tipping maitre'd

FutureMrsWolf

Hi everyone...my maitre'd told us that it is customary for his tip to be 10% of the bill. The gratuity and service charge is already included for all other staff. With this suggested tipping amount, it means that we would be tipping him about $1,500!! That seems like an awful lot to me but maybe I'm wrong. In addition, I also have a DOC who will really be doing a lot of the things that he would have done. What does everyone else think is an appropriate tip amount and what have you done? We are having 120 guests. TIA!

cher1980

in our contract we had to leave at least $700 for the maitre d and waiters/bartenders - as they all split this...we ended up giving $850 and our bill was about $15K - and thats w/ 120 guests...thats crazy....if its customary, and not mandatory - you do not have to give that much - esp if you have a DOC

neilly18

10% seems high.  I know when we were looking most places had a set maitre'd fee, but I want to say it was in th 1-2% range.  No matter how great he is 1500 seems really really absurd.  The place we booked does not have a mandatory Maitre'D fee (I believe because the owner is the Maitre'D), but we will probably give something since he is so great but more along the lines of the 1-2%

cvl105

Our suggested maitre'd tip is 3%....10% seems way too high.

alliecarrie41

our contract called for typical tax & tip per person, and then the maitre'd was not mentioned.  we tipped her $3pp. 

Mye

yeah the Atrium told me I need to tip the maitre'd 3% of my total bill, but they told me this days before the wedding along with the fact I have to pay tax on the tip portion of my bill, i was pissed, i just put like $300 in an envelope for the maitre'd and that was it

justkris10

I was not told about tipping the maitre'd at all...I read about it on here and then questioned the banquet manager and he said, yeah $300 is a base number to go off - wtf? does that mean.  Anywho...we had a planner/DOC who did EVERYTHING day of - the maitre'd was great and he did serve us the whole night but that was it, he was like a very well trained waiter more or less so we gave him $200maybe I'm cheap?

justkris10

Adding: $1500 is INSANE I would never in a million years pay that under any circumstances I don't care how good you are that's ridic and 10% seems very high as pp said 1-3% is the norm I've read about on here

MOBtoLMK

Our contract called for a 4%-7% Maitre d' tip. It was explained to us that this covered the "higher level" employees - Maitre d', captains, sous chefs. We went with the 4% (which we were told was sufficient), but also tipped the DOC (who might have been the Maitre d', I really don't know for sure since he's the man who did all the wedding planning with us up to the event itself) on top of that. Funny thing is that the bride & groom tried to tip him & he wouldn't accept it, but he did accept ours.

FutureMrsWolf

Thanks everyone for your input! I didn't want to short change anyone but it did seem a little high to me. Now I have a better idea of what I will give. Thanks!

erikag23

there was nothing stated in our contract for a secific amount or percentage. we gave her $250.00 and called it day. seems low but she was also in the pool for the 20% gratutity we had to pay per person, so we felt that was fair.

neilly18

Isn't it funny that we live in the area of the country where $250.00 as a tip seems low?  That cracks me up (or makes me cry!)  Erika that seems perfectly acceptable to me.