Any recommendations for leaving a reasonable tip on a liveaboad? The liveaboard costs $5,000 a passenger, and they recommend 10%. $500 for a tip seems a bit large. Anyone know whats customary?
I can only provide my American perspective. But first, if you're reading this and you a.) are not American, b.) disagree in principle with the societal convention of tipping in certain cultures, or c.) are otherwise too cheap to tip --- don't bother reading on if you're simply going to dog-pile this thread with general "I don't believe in tipping...crew should be paid...not my fault...I don't need their help...I already paid enough for the trip...no one tips me when I do my job" type of responses. There's plenty of threads elsewhere for that. When it comes to liveaboard diving: "If you can afford the trip, you can afford to tip."
To put liveaboard tipping in context, break it down this way (As my friend David -tajkd - did above): Imagine the same dive trip but not living aboard. You're dining out three meals a day for 6 days, having a drink or two at a bar every day for 6 days, you're doing a 2-tank morning charter, a 2-tank afternoon charter, and a night dive charter every day for 6 days. With even conservative tipping on boat dives and budget-minded meals, you'd be looking at handing out more than $300 in gratuities over the course of the week. Well, the crew on the liveaboard are "the servers" for all the things listed above. Some have proposed a figure of "10% of trip cost" which is a good start; perhaps going to 15% to avoid being chintzy on lower priced charters.
Now further consider that the crew also works 16hrs a day doing everything
else that needs to get done on a boat. Including tidying your cabin daily, making your bed daily, cleaning your toilet daily, etc. Good crews on good boats - luckily have never experienced a bad one - will wait on you hand and foot above water and below while you're awake. When you fall asleep they're working a few more hours to make sure tomorrow is even better. Then, when they go to bed, it's four of them in a cabin smaller than yours, under/behind/adjacent to the engine room and generators, that they live in for several months at a stretch, with effectively everything they own during that time. (Seriously, it would be illegal to house convicted felons in the same fashion. They deserve a good tip merely for mustering a smile once during any given day.) From what I understand, on the typical liveaboard the base salary they receive for that week's work is on the order of US$100-$150 a week. To be very clear...they work for tips.
For a week-long trip I budget for $300+ for a typical $3000 trip. The + usually takes the form of a couple of extra $20's slipped into the hands of a few individuals who's efforts made my trip particularly enjoyable. I also tend to leave for home shy a backup light, maybe a guide with a rusted out illegible SPG finds my backup in his bin after I've headed to the airport, and there's one fabulous guide who has an Atomic Frameless mask now instead of the genuine piece-of-**** he was diving with when I got on board.
Ultimately, the advice of "tips are at your discretion, whatever you feel is appropriate is the right amount" is the right advice. I simply tend to believe that you should give some real consideration to what's "appropriate" before deciding on the amount. I tip a lot. I've never over-tipped.