Tipping Behaviour in Hospitality Embodying a Comparative Prolegomenon of English and Italian Customers

Abstract

The paper introduces tipping in a historical perspective, explaining and contrasting tipping habits in England and elsewhere. The case for tipping or service charges is presented. A review of the literature explores those factors that have been found to influence tipping behaviour. The methodology for a comparative introductory study of English and Italian hotel restaurant customers is explained, together with the results. Due to the limited sample sizes, care should be taken when interpreting the results, as differences identified between the English and Italian samples could be abated due to the regional differences within each country. With this qualification, the paper concludes that Italians rated influencing factors more highly than did the English and found attractiveness of server, speed of service and prompt bill delivery to be particularly important. By contrast, English customers generally rated qualities of the product to be more important than the characteristics of the server as influences on tip size.