Question for anyone who's been a server...
 

When you go to tip out your host/hostess, how much are you supposed to give them??

The reason I ask is, I recently got a job as a waitress because it was really the only thing that would fit with my upcoming school schedule and provide any sort of $$ whatsoever, but I've never done this before. The restaurant I work in does not require us to tip out the hostesses like most other places around here do, but we are strongly encouraged to (read: you'd better do it, or else you look really really cheap). However, I never know how much to give them--is there some sort of guideline to go by, as when customers tip waitresses? Another complication is that the daytime hostess is a real...well, she's not a very polite person, and I find it very hard to give her any of my hard-earned money when she's constantly hollering at me to get out of her way and shoving me when I have the nerve to be in front of her. The first shift I worked, she goes, "Where my tip?" as I was leaving. I was like, "Pardon me?" and she repeated, "Where my tip?!?!?" really loudly, and I felt like giving her a tip upside the head but I restrained myself. :mad:

So anyway, what's the protocol? Heaven forbid people think I'm cheap.

If the title at the restaurant is "host" or "hostess," then they don't get squat because its not that good of a restaurant. The only exception would be if they did something exceptional that was going to make your evening more enjoyable, then $20 would be in order.

If its a fine restaurant, then a Maitre D' gets at least $20, and $50-200 if they do something special.

I worked in restaurants all through high school/college, and there was only one that required us to tip out the hostesses. We were required to tip them 10% of what our actual tips were for the shift. So, if I had $100 in tips, I was supposed to tip the hostess $10. But, we didn't have buspersons, and that was part of the hostess' job.

If I were not required to tip the hostess, and she behaved the way she did, I would not have given her any $$$. When she asked where her tip was, I would have told her to be less rude and more helpful and maybe next time she'd get some cash.

The way it works in most places around here is all the servers are required to tip out a certain percentage to the host/hostesses at the end of the night, because they supposedly "increase our tips." But the place I work doesn't have a rule on that--it's just up to us, but I have no idea how much is good. That's why I'm asking.

It all really comes down to if they actually help you. When I worked at BW-3's last summer, the servers had to tip the bartenders for pouring/mixing drinks. There really wasn't a set amount. If you made about $50 in tips and the bartender made you a bunch of drinks, then you would probably tip him not quite ten dollars. And if you didn't make a lot of tips, then you wouldn't give him anything.

What exactly do the host/tesses do? If all they do is seat customers and hand out menus, then I wouldn't tip them very much. Hosts usually make minimmum wage already, while the wait staff gets like $3.00 an hour plus tips. In the end, I wouldn't give her more than 5-8%.

I definitely agree here.

Do all of the other hostesses demand tips the way this girl was? If your coworkers had any sense, they would probably think she was being a b*!!!! before they thought you were being cheap.

You get your tips based on your service to the customers, so for her to just think she can be a meany to you and still get a tip just for seating people at tables is pretty dumb. If she wants a tip she can maybe be a little nicer next time.

That's just my opinion though.. I wouldn't have given her anything. :D

If you're worried about what percentage to tip out in your particular restaurant, maybe you should ask your fellow servers what they normally do.

She seats customers and will sometimes bus tables, but I usually just bus my own tables so she can't lord it over on me. :p We're supposed to tip out the bartenders, too, but I don't unless my tables order drinks.

She's an older lady, which makes it worse. You'd think a 60+ year-old woman would know how to behave, but...

They just say, "It's up to you" and that's it. It's sort of something you don't talk about. *shrug*

Whoops! Wasn't paying close enough attention.

5% sounds about right for just that. (Good idea to bus your own tables!) If she bitches about how much you tip her, tell her you earn tips on your service and politeness, and if she wants tips from you, she had better treat you the same way you treat customers.

i work at a restaurant as a server and were required to tip out the hostesses 1% of our sales...doesnt matter how much we make in tips. so if youre sales were 100 dollars you give the hostess 1 dollar. we can give more if we want but not less. we dont call them hostesses though. we call them server assistants. they have to seat people, bus tables, and reset the table for us. we have to give the bartender 1% too even if we have no bar drinks for the entire shift. so you could always do it that way if you want...take a percentage of your sales. good luck with your hostess though--id probably say something to a manager about it. if shes not doing her job and you dont have to tip her out then id probably not give her anything. who cares what she thinks about you? good luck!!

