Outfitters Guides and Tip$

[Taqukaq]

Any thoughts on what a suitable tip would be for a guide on a big game hunt or a fishing trip? What should the amount of a tip be based on? How about the cooks and wranglers involved, should they also be considered?

~Jeff~

 

[Bazy]

Good question, I second the request. I have a Quebec caribou hunt coming up in September 2005 and I'm looking for the same guidelines.

I've always heard the guides tip should be 10% of the hunt's cost. As for cooks, wranglers, etc. I think they should be tipped also, however, I've never heard any guidelines for them.

I'm wondering if the 10% was predicated on a 1x1 guide situation.

 

[littlejoe]

I have some really good friends that guide in Utah and they have told me that 10% is rule of thumb from what they see. However; I went to B.C. last year on a moose/caribou hunt that was pretty expensive and the guide told me that $600 was more than fair for a moose/caribou hunt and $1,000 was more than fair for a stone sheep hunt. So that was about a 5-6% tip. I am not sure about wranglers but we paid the cook $100 each (don't know if that is high or low) and she said that was great. Tipping is really tough, there is really no way to know what is fair in my opinion. Good luck with whatever you decide.

 

[BigPig]

Ask the outfitter.

 

[slamdunk]

I may be able to help answer your questions. I guide for a very reputable outfitter in Utah, with very "high end" hunts. In eleven years of my services, i have seen all extremes as far as tips go. Once i guided a "public hunter", who tipped me $20 for a 7x7 bull, and an experience of his lifetime. He simply drew the tag, and was NOT in a good finacial position (no offense was taken, and his tears of joy was better than any amount of money!). On another hunt, i got the honors to guide an extremely wealthy man from Ireland, that owns and lives in a castle. He tipped me $150, for an outstanding hunt for him, and the biggest bull in the camp. I later found out they just don't really "tip" in that country, so he must have figured that was a big bonus for me. Then i had a hunter on a deer hunt that killed a 193 typical, gave me seven $100 bills, a Cutco knife AND a pair of Swarovski bino's! In all fairness, i'd have to say that $400 to $500 is quite common for OUR hunts. Yes, you should tip the cooks, they work the hardest of anybody, first one up, last one down, and doing dishes all day long. If you have an "assigned wrangler" strickly for packing meat, by all means tip him, he just worked his ass off (no pun intended) for you so you didn't have to pack your animal out on your back. My advise to you is, If you had a great hunt, great guide (successful or not) let him know monitarily you appreciated every effort they put forth to you. Good luck on your hunts!! Slamdunk

 

[oldoregon]

I work as a wrangler and guide, and i have gotten anywhere from $20 to $220. I feel that 100 dollars is just about right.

 

[crazyaboutcoues]

I think 10% of the hunt is reasonable, if the guide does his job.

 

[cbirkholz]

I am a fly fishing guide up in Idaho, and 10% doesn't really cut it. Sure it may be allright in a restraunt, but the stuff that we put up with all day long, we should be getting overtime for. The first thing you have to think about is gas. At least with my outfitter, that all comes out of my own pocket. There are days when I drive 200 miles round trip. Do the math, there goes your 10% tip right away. Then terminal tackle, like tippet, split shot, etc... That also comes out of our pocket. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE my Job!, but when you get a rich millionaire doctor or a professional athlete in your boat there is a lot a baby sitting going on. And believe me these guys are by far the worst tippers. And just a little advice for anyone wanting to book a guide. If you are going to book again, maybe the next year. Take care of your guide, Guaranteed he will work that much harder for you to get what you want. It is really hard to work your A!! off when you know you are not going to get rewarded. Every fishing Guide I know of works for a 100$ a day tip. If you can't afford that, believe me we understand. If you have any more questions I would love to answer them.

 

[crazyaboutcoues]

Guides are like waiters they make money from the tip not from the outfitter.

 

[Blank]

There are both extremes to consider. I've never met a guide yet that wasn't paid a smaller set fee from the outfitter, by the day or total trip which was to cover basic expenses. All of the guides "profit" does come from tips they earn.

