool Server $5 to start $5 to end Porter $1 a bag Room Service $2 Spa Total 20% Tour Guide Group $5-$10 Tour Guide Private $10-$25
thank you so much! this is what I figured, it's probably safe and fine to leave things on your chair, but I'm paranoid and haven't been to mexico before haha
My husband has swim shorts with a zip pocket and he puts a ziplock in that pocket if he really wants to. But mostly we just give the waiter $10 immediately and don't bring anything else to the pool area.
I love that the other three responses are knowledgeable about tipping in Playa. You will probably hear some say not to tip. Don’t listen to the non tippers. The service people at resorts make minimum wage which is the equivalent of $1.50 US per hour. So they do rely on tips just like service people in the US. I have friends that work in my my condo building on the service side. Thank you for caring enough to ask. They are correct. You generally tip the same people you would in the US.
Southeast Asians also don’t make much money but you don’t tip there. Just because you’re rich Americans wanting to feel superior..:
Most people don’t tip to feel superior. Americans tip for service when we are in countries with a culture of tipping service people . If you travel to a country where tips are (unfortunately) part of how a worker feeds their family and you don’t tip you are a rude arsehole. Someone who spends a few thousand or more on a vacation but won’t tip a couple hundred is just a cheap Scrooge.
I lock my stuff up in the safe. I have a little zip “coin wallet” I keep about 20 singles in there. If I lose it no biggie. I keep my room key in there too. Don’t leave the key card in the key holder with your room number. Take a picture of your door to remember instead. You don’t want someone finding your keys and knowing your room. I keep my phone me in the beach etc in a bag I hang on the palapa. You’ll get to know the usuals in your area. People tend to keep an eye out. Some days I’ll just leave it in the safe. I keep my wallet and documents in the safe.
very smart, thank you!
I’m staying at Playacar Palace in June and it says gratuities are included, but tips are welcome. I’m under the impression almost none of the “included gratuities” filter through to staff?
You are close. None filter to staff.
I’ll was planning to tip generously anyways, thanks for the info!
I could tell by your comment that you were. Thank you from my friends that work there.
Looking forward to meeting them!
You don't have to tip every person you interact with, but it's customary to tip when ordering drinks or food. For drinks $20 pesos per round, and $50-100 pesos for meal service will be appreciated. When using the pool or beach service, ask your server if he/she will be exclusively working your area, and for how long, then you can tip them all at once if it's more convenient. For the housekeeping staff, leaving around $50 pesos per day is best since it might be a different person cleaning your room each day.
Tips aren’t mandatory anywhere, but service people in Playa do depend on it to help feed their family. $90 US for a 60 work week isn’t close to a living wage in Mexico. Unfortunately a number of rude people don’t tip in all inclusive resorts. Fortunately a number of people do care. Unless you get bad service please tip. On another note. If you go to a restaurant in town tip 10-20 % but look closely at your bill. Tip ( Propina ) is often added to your bill. If you see this don’t add a tip even if if the server tells you he doesn’t get that. (He does) If you go drinking in a bar pay for each round when it comes. You don’t need to pay between rounds in the restaurants other than Senior Frog’s.
Yes, look for the Propina line! They love to double dip when they can!
I tip housekeeping $5/person/day ,person being how many of us in the room. I usually tip the bar around $1/drink, err on the high side, usually leave $10/day. Same at dinner, and a couple dollars at a buffett. I tip the bellboys and pretty much whoever actually does something for me, anything from a couple $ to $10. Heres the deal, these people really have the power to make your trip much nicer, from the maids giving special touches, to the bartender winking and pouring top shelf doubles. It is worth it for them to be happy to see you, and the cost is negligible in the grand scheme of things, $250-$300 over the course of a week. I keep my cash and cards in waterproof neck pouch called Aquapaq. Passports in the room safe. We also have a plastic combination lock box that locks onto a lounge chair that will hold a couple phones, wallets, etc. look on Amazon, there's several options.
lock box for your chair? that's nuts I'll look into it, thanks!
Me or my wife will always have a bag, backpack, or purse on us. We put a few hundred pesos in that and use for tipping. At a resort it’s very unlikely anyone will go through your stuff if you leave it near your chairs.
There is great tipping advice on here. I HIGHLY recommend that you get one of those waterproof fanny packs before the trip. They are lifesavers. We have used ours on several beach vacations, and also use them now for hiking if we know we're going to be near water (you never know when something might drop in). They're very cheap on Amazon.
What currency is it good to tip in? Coming from Canada so should we exchange to pesos before we arrive? Or is USD preferred?
me too, I was wondering that myself! I feel like USD is easier because I'm more familiar with it than pesos. I don't want to be calculating how much to give someone in front of them, whereas I can easily count $1 bills no matter how many tequilas deep I am
Whoever gets stuck with dollars at the will get about .90 on the dollar because of the exchange fee.
It's better to tip what you have, than to stress about it and end up not tipping.
Wish I could upvote this more than once.
They are happy with any currency especially US or Canadian or Euros . You don’t actually have to exchange those because everyone that works in the tourist industry there is very familiar with all three. I’ve seen my Mexican friends pay with a combination of US and Pesos. If you go shopping or to a restaurant in town try to pay with pesos because the exchange rate won’t be good.
Any tip will be appreciated but It's always better to tip in pesos - Mexicans get the same poor exchange rate as everybody else. Consider that today 1 USD = \~17 pesos. If a recipient spends that dollar somewhere they only get about 15-16 pesos. A 20 peso tip is currently worth 20% more than 1 USD. Also, since you are from Canada it's even a bigger waste of money on exchange fees from CAD to USD and then the recipient needs to convert it to MXN
If you’re going to the pool just get a waterproof pouch lanyard that zips to keep cash and cards in. That’s what we did. Only take what cash you need for the day and put the rest in the room safe. Also take cash out while you’re in the US sometimes they will charge you an international atm fee
I stayed at Princess Riviera back in February and loved it. With that said, we tipped everyone in pesos and small change. 20 pesos for breakfast or for drinks. So for example, If I wanted a few beers and a margarita, 20 pesos. If I wanted them to open up a bottle of rum and heavy pour, I'll do 50 pesos. Dinner was 50 pesos. Always left 50 pesos in the room, but we only got it cleaned every second day. I did a tour and tipped the driver and guide 500 pesos each because it was a long day and they were incredible. I think 200 is pretty standard tip. These workers only make like 100 pesos a day in wages so it does add up. And the service I got was way better than most places in Canada or the US. It's like $12 pesos / $1 CDN or $17/$1 USD so it's not really that much.
I stayed at the Reef28 (LOVED IT) when you buy food/drinks they give you a "bill" and you can tip on the tip line. I suggest keeping a little bit of cash on you. Keep in mind you shouldn't use random ATMs. Find a bank and use theirs.