Why are Las Vegas cabbies so weird about tips?

[shaniac]

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Shaniac,

You're already paying her $80, the tip is whatever you wish to pay over that. I'm assuming your response, especially given your other responses in this thread, mean that you're tipping $30 or so?

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It totally depends on what they do for me...and I really haven't had too many experiences in strip clubs, but the ones that involved 4 dances usually came with some extra service (thus demanding a bigger % tip). In Amsterdam one time, this super-hot prostitute gave me an uncharacteristically good lay and genuinely good time, and when I went to tip her 50-gilders afterwards, I only had 100-notes, and she just sort of coyly looked at me and said, "How about the whole hundred?" She seemed so sweet and reasonable, I didn't think twice!

Everyone,

What I think is most fascinating about this thread and about tip-nitiness in general is that people are often willing to blow their budget for extravagant items or experiences (like nice meals and expensive bars, nice clothes, being in a place like Vegas to begin with), yet form intricate philosophies over tipping, designed to clip costs at $1-5 per adventure. No compute.

Also, Vegas is a place designed to loosen you up with money. Most of the people using Vegas cabs and services are there for 3 days a year, or whatever, and they come to splurge. They don't think twice about the extra 10% they're tipping the driver they would have saved back home. So, cabbies don't care as much about offending full-time professional gamblers, who spend 3-12 mos. in Vegas, with aggressive tip-acquiring procedures. Also, we're talking about a town where doorman/bouncers routinely get tipped hundreds, sometimes thousands, of dollars just for taking customers to their table at nightclubs. I don't mind if the cabbies make an extra buck or four off me.

[shaniac]

El Diablo,

I didn't realize that was how the protocol for tipping at strip clubs evolved. For the recollection of my entire life at strip clubs (dating back a mere 10 years, and sparse, but still), tipping has always been part of the process. I'd feel weird if I didn't offer a little extra to a chick who spent 5-30 minutes grinding away at me.

[offTopic]

PITTM:

Last time my wife and I were at Forbes Mill, the owner came out, dropped by the table on my immediate right chatted them up for a minute or so, skipped us, and dropped in on the two tables to my immediate left. Nice!

Masked Man:

- $5/drink?!
- What is this "coloring up" you speak of?

[Starfish]

I'll start tipping cabbies the minute they'll start tipping their customers. Before that I can go as far as giving a free lecture about connection of tipping culture and corruption in societies.

[prohornblower]

Yeah but you go to Vegas for all that stuff (gambling, strip clubs, etc.) So you pay a premium for it because some states don't even offer that stuff.

You don't go to Vegas to ride in a cab, you could do that back home. I don't see why you'd pay a premium to ride in a Vegas cab, as opposed to a NYC cab or whatever.

[Pauly3511]

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Screw them beggars they get what they get them scummy mooks, here's an idea if you dont like it go to school.

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[PITTM]

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- What is this "coloring up" you speak of?

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if you have a stack of 1 dollar chips like el diablo probably does. you dont want to carry them around. So you give them your 25 1 dollar chips for 1 25 dollar chip. holla.

[lapoker17]

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Almost every dealer prefers tips as bets - chance for double the tip!

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god they're so dumb.

[shaniac]

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Yeah but you go to Vegas for all that stuff (gambling, strip clubs, etc.) So you pay a premium for it because some states don't even offer that stuff.

You don't go to Vegas to ride in a cab, you could do that back home. I don't see why you'd pay a premium to ride in a Vegas cab, as opposed to a NYC cab or whatever.

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You are paying a premium, but it's just because you're just at the mercy of the Vegas taxi-driver economy. If they were unable to extort these high-priced tips that everyone is so up-in-arms about, the price on the meter would rise.

Also, how about this scenario. There's 8 minutes left in dinner break at the Rio, and you're stuck behind a long taxi line at the Bellagio. You decide to take a $40 town car (usually a Mercedes at Bellagio, actually), even though it's only a 4 minute ride, because getting back to the tournament is important. What do y'all tip on that $40 ride?

[Emperor]

I landed in Vegas at 11:45pm on New Years Eve. Hopped in a cab. Very nice cabbie asks where to, and I reply the monte carlo. He floors it and asks if I have seen the fireworks on new years before, I reply that I hadn't. He says, "well traffic is crazy, you are going to miss them if I take you all the way around to the MC, how about I drop you across the street at Paris?" I said, "that'd be great!"

This extra thought got this guy a larger than normal tip.


Another time I hopped in a cab at the SLO airport at midnight. I needed a ride to Arroyo Grande, about 20 miles. He explained he wasn't supposed to be taking fares as he was supposed to be picking his boss up at the airport. I asked if there were anymore cabs assigned to the airport, he replied that there weren't. He said his boss would have to wait, and took me home at about 100mph on backroads playing the local metal station loudly. He got a nice tip.

If cabbies are going to angleshoot for a larger tip, at least tell a good story. Comedic Cab drivers are the best.