The tip is always given to the captain. First, let's clarify a couple of things. A tip is not mandatory, it is not a salary and there are no definite rules. A tip is a customer-driven act that generally demonstrates an appreciation of the level of service.
The “rates for how much to tip a ship captain vary from 5 to 20%, but there is a certain label. The tip is always given to the captain, in cash, who then distributes the tip to the crew equally. If there is a crew, of course, the thing to keep in mind here is that charters are not like restaurants. People who work charters would compare it more to a lifestyle because their shifts tend to be longer.
In some countries, seasons are only good for 12 to 16 weeks and they have to work every day. Even when the captain owns the boat, most of the money goes to maintaining the boat and the expenses of owning a business. In general, brokers recommend tipping between 5 and 20 percent of the base rate, depending on the yacht and location. It's usually toward the lower end of that scale in the Mediterranean and higher in the U.S.
UU and the Caribbean. Checks can be difficult to cash, especially for a ship sailing in a different area, and all banks charge a fee for checks written to an overseas account. Therefore, it's much better to tip in cash or with traveler's checks. Leave it in an envelope, perhaps with a nice card or note.
Unless you have strong opinions, give only one tip, which the crew will divide between them. For huge charters, where the tip can be as high as five figures, it's obviously not practical to use cash, and tips are often paid in advance or transferred to the ship at the end of the charter. Charter boat fishing captains reported that they generally receive tips of 10 to 20% of the trip cost. However, at the end of the day, the question of how much to tip a yacht crew boils down to how the charter customer feels about the service received when the charter ends.
If you have further questions about how to tip the captain of your charter boat, consult your charter agent, who should be able to advise you. The entire yacht charter industry went through an upheaval both before and after the Great Recession that saw all kinds of opinions about how much to tip on a private yacht charter. Some charter yacht customers were tipping excessively before the recession, and then other charter yacht customers were leaving lower tips after the recession. Maggie Vale, senior charter agent at Churchill Yacht Partners, says the amount of gratuity can also vary depending on where the rental takes place.
Unless tipping is included, which is very rare and always clearly stated, charter guests are expected to tip the crew at the end of the charter. The standard tip for a yacht charter should be adjusted upwards if more than usual is being asked of the crew, for example, chartering in the midst of a crisis such as the Covid-19 pandemic. Howard, Fraser's charter agent, says the feeling guests have when a charter is going well will tell them, in their bones, the right amount of tip to offer.