I went on a 3 day antelope hunt where the outfitter provided a guide, but he had no truck, spotting scope, or binoculars so we used mine. Didn't go with me on the mountain, and I boned and packed my animal myself. The cook got a better tip for 6 meals, and the "guide", he got $50 total.

This past July I went to Namibia and had the most incredible lodging, meals, drinks, and service of my life. It took me 3 years to save for that trip and money was very tight. The PH got $600, the tracker/driver got $300, the house staff and skinners each got $200 per group, and my cameraman got $100. It was the best money I ever spent.

 

[woodruffhunter]

In all seriousness, this is one of the best posts/topics I have seen. I must admit, I was somewhat in the dark. Thanks for a great post.

Jason

 

[AWO]

For a 5 day hunt I pay my guides $1000 and they average $300-$500 tip per hunter (1 or 2)for that same hunt. Cooks average $50 per hunter. I hope this sheds some realistic light on the issue.

Dave

 

[Taqukaq]

Interesting responses here. Like yourself Slamdunk I spent a lot of years earning a living guiding fishermen and big game hunters. The tipping subject always seems to be a gray area when it comes to outfitting. Most like many posters in this forum seem to like to avoid the subject. There always seems to be those ?first time? clients that find themselves in awkward situation at the end of a hunt that have failed to come prepared so to speak or just didn't know guides depended on tips to make a months wages round out. I think 10% is selling it a little short for a quality hunt if the rest of the staff are not tipped. While working with the a few different lodges in Alaska 15 to 20% was requested in writing with a notice being posted inside of each guest cabin. Such as this on http://woodriverlodge.com/corporate-pop.html The trips with this lodge start at 6500.00 a week. And the guides salary?s run around 1000.00 a month. These guides pay there own way to Alaska from where ever they call home and need to make their seasons money in three to four months. A standard corporate tip is 15%. I have only seen this vary once with corporate clients and it was due to the companies owner insisting on a 20% ?Lodge Tip? The term Lodge Tip is when one tip is given to the outfitter to be equally divided between all staff. This type of gratitude system works out rather well but the clients personal guide generally still receives a ?Personal Tip? which becomes a much smaller amount such as 5 to 10 percent. Outside of Alaska I have seldom seen the ?Lodge Tip? used. In the lower forty-eight it is more of a one to one system with the guides getting most all the tips and the rest of an outfitters crew generally gets stiffed about half the time. I spent 18 years guiding and outfitting in Montana and there as a general rule 10% was on the lower end of the scale. 15% was a good target and 20% was a hot tip. Again this was when no other staff was considered by the client. The guys that came along that dropped 10% to their guide but also dropped a hundred bucks on the kitchen staff and took care of the packer or wrangler involved in his hunt as well, He still stayed high on the crews rating list of clients likely to kill a nice bull next time. So your right in there Bazy. That's also a good question as far as the trophy or 1on1 hunt goes. Where a standard hunt is two hunters to one guide the costs of the hunt with a 1on1 service usually goes a good bit higher as well. It's also not as big a job to guide one hunter so the guide gets a little relief from the work load there. I think the client should tend to tip to the higher end of the scale if he has a quality time and feels all went as well as it could. I posted this just to get the topic out there. I think you outfitters and guides should make similar posts in the other forums you visit. It truly has to suck for a guy to come out on a trip and not be aware of these additional costs when using an outfitter.

~Jeff~

 

[TCR1]

well, the guides I had on the Arkansas River must of loved me. I took my brother, father-in-law, and brother-in-law on a float trip. Two boats for four people. I caught and landed 6 fish, my brother landed one. The other two were skunked. I tied all of my own stuff and rigged my own rods. I undid knots for my brother as well. the cost of the trip totalled 400.00. Each guide got 50.00. That is a 25% tip on a half day float fishing trip with nominal success (especially since 20+ fish days/angler could be expected on the Arkansas). If I book withthem again, I bet I wouldn't get any better service, but the service was already pretty good, so it wouldn't matter.

As far as it goes, I preferred to fix my own riggings (how hard is it to tie an attractor dry then a dropper with a little beadhead) and untangle simple things. I preferred the guide concentrate on my bro since he was visiting and I was far more experienced. I think the guide picked up on this and did a great job. I Just didn't want anyone to think they were slackers.

