As a customer, I think your pay as a guide is an issue between you and your employer, not you and your employer's client. As for gratuities everything is relative. For instance, I have done midwest archery hunts in the rut where the guide's sole responsibility for the hunter is to drive them out in the morning to a tree stand and pick them up at dark, plus care for animals harvested if any. I know they would move stands at night and there might have been other behind the scene duties, but hunters and gear are crammed into pickups to and from stands and stacked up like cord wood in the bunk house shouldn't be expected to pay a hefty percentage for that service. By the way, sitting in a tree for 12 hours a day all week can be incredibly difficult.

I hunted with an HF trophy outfitter last year that I was very happy with, but the guide indicated that the ranch manager was going to impose a mandatory 10% tip on all of their hunts. They are already expensive in the industry, and do provide a nice hunt, but I took my money else where this year.

Don't like added cost to a hunter... were i use to work they had a choice to tip or not depending on how they were treated... usually a bill was the norm and $50 would be the lowest... Except for some of the most wealthy people I took hunting... they would tip about $5

I have only been on a handful of paid hunts. They were all spike/doe meat hunts. We paid the price that was quoted and nothing more. We returned several years in a row and the owner was always happy to see us back.

A tip may be appropriate if your guide worked hard went above and beyond the call of duty etc., but putting gas in your truck driving the hunter to stands and scouting costs should not be what tips are intended for. If you quit scouting your hunter success and rating s will likely fall and so will your prices and repeat customers. Build all your costs into your fees, if the customers want to tip great, it they don't then they are getting what they paid for and you are still being paid for what you did.

I never expect a tip. I have had to fire young guides before that I was paying $100 per day and a nice commision of the total take. He also lived locally less than 15 miles away. So it wasn't a far drive for them in the slightest. They got fired because of complaining about a tip of $150 on a $2200 hunt. That guided decided to talk to the customer about it and that was the wrong thing to do. I was paying him well enough.

Well the quality of the hunt certainly has to do with the tip. Naturally you expect better service at landrys than at luby's.

$150 tip for a day hunt or even a weekend hunt with $100 per day added on is good money... he deserved to be fired.

Thank you Curtis!!! I'm sure it's challenging to hire, train and keep quality personnel in your industry, and having to make those tough decisions can't be fun. Also, it sounds like your pay scale is ideal for this industry and what I would want if I worked as a guide, plus a percentage for future booked hunts that the guide books. I have been amazed that outfitters don't offer their guides incentives for that, or that the outfitter himself doesn't offer a discount or something if the client comes back or refers other clients.

I don't understand this post. It appears from this and your previous post you advocate a tip in advance or at least discuss it in advance so the guide can decide how to treat the hunter-which would be a MAJOR turn off to me as a client. Very low-rent IMO and any "guide" should have more pride in his job than that.

RussG and I have almost identical thoughts. I simply can't see giving a "guide" whose biggest job is taking me to a good spot and dressing a whitetail the same %/monetary tip as a wilderness guide who packs gear,sets up camp,makes the calls on stalks, and basically spends every waking hour with you on a multiple day wilderness hunt. Even though the monetary outlay for the hunt may be the same. That is ridiculous to me.

don't expect anything extra other than the bare minimum then [/quote]

Imagine reading an advertisement for a hunt: lodging, meals, animal care and guide are included but if you don't tip don't expect anything more than the bare minimum. We pay our help, but we don't pay them much, we expect for you to pick up the difference. Thanks in advance for your understanding that we don't value your business.[/quote]

Well, I'm being honest. On a lot of ranches their is a $125/day additional fee if you want a 1 on 1 guide. this is their tip.

Would it be easier to just tack on a $125/day fee on top of the hunt cost? [/quote]

As a customer, I think your pay as a guide is an issue between you and your employer, not you and your employer's client. As for gratuities everything is relative. For instance, I have done midwest archery hunts in the rut where the guide's sole responsibility for the hunter is to drive them out in the morning to a tree stand and pick them up at dark, plus care for animals harvested if any. I know they would move stands at night and there might have been other behind the scene duties, but hunters and gear are crammed into pickups to and from stands and stacked up like cord wood in the bunk house shouldn't be expected to pay a hefty percentage for that service. By the way, sitting in a tree for 12 hours a day all week can be incredibly difficult.

I hunted with an HF trophy outfitter last year that I was very happy with, but the guide indicated that the ranch manager was going to impose a mandatory 10% tip on all of their hunts. They are already expensive in the industry, and do provide a nice hunt, but I took my money else where this year. [/quote]

I have to agree with RussG in that I believe what an outfitter pays his guides is his and their business. What I pay for a tip to a guide is my business and the guide should not bring that up in any discussion during the hunt. It is simply unprofessional as far as I am concerned. And the amount of the tip is not only discretionary but it obviously is dependent on the quality of service and the cost of the hunt. To automatically assume a 10-20% tip on a $10,000 hunt is unrealistic in my opinion. Some high dollar hunts on HF ranches are done rather easily and quickly, some may take days. Even then a $1,000 to $2,000 tip is a ton of money for a hunt that I may have saved up for a long time to take.
I have actually tipped more on hunts where I was unsuccessful than on HF successful hunts because the guide and outfitter spent days with me hunting all day long to try and find a quality animal but it just didn't happen.
The tipping questions seems to come up way more that it ever should and any reasonable tip should be appreciated.

