Tipping in Myanmar

Question

Tipping in Myanmar

Tipping can be an emotive and very personal thing and attitudes and amounts vary considerably between countries, and even nationalities.

This thread is specifically about the expectations of the Burmese who work in the tourism and service industries. I have consolidated information  from hotel staff and management, drivers, travel Agents,restaurants and guides.

These figures are based on tourist and business hotels and not guest houses.

Also do note that many of the better hotels, and certainly the Irrawaddy cruise ships, now have a note on your arrival suggesting that tips be left in an envelope in the Gratuities Box at reception with the option of mentioning staff who have given exceptional service.

Group tours may include all tips, but the guide may expect extra, but certainly not on the scale that he would receive from a private tour. His tip, and that of the coach drivers would normally be by way of a group envelope system.

In the main tourist areas the tip expectations of the local Burmese is as follows but please do note that  in some rural areas where tipping is not the norm, a generous tip could cause some embarrassment to the recipient.

Restaurants and bars-small change from the bill up to 1000kyat

Room cleaning/housekeeping- $1 per room per night

Hotel porter-1000kyat on luggage delivery, and on departure.

Official airport porter-1000kyat

Driver per day -$5 or if exceptional $10

Private Guide-$10 or $20 if exceptional, per day

It is not normal, or expected, for taxi drivers to be tipped.

My second post gives some background to Burmese values and how attitudes to tipping does vary considerably from country to country.

SS

Silverswimmer · Accepted Answer

When looking at the tipping expectations of the Burmese it is useful to measure the amounts against their earnings. There is a deep concern that tipping, of amounts that may seem normal or even modest to some nationalities, could be excessive. This could distort the labour market whereby those in the tourists industry earn more than qualified professionals such as doctors and teachers. This has happened to other countries with developing tourism with doctors and lecturers becoming guides leaving a severe shortage of qualified staff, to the detriment of health and education in those countries.

Spout over, now to the figures-

Weekly earnings in Myanmar.

High School Teacher $100, Private School Teacher $250

Doctor in State Hospital $150-200

Office worker from $80

Room Cleaner (house keeping) $25 Bell Boy/Porter $30

Guide $50 a day ,maybe works 2 days, maybe 6 days-very seasonal.

Driver $15-20 a day

A just a few final comparisons of tipping standards from a recent published survey:-

RESTAURANTS

Nothing-Denmark,France,Japan,Singapore,Korea

Change-Australia,most of Europe,India,Thailand,Vietnam,Myanmar

10%-Caribbean,South America,UK,Netherlands

15%-US & Canada.

HOTEL MAIDS & PORTERS

Nothing-Denmark,Japan,Korea

50c- India,Australasia,Thailand,Vietnam,Turkey,China,S.America

$1.50 US,Canada,UK,Dubai,Caribbean,France,Germany,Singapore,US

Hope this helps,will add the thread to Top Questions,as suggested

SS

(E&OE)

Edited: 7 years ago

Dean S · Answer

This is really great, SS. Thanks so much.

elynchking · Answer

Thanks for doing this it is really helpful. The one I question is guides - I've hired 3 private guides directly (not through an agency) and their rates are all between $20 and $25 a day. You suggest tipping $20 a day which is 100% or almost - that seems excessive. I was thinking that a guide we are hiring for 3 days, for example, at $20 a day, if really good or exceptional we would tip him $20 overall. Am I wrong?

Silverswimmer · Answer

elyn The guide rate was based on top guides earning $50 a day. I do think that if you are hiring a guide at $25 a day he would expect a tip of maybe $5-7 a day, but only if he deserves it.

chris45ny · Answer

Thanks so much for going to the trouble to post this very useful info. This will be a major help for my upcoming trip. When you are visiting another country you don't want to offend by tipping too much or not enough or not at all. This is a great general guide for people to use or not.

TorretjedeCorse · Answer

Thank you, I am glad to see we tipped as expected. From the past reactions about this topic I got the impression to have done something very wrong.

MonteCD · Answer

Tip with your heart, not with your head.

MSP2012 · Answer

Hi!

This information is really helpful. I completely agree with what is said about distorting the labor market with excessive tips, and I agree we should tip according to the values of their earnings. I was in Myanmar last year, and when with a tour we agreed with giving a value in the beginning of the trip to our tour guide, and she was giving the tips in hotels and to drivers, etc. And from the happy faces you could see when we were saying goodbye and she was giving the tips they should be generous.

About excessive tips being embarrassing, it happened to me - I was with 2 more people in a small village, and we decided to choose a random restaurant almost in the end of the village, in an area with not many tourists. When we payed the bill we put around 1500 Kyats extra, and the boy (around 10-12 years old) that was serving us told us that we put too much money, the bill was less and was giving us the money thinking we were mistaken. We told him it was for him, and first he was really surprised, and he asked a colleague if he was understanding correctly, he thanked and he left. One minute later he came back and he returned half of the tip, with an expression that I read like "it is too much, we don´t want to take advantage from you". I guess that his mother or someone else told him to do that, because they are too honest and they don´t want to take advantage from other people or earn money they think they do not deserve. Later, I learnt that a worker picking chillies one entire day just earns around 1000 Kyats, and I understood better.

When tipping, sometimes I was thinking I would like them to have opportunities to study or to allow their kids to study, or to have access to medical care or better houses, because finally they can have hope in a better future, but I also feel that we, tourists, should be responsible also to help the country to develop in a sustainable way, and maybe it is better to give the money of what we consider "extra tipping" that we would be available to give to organizations in the country that help people with more needs and to give them education.

erdenkind · Answer

There is more opportunity for tourists to tip: In the Bagan area there are quite a few temples that are locked, but have a government appointed caregiver on site. They usually live in a hut next to the temple.

I always tipped them $1 when I asked them if they could unlock the temple for me. They were always eager to show off "their" temple.

Edited: 7 years ago

kevinhayden · Answer

All good advice! But when tipping the children who have left their villages and sleep in the restaurants they serve you in tip them out of site of their boss.

Tipping in Myanmar - Myanmar Forum

Tipping in Myanmar