Tipping in Spain

6 anni fa

Who and how much do you have to tip? How do I leave it? Do I give it to the waiter or waitress or do I just leave it on the table?
There is one rule that never fails to apply to this issue that is "wherever you go, do as you see fit".
We all have habits about it but the careful, not all are the same. Here in Spain, unlike in the other countries, it is not compulsory, it is at the customers discretion.
A very common custom is to use the rounding especially if you are going to have a coffee, a beer or a wine, I mean, if you are going to drink a beer that cost 1,75 euros, you give the waiter or waitress two euros without waiting for tha change.
Another different thing is when you are going to eat out with a group of friends or with your partner. In these cases, apart from rounding up, the percentage of 10% is often used but with a psychological limit of about 8 or 10 euros.
What happens if you use contactless payment? In this situations if you have liked the service, the normal habit is to give the waiter or waitress a tip.
What should you bring as a host or hostess if you are invited to dinner?
In this case you must never go to empty-handed. There are two resources that never fail:
a) As Spain is a country of very good wine, you bring some bottle either red wine or white wine. I recommend you "Rioja" or "Ribera del Duero" if you bring red wine and "Albariño" if you bring white wine. You will never fail.
b) You can also take the dessert, either some cakes or chocolates.
What else should your know about what to do or not to do? The best thing is to use common sense, that is, never try to be the nicest of the group of friends at the expense of the waiter or waitress. Remember that the waiter or waitress are working and their job is not to be the target of your jokes ant the other hand, you must never talk about of subjects that you know will bother anyone of your mates.
Remember, always with good manners, common sense and dring the right stuff.