Topic: P&O Cruises Introduce Auto-Tipping Onboard

Official Press Release



From April 2012 (effective cruises below), P&O Cruises will be introducing a new scheme designed to remove the confusion over the age-old question of tipping.

We’ve always been a company both proud of and dedicated to providing our passengers with excellent customer service. Our reputation demands it and we are all passionate about delivering it. Our crew work extremely hard to deliver the high level of service that our passengers rightly expect of us. More recently many of our passengers have told us that tipping on board can be a source of confusion and embarrassment, not least for those who are trying cruising for the first time. And for our crew, this confusion can lead to some very significant variations in their take home earnings.. We have looked at how we can make it easier and fairer for both our passengers and crew and, as a result, have developed a new arrangement for tipping that will apply to all P&O Cruises holidays sailing from April 2012 onwards.

The recommended daily rate of £3.10 will now automatically be added to a passenger’s on board account on a daily basis. This will be shared out among restaurant and accommodation staff.

The new scheme is effective from the below cruises

Ventura - N206 - 23 March 2012
Oceana - E204 - 21 March 2012
Azura - A207 - 30 March 2012
Adonia - D203 - 9 April 2012
Oriana - X202 - 10 April 2012
Aurora - R202 - 12 April 2012
Arcadia - J202 - 27 April 2012

How do you feel about this change in the tipping policy?

This is what we paid on our Ventura cruise last Easter.

What confusion? I'm not happy, what next? Why not pay a decent wage and do away with the need for "automatic tipping"
I tip, but who tips me? Guess what, don't hold your breath!

I think I prefer the envelopes - we like to thank people personally and give them their tip. Yes - we can still say thank you at the end of the cruise but it will feel strange without giving the staff anything. Would a "thank you" card be appropriate?

I suppose it had to come !!!

Just to make it more exciting, have they made it mandatory and non negotiable?............Wilba

QUOTE:

Just to make it more exciting, have they made it mandatory and non negotiable?............Wilba

Apparently not. It can be adjusted by visiting reception
Brian

Much fairer.

Read what they say:

This amounts to the biggest load of rubbish and guff put out yet.

“recently many of our passengers have told us that tipping on board can be a source of confusion and embarrassment”"
Only of your own making because you haven’t bothered to think what new passengers understand about tipping and their way of dealing with it.

“our crew, this confusion can lead to some very significant variations in their take home earnings”
Because passengers aren’t giving tips like they used to and you rely on their wage being paid by passengers .

“We have looked at how we can make it easier and fairer for both our passengers and crew”
We still want you to pay their wages with tips because it saves us so much money and inconvenience when your do.

“(we) have developed a new arrangement for tipping that will apply to all P&O Cruises”
We are not going to grasp the nettle and instead we are going to inveigle you into paying more tips than you do at the moment. We are not going to end the tipping system or even add tips into the headline price….same old same old which is no real answer. The correct and fair way will come but not until we have tried every way to coerce you into paying by bringing tips with you to keep the advertised cruise price low and make the crew stand the loss whenever we do not have a full ship.

“The recommended daily rate of £3.10 will now automatically be added to a passenger’s on board account on a daily basis.”
What we are going to do is to add a “Service Charge” under the guise of tips and we are going to make it look as though it is obligatory as all Service Charges are.

As I said what a load of guff. Be a man P & O and start a new fashion don’t whimper and simper around with unfair faulty ideas. Bite the bullet……Neil

Rock on Carol Marlow

Now all we need is the agent to charge tips at point of sale