Call the Arkangler if you ever want to do a float on the Arkansas River in Colorado

 

[slamdunk]

Aside from what i said in my earlier response, i absolutely LOVE my guiding job, and sometimes they are so perfect, i feel guilty even getting paid for all that fun and success. I'm not in this for the money, and yes, i have a regular everyday job. Guiding is just a passion of mine. I do it becouse i myself cannot afford to go on any hunts like we provide, but guiding, to me, is the next best thing. I have killed a lot of really big deer & elk, i just haven't pulled the trigger on very many. I am the one who "killed" that big buck, becouse i found him, i have watched him all summer. Now it's time to have someone hammmer his a**! It's a huge success story for me and my hunter, and everybody's happy in the end. The only difference to me is, all i have is pictures, he has the mount. But we BOTH share the same great experience, that HE provided for me. Maybe i should tip him!!
Slamdunk

 

[cbirkholz]

Well fishing is just like going on a date for the first time, you never know what you are going to get. I will typically tell my clients what kind of fish and how many to expect on an average day for that particular river. If I was to ever take I guide trip I would want to know these things. But remember Average is just Average. Anything can happen, especially for a novice. I tell my clients never expect the fish to be biting, just hope that you are lucky enough. Just as long as you as the client understand that, you will get along well with your guide. The worst thing you can say to a guide is "I want a certain amount of fish of a certain size" Way to much pressure, and makes for a unfun time if it is not happening. Anyways, I know this is nothing to do with Hunting, and I apologize. But I just thought you might want to know. If you EXPECT a 400 class bull or a 25 rainbow, you will most likely be disappointed.

 

[eelgrass]

Very interesting and educational! I've been on 5 different guided hunts over the years, and have tipped 10% most times. I was unaware that I was supposed to tip the cook. Kind of embarrasing. But at least I know now. One guide didn't get a tip for reasons I won't go into.

May God grant every client a guide like slamdunk!

Steve

 

[Taqukaq]

It's kind of a funny thing as to why this subject is not mentioned in these groups. I did a search of all the forum archives here at Monster Muleys before I made this post and I came up with nothing about tipping your guide. At one point while I was outfitting I had to deal with adding this information to my brochure. It was difficult to word. I approached it rather mildly by inserting ?Gratuity Not Included? to my price list. Then I got in trouble a few years later when I purchased a large safe. I put the safe in our Lodge in town where my clients would spend the night before we flew them into our back country camps. I let the clients store their valuables in the safe until their hunt was over.
My guides in the back country were getting stiffed on tips left and right. That's when I realized many of these guys had no idea a tip was customary until they got into camp and had a chance to mix and mingle with our more seasoned clients. So by far your not alone on not knowing. I eventually made it a group event at the start of each hunt, when I would open the safe and announced to all the clients that they would have to keep their ?tip change? with them if they intended to tip their guides. At that point I would leave the room telling them I had to go get the combination for the safe. This gave them a chance to talk with each other about what I had said and it seemed to help. I was uncomfortable with the subject myself. After all how could I be charging these guys thousands of dollars for their hunt yet not be paying my guides a worthy wage? Well we can save that thought for another topic ;-)

~Jeff~

 

[slamdunk]

LAST EDITED ON Nov-11-04 AT 08:34AM (MST)[p]Thank you for the wonderful compliment eelgrass!! It's obviously guys like you that make me love my job!! Look me up if you ever want to go on a great hunt (tips are GREATLY appreciated, but optional). Slamdunk

 

[cohntr6]

I guided some antelope hunters (2) this september (my 1st paid guiding expirence) and was tipped $360 (total) and was more than happy, honestly I would have taken 10 bucks because it was alot of fun. It was a 3 day hunt. Jeff

 

[RIMROCK338]

A while back I was invited to go on a Bear hunt with an outfitter buddy and jokingly he ask if I could cook.
Ya- did some resturant stuff as a teen.and love to dutch oven about anything! It was neat to see the clients enjoy and complament me on my cooking I was floored the last night of the hunt when they came around with wallets open handing out green backs!I had alot of fun and made some cash also.So I would
say ya tip the cook! ( I may need a job some day )