HOW DOES TIPPING WORK IN SWITZERLAND?
Tipping in Basel is confusing . You’ll get all kinds of feedback from all kinds of people. In the end you need to do what feels right to you, but here’s what we know: the 20% American tip is not required. Swiss waiters receive much better base pay than Americans. In fact many Swiss will tell you not to tip – it is included. However, others indicate that it is polite to round up the bill (eg, if it is 167 CHF, leave 170 CHF) while still others suggest that the best policy is to leave enough for the person to buy a beer – around 5 or 6 CHF. This is the tipping policy to which we subscribe at the moment and I think it is a nice happy medium. We still don’t have a definitive answer on what to tip at very high-end restaurants, so anyone who has info on this, please let us know. Tipping in other service industries such as hair salons is also much more modest. I actually had a hairdresser refuse a 20CHF tip (I had a cut and full highlights so the bill was over 100CHF), saying that “if a custo