I think that's a pretty good idea ^^^^

When we cashed out at my last waitressing job, it tallied up 3% of our sales and we were supposed to give that to the host/hostesses. I'd give more if they helped a lot with bussing, but less if they were double and triple seating me or not helping or being rude. The manager would ask where the money was, and I'd just tell him that they didn't deserve my hard-earned $ that night. Their attitudes usually improved after that :)

What she said! We tipped out 5% of our sales and G-d forbid if I was double or triple sat...there was hell to pay!

However if they helped me out with stuff, they KNOW I would hook them up!

At the restaurant where I serve (similar to a Friday's, but not a chain...ridiculously busy on the weekends), we dont give anything to the bartenders or hosts (bartenders make their own tips and the hostesses make a normal hourly wage, so they dont need tips). We are required, however, to give 3% of our total sales to the busboys at the end of the night, which I do gladly since those little Guatemalan dudes do basically all the table cleaning.

Some other questions for servers...

How many tables on average would you be waiting on at a time? At my restaurant, its normal on a Friday night to have 10-12 tables, all sat at the same time. Upon talking to a friend who works at Olive Garden, I found out that this isnt normal (he would have 3-4 tables) and this is why I get so ridiculously stressed out. Oh, and yesterday I was double sat with 2 parties of 15...at the EXACT same time...thats not typical of most places I dont think!

How much sidework do you have to complete?? We basically have to clean the entire kitchen and our sections which takes HOURS. OliveGardenGuy, again, said this isnt normal...hmmm..Im thinking i want more than my $2.83/hr haha.

Any thoughts?

When I worked at BW-3s, we split the place up usually by the number of servers. Most nights, there were two, and we split the place in half. Sometimes we'd split it into three. On a two person night, you're looking at probably 10 tables, three person nights were about 5-6 tables.

Re: Question for anyone who's been a server...
 

Say this: You get a tip when you learn some manners. Until then you depend on food stamps.

-Rudey

Here all you waitstaff types go..

www.shockwave.com Go for the diner dash game!

Diner Dash game

It is so cute!

When the restaurant first opened, we'd have 3 tables on busy nights. We ended up after the first year with 4-5, depending on the section. We had to roll a tray (or more) of silver (30 rolls) and complete 2 side duty tasks (ie. take out trash, refill A1 bottles and ketchup, clean the server alleys) in addition to sweeping our area and refilling our salt/pepper shakers. All that for $2.13 an hour. I quit after 2 summers. The tips were decent, but I made more doing other jobs.

Wouldn't this depend on the *type* of restaurant it is?

I've never been a server, but a lot of my sorority sisters were when I was active... some worked at Chili's (or Applebee's) where it was more of a sit-eat-go type place.. and they usually had way more tables a night than the people who were servers at places like Olive Garden which got less tables at a time or even the local country club, where they got even fewer tables, but it was b/c of the atmosphere of the restuarant (i.e. they didn't have that sit-eat-hurry-up-and-go atmosphere that gave them so much traffic that they had to have 10-15 tables at a time)

i work at a chain restaurant, and how many tables we have depends on the night. on a saturday night, we have 11 servers on and each have about a 4 or 5 table section. on a monday or tuesday night there are 5 servers on and we have way bigger sections. our hostesses are supposed to rotate sections so noone gets triple sat, but on a busy night when you only have 4 tables in your section, if they all get up at the same time and theres a wait then we sometimes get triple sat.
as for sidework...we have front of house (foh) and back of house(boh) sidework that we have to do. front of house sidework isnt bad though. we have to make sure our section is clean at the beginning of our shift and the end of our shift and that its ready for the next shift. it gets checked out by the foh closer at the end of the shift and we get signed before we can leave. boh is harder though. we have a boh sidework chart and u have to make sure that every dressing by your name is done at the beginning of your shift with a backup in case we need it. and then theres running sidework which is like stocking glasses, or getting ice, or something else like that. then at the end of the shift we have closing sidework for boh. that would be like cleaning a side station, restocking the coffee station, closing the salad bin. of course its a lot of work if there arent a lot of servers on the floor, but the less sidework you have to do, the more servers are on and the less money you make.
we have to tipout the hostesses because our chain is cheap and wont pay the hostesses minimum wage so we have to tip them out.

Seriously, you guys gotta try this game :)! I played the free trial and was thinking about you all!!!

