Hello and welcome to today's independent travel podcast with me Simon Calder.

I have just had one, no, I was going to say one of the worst meals of the year, definitely

the worst meal of the year out at quite a fancy restaurant. I was only after a

starter and a salad and it took just a couple of minutes short of an hour between my

ordering it and it being delivered. Now the food itself was great actually. Seared tuna beautifully served

with a very nice leaf salad. So the food was great but honestly if you think well this

take 15 minutes or so and then it takes an hour you are not in the best of humours when it comes to eating the food

but what happened next was what really surprised me i um uh noted on the bill that it said 15% service charge

so i thought well not i'm not gonna nickel and dine them and say I'm not paying that

service charge, it was rubbish, but I will just pay and go. Anyway, the guy said, as I had my credit

card, do you want to put a tip on that? And I said, well, the service charge is already

included. I didn't go on to say, and I will do my absolute best never to darken your door again,

pal. This is just terrible. But it did make me think that their tipping is getting out of control

and it's incumbent on you, dear listener, dear traveller,

to do something about it and I do. Okay, so I think tipping is a really good idea. I've got a

little Thai place near my house I go there, but three times a week it's great they're

always nice to me their prices are low so I will always tip maybe 20% but sometimes I

won't tip at all if I haven't got any change and they don't mind that at all.

They just, it's just a really nice thing where they know that I respect their great food and terrific service.

In other settings though, it's not like that. Okay, so the other aspect is that British people are completely useless, I'm afraid,

at knowing what to tip. There's chronic overtipping and chronic under tipping in different settings.

So let's just work out where we are. Britain, I think pretty much since COVID, 12 and 1 half percent is going on your bill and that's

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