Tipping on Kilimanjaro

 

Tipping is a universal custom on Kilimanjaro and on safari and has always constituted a significant proportion of a guide or porter’s salary. It is alleged that there are even companies operating locally that do not pay their staff any salaries and that these workers rely exclusively on tips.

 

Team Kilimanjaro do not pay the very highest daily wages to our staff as this would equate to a an increase in our prices, a reduction in the number of climbers who feel able to afford to climb with us, and a diminished annual salary and volume of work enjoyed by each staff member, which is something they would not welcome. However, we believe that the daily salaries that we pay are amongst the top 10% or so, and that our top guides and their core support staff likely enjoy the highest mean annual incomes on Kilimanjaro.

 

Our mountain staff are generally rewarded very generously by grateful climbers, though we are often asked for guidelines for recommended tipping amounts.  Since the concept of the tip derives from free will we prefer to advise on the basis of what we have observed that our climbers choose to tip, rather than requesting specific tip amounts.

 

Average amounts tipped by our Kilimanjaro climbers

 

It would appear that the simple rule of thumb seems to be that climbers tend to tip between 10 and 15% of what they have paid for their climb. In other words, where a climber is a member of a large group of 8 climbers and completes say, the Machame Route, each climber will usually choose to contribute around USD 190 to 280, with the exact amount being dependent on a number of factors including the climbers’ own culture of tipping (Americans often tip very liberally, while say, the French are somewhat more conservative); the performance of the crew; and of course the available financial means of the climbers. With smaller groups, the overall staff to climber ratio is increased and so climbers tend to tip more, but since our climb costs increase as the booking group becomes smaller, the figure relationship of scale between the amount tipped and the amount paid for the climb, still remains roughly the same, with each climber in a group of just a pair climbing TK Rongai over 7 days, usually paying around USD 220 to 330.

 

The division of tips amongst the Kilimanjaro support staff

 

In the above example where two people climb the 7 day TK Rongai Route and pay USD 2,241 per person for the climb, a normal tip amount might be USD 250 per climber, if - as is very often the case with our usually very attentive and hard working teams - it is felt that the team have gone beyond the call of duty and served exemplarily. These tips from the two climbers (each giving some 11% of what was paid for the climb) would be added together making USD 500 and would ordinarily be divided by the chief guide amongst the support team of 11, as follows:

 

Guide = USD 105

Assistant Guide = USD  85

Cook = USD  70

Especially hard-working porters = USD 36 per porter x 2 porters = USD  72

Rest of the porters: USD 28 per porter x 6 porters = USD 168

 

Total = USD 500

 

 

For comparison’s sake, in the event of a slightly larger group doing the same climb, with 4 people the per person climb costs would be USD 2,016 per person, and a normal tip amount might be slightly less than the above example, at USD 200 per climber. The contributions of each of the four climbers tipping USD 200 would total USD 800, with this amount usually being divided amongst the larger support team of 16 staff, approximately as follows:

Guide = USD 148

Assistant Guides: USD 90 x 2 guides = USD  180

Cook = USD  80

Especially hard-working porters = USD 38 per porter x 4 porters = USD  152

Rest of the porters: USD 30 per porter x 8 porters = USD 240

 

Total = USD 800

 

For those interested to know how guides can be expected to divide tips for larger groups please download this Kilimanjaro guide’s tip calculator (Excel document), which aims to mimic the criteria that our teams apply. Readers will notice that as the climb group becomes larger it is usual that the chief guide’s own share becomes disproportionately increased. The reason for this is that whereas when group sizes increase, the volume of work and responsibility borne by other members of staff doesn’t really change - or, if anything, is slightly diminished - as groups become larger the responsibilities and pressures on the chief guide are correspondingly augmented.

 

Recommended Kilimanjaro Tipping Procedure

 

Ordinarily the sum of all the contributed tips is collected together and presented to the chief guide at the gate when leaving the National Park. The guide then divides this amount himself amongst the crew. As will probably have been inferred from the above, it is not necessary to tip all the staff individually; indeed doing so will remove the guide’s prerogative to reward workers that only he knows have worked especially hard, often behind the scenes away from the attention of climbers. If further advocation of this position is sought we are happy to  refer climbers to a detailed discussion of this matter that is available to read elsewhere online.

 

Should climbers tip with large or small notes?

 

We are often asked whether climbers should bring small note denominations for the tip that they intend to give to the climb support staff, so that the guide can divide the tip more easily. While this is an immensely considerate question (bearing in mind the efforts needed to acquire and transport small value bills), we nonetheless ask that climbers should please not give small notes, but should rather aim to give USD 50s and USD 100s. There are two reasons for this:

 

A) Dividing the tips is a mathematically complex exercise that is assisted by having as small a denominator as possible, as each guide will assign a different number of sub-roles amongst the porters, and it is not unlikely that in a group of 12 porters, there will be at least three or four different tiers of reward. It is very important that each sub-role be rewarded differently, even if subtly so, as the acknowledgement of these different sub-roles is an important motivator in impelling porters to aspire