Mumbai: When it comes to tipping, the intent in India has declined by 10 per cent this year with Delhi emerging as the least generous in shelling out additional amount for services, whereas Mumbai has emerged the most giving, says a survey.
However, it found that Indians tip more when vacationing abroad and the intent goes up for 30.7 per cent respondents when on foreign holidays.
“India’s tipping intent has fallen by a sharp margin of 10 per cent from 97 per cent in 2013, to 87 per cent in 2014,” TripAdv-isor India country manager Nikhil Ganju said.
“This is probably in line with the increasing trend of service charges being included in the bill, whi-ch is supported by survey data indicating that alm-ost 60 per cent of respondents would not tip if a service charge was incl-uded in the bill,” he said.
The TripAdvisor survey took inputs from more than 2,000 respondents from India on tipping habits, preferences and patterns when holidaying in India and abroad.
Helpfulness of service seems to be the key driver of tipping with the most respondents indicating that this factor motivates them to tip, both at hotels and restaurants.
When it comes to tipping intent across key cities, the survey revealed that Delhi is the poorest with tipping and only 35 per cent respondents in capital city always tip.
“Delhi came out as the most tight-fisted with 38 per cent respondents saying they only tip if the staff goes an extra mile,” the report found.
The survey revealed that this year Mumbai emerged as the most generous tipping city with 46 per cent of respondents saying they “always” tip on holiday leaving last year’s most generous city Chennai (41 per cent) behind.