There is one thing I've noticed that I really take exception too. Many places that book these canned expensive hunts send pictures of animals they don't have and then the frustrated hunter ends up shooting culls or sub standard specimens. Most times fair chase guides like on West Texas Pronghorns end up working their rears off and tearing up there vehicles. So if no tip they humped 10 days of their lives and tore up a vehicle to get a hunter a Trophy and a land owner a fee. I agree there are poor guides, just like there are unethical land owner outfitters and the same goes for some hunters. I had some lease a place pay half with a bad check and steal everything not tied down plus shoot out the property before season. Enough blame for poor ethics on every side.

From my count I have hunted nearly 20 different ranches for Deer, Elk, Hogs, and Exotics. On these trips I have spent from $300 to $3500, on just the hunt itself. Tips have ranged from $30 to $250. However I did not based the tips on how much the hunts cost. To me cost for a guide to drive to a property that we are hunting, hanging stands in August, scouting in advance, ect. is not a guide tip issue, but a hunt cost issue. Those things have to do with the hunt purchased not my individual experience, (albeit I may benefit from those things.)

To me a guide tip is what I feel a guide deserves for the individual effort I received on a hunt. For instance I have felt way more need to tip for a guide extra that has to track and blood trail longer for an animal shot, than for a deer shot in a field that drops and we just drive up and load it in the truck. Also if skinning, caping, quartering by a guide voluntarily with no request for extra goes a long way with me, and will be reflected in the tip. While I don't need someone to do that for me, the thought behind it is what counts.

On another not. I absolutely hate the nickel and dime stuff what ever that may be. If you are going to charge me "x" amount for a hunt, then either let that cover the hunt or explain to me in detail what the extra cost will be before I ever send you a check.

I recently did a trip at a ranch and had a group of 8 guys go with me. The total group spent roughly $20,000 total on the hunt. The trip was great and we all took great animals, but one thing that really rubbed me the wrong way was a sign in the kitchen that said "canned soft drinks $1 each" with a money bucket beside it. They did have water and sweet tea to drink, but for me something as simple as that can be a make or break my impression of a hunt because it shows that a hunting operation may be more about making a buck rather than the experience of the hunter.

Thats why I pay a guide that works for a commision. He or she will work even harder to get the client their game and possibly sell one or two more while they are there.

Any guide that ask or talks about tips shouldn't get anything! Tips are like bonuses you may or may not get one. Just depends on how well we do as a guide.

I have to agree with RussG in that I believe what an outfitter pays his guides is his and their business. What I pay for a tip to a guide is my business and the guide should not bring that up in any discussion during the hunt. It is simply unprofessional as far as I am concerned. And the amount of the tip is not only discretionary but it obviously is dependent on the quality of service and the cost of the hunt. To automatically assume a 10-20% tip on a $10,000 hunt is unrealistic in my opinion. Some high dollar hunts on HF ranches are done rather easily and quickly, some may take days. Even then a $1,000 to $2,000 tip is a ton of money for a hunt that I may have saved up for a long time to take.
I have actually tipped more on hunts where I was unsuccessful than on HF successful hunts because the guide and outfitter spent days with me hunting all day long to try and find a quality animal but it just didn't happen.
The tipping questions seems to come up way more that it ever should and any reasonable tip should be appreciated. [/quote]

Thanks!!! I can already imagine how you would feel if you had sold a custom flooring job to a client and your hired installer got out there to install the flooring and said to your customer that if he gets a big tip he can make it look better, and if he's not tipped at all he's only going to do the bare minimum. You're Fired!!!!

If I were an outfitter, and I've thought about it, I would make this company policy and make sure every client is aware of the policy: Gratuities to our staff, large or small, are always appreciated but never expected. We are confident that any gratuity received is due to your complete satisfaction with our exemplary service, and become a source of pride for our staff. If any of our staff solicit a gratuity or initiate conversation about "tips" please advise the management as soon as possible.

If there is a quality ranch out there that would like a ranch manager that is interested in building and managing a quality business for you send me message. I see huge potential in this industry.

I'm sorry but when your ad includes lodging and meals and then you expect me to tip the maid service and the kitchen staff.....something is wrong. If I sold a customer a product and then suggested to him that he needed to tip my delivery driver I would lose customers left and right.

I've never been on a "guided" hunt so what do I know...
IF I went in a first class high $ hunt and was pampered I would expect to have to tip (quite a bit).

The kind of hunt I would most likely be on would be where they just drop you off and come pick you up. I probably wouldn't tip.

In either case it would depend on the type of service and value I got. If a guy worked hard to put me on game, or had to track or help clean game sure I'd tip!
It really all depends on how happy I was with the hunt when I got ready to leave.

I totally agree!!lol

Who on here has worked as a guide? For a real operation.

Show of hands.

Define real operation.

Here

I only work for fake operations.

No not was I was saying at all. You get rewarded based on performance.

You don't perform you don't get tipped.

I've worked for one ranch where I got paid no daily fee. Just tipped.

So I had to earn my money

That's so weird because I only hunt fake operations for fake game.

I know most guys going on plains game hunts in Africa are leaving 10% tips which to me is pretty fair considering the amount you will spend there

If you worked for a ranch that you were only compensated tips from the hunters than you really only worked for the hunters. That's a horrible deal for you and not a very good deal for the hunter, especially if the ranch outfitter is selling the hunt as guide included which all I have been on do.