NO way would I want to do that for a living!!! heheheheheh

Oh man, that Diner Dash game was WAY too familiar. Its my night off, what am I doing playing that?? haha

hehehe mind boggling eh?


hehehehehe

I am a restaurant manager-been in the business for 11 years. The concept I work at now, our servers have 3-5 tables on Fri/Sat/Sun depending on how good the server is. The servers tip out an automatic 1.5% to the bussers and 5% to the bartenders-if they sold any bar drinks. The bussers are responsible for bussing tables, and restocking the boh for the servers-ice, chips, salsa, cups, etc. The servers just wait their tables, roll silverware, usually 70-ish on weekends, turn in a cashout and go home. This is the first concept I have worked for where the servers didnt have running/closing duties and FOH cleaning to do. We pay people to do all that for the servers.

that game is so much fun! I want to buy it but have a hard time justifying paying money for a game that i could beat in one sitting probably

Oh my God, I wanna work for you! :p Each server where I work has her duration, which she keeps an eye on during the entire shift, then each person has specific closing duties depending on seniority. I usually end up with the sucky ones that take the longest because I'm pretty new, so I'll be happy when the girls who are training now start working so I won't have the crappy jobs anymore. Closing duties could be as simple as restocking the cracker baskets (for those "old" people) or switching out all the salad dressings, restocking them, restocking salad plates, monkey bowls, and ramekins, emptying salad into containers to put in the fridge, wiping out the entire salad station, AND wiping it down and sweeping underneath it. Oh, yeah, and restocking and putting away all the lemons, tomatoes, etc. It just depends.

As far as tables go, servers will usually have 3-4 to a section early in the night. As the floor is cut, the sections get bigger so that at some points, if you're one of the last ones out, you could have about 8-10, but no more than one or two is usually ever being used, if that.

The place where I work is pretty old-fashioned in that we don't have a computer system, so when we ring in an order we have to write out the ticket by hand and turn it in at the kitchen window. Servers are also responsible for making the salads, dishing out the soup, coleslaw, and potato salad, and getting other side dishes/dressings. No wonder I'm so tired by the end of the night. :p

I talked to some of the other girls I work with and many of them had the same problem with the day hostess as I do until they called her out on it. Apparently, she treated them the same way until they let her know it wouldn't fly, so maybe I should've let loose on her the other day when she practically threw me across the room. Today I overheard Miss Thang The Hostess talking about how she's retiring soon and I got all excited...until I heard her say that she's only retiring from her other job. :( Looks like we're stuck with her.

I am always hiring!! :D

i wanna work for you too!!! wheres your restaurant?? and im interested in opening a restaurant someday...any words of wisdom???

Well, anyone in Texas is welcome to come apply!!
As for starting your own restaurant-My boyfriend, his dad, and a partner started a restaurant from scratch in Colorodo, and it is super hard. So much investment, time, etc. But my mom's boyfriend bought a restaurant and its doing so incredibly well. What I have seen so far is starting from scratch=hard, buying=hard, but easier.

Ask the other servers what they do. If none of the servers will talk to you, 10% is standard.

The hostesses are your best ally-- get on their side. Sometimes they double as bussers-- dirty tables don't turn over unless they're cleaned!

AND-- being on the hostesses' side leverages your table sizes. If you get on their good side, you can stumble in hungover and request only 3-tops all night, or if you're pushing to make rent and you're buddy-buddy with the hostess and they know your situation they'll seat big parties in your section.

Hostesses can make a huge difference in $$
 

I used to be a hostess at 2 different restaurants and we never were tipped-out by rule. A lot of the time, servers would pay us $5 or $10 to roll their silverware if they wanted to get out early, but we never got tip share as policy.

However, the servers knew that us hostesses could realy make or break their night when it came to seating. I had waited tables before so I knew the in's and out's (I hated waiting tables!) When I worked at CPK in Atlanta, there was this one server who was a total B**** to me for no reason from day one when I started. I never double or triple sat her, helped to bus tables, etc...Finally I got sick of it and I started to totally giver her the shaft when it came to her tables. Parties of old women, teenagers, etc...I would seat them in her section. Finally she got a clue and started treating me like a real person rather than some servant girl.

I'd say that 90% of the wait staff would give us a few $$ if they had a good shift and were feeling generous.

If tipping is suggested and they help bus tables, I would say 5% is appropriate.

a good rule is about two percent.