Name:   John C - Subject:   Marina Tipping Question Date:   6/2/2017 2:13:32 PM

Excellent question! I would be really interested to see what everyone says on this. I think you have 2 tippable scenarios at a marina: 1) getting gas 2) getting your boat out if you dry store it at the marina

My thoughts on this are pretty biased because I make my living at the lake selling real estate. To some degree I really need the help of folks at the marina to make this go smoothly. Therefore, when I tip, I do it somewhat to try and ensure some attention not for this trip, but for the next trip. Even if the current trip is casual, I might have real estate clients next time and really need some snappy service.

That being said:

1. Gas- when I fill up I usually tip $5. I'm usually getting about $30 or so worth of gas so to me it's worth that.

2. Putting the boat in- my marina has changed up the way they do this recently. They used to have one young man that put the boat in and he would take my cover off, set up my bimini, etc. It was nice. I would tip him $5. Every now and then I would tip the forklift guy $20. Last summer it got kinda sloppy (messed up my boat, late putting it in, etc) so I quit tipping on that. Now they get my boat in earlier and I am really not sure who is doing the boat work so I am trying to figure out this summer. 

The other day I gave a buddy a hard time about tipping $1 on a $20 gas bill, but in general I think that any amount is appreciated because I figure 80% don't tip at all. Just hazarding a guess.