HMR: Tipping a Sandals Butler?

Good question! I was also wondering about tipping staff at Sandals.

I know most all inclusives don't allow tipping. But I've never had Butler service, so I don't know.

*bump* Travel agents? anybody?

We had a concierge/butler at the villa and we tipped him, and also the cleaning crew at the end of our stay. Even if it had been all inclusive, we would have still tipped him.

As far as I'm concerned, you should ALWAYS tip hotel/resort staff. The general rule of thumb at a moderate-to-nice place is $5 per night that you stay there; more if you make a particularly impressive mess.

It's also best to leave tips daily rather than at the end, since different people may be on duty different days.

Thanks ladies!

Not to hijack, but what about then you eat at the resturants? Are we supposed to tip $5 per meal? that's at least $15/day x 7 days equals $105

I don't know about Sandals, but when we went to AI resort in Mexico, we brought along $10-15 tip/day, and even though the helping staff did not expect tips, they were happy to get them and I saw most others tipped as well. And they definitely deserved all the tips we gave them. Although we didn't have a butler (ooh fancy!), we did have a cleaning person, mini fridge restock person, afternoon turndown service guy, so we left tips for them, and would tip the people serving our food, and bartenders who prepared our drinks.

Ok, yeah that makes sense.

@ Jass So, you split the 10-15/day to tip everyone?

Michelle, where are you staying? My sister and I last summer when to an all inclusive in the DR and we did tip what we could; I wish we could have more..we learned when we were there that a lot of the staff there work like 12 (or more) hour days and get like 3 dollars an hour; it did say tips were included, but really i wonder if the person helping you even gets any of that, probably not. At least the mindset for workers there is that their service is like an extension of themselves so they put everything into making you feel welcome and hopefully getting something in return to provide for their families. however other places may be a bit different, but that was just my experience :-)

We're looking at the Sandals Royal Plantation in Jamaica. It's super nice!

OK, so we'll plan on $1-$5 each time he does something. These butlers setup dinner for you on your patio, reserve beach chairs, make dinner reservations, iron your clothes, bring your drinks to you. They even give you a cell phone to contact him.

Yes tip all those that provided service to you regardless if it's inclusive or not. Tipping also in a way ensure greater n more personalized service. We just spent our hm in Cancun at one of the top AI resorts and we tipped our waiters n waitresses well--our drinks was never empty and we always get their attention each n every time. Our room is always spotless with aromatherapy scented oil -- tipping and being polite with your requests gets you more than you could even pay for.

@FMS- Yup we split the tips among people who helped us out the most, and trust me if the service is as good as what we had, you will want to tip and more. Most of these people don't make much money, so they welcome tips.

@Michelle- Wow iron your clothes too? That's very cool! The place we stayed at had people bring us breakfast/dinner to the room if we requested, and if we requested it on the balcony they would set it up out there.

@ Michelle, I really wanted to do a butler suite also. But it was an extra thousand dollars.

Barefoot, which Sandals are you looking at?

We didn't tip at dinner or actually at all because we tried several times and they told us they were not allowed to accept tips at all. SO if you do it you may have to be a bit sneaky.

FYI: at the Sandals resorts, tipping is not 'allowed'. when I went with my family & when my parents go away, ya do it secretively ;-)

So people have already answered your question but I'd like to point out that for some odd reason I read "Tripping a Sandals Butler?" hahahahaha I was hoping for a hilarious story ;-)

Well binx that's why I was asking. But I think the Butler thing is OK to tip. It's a service not as all of the resorts. The travel agent said it was up to us if we wanted to. Also, for those of you wondering if travel agents save or not, the answer is yes! She's saving us $700 off the price if you book through the hotel's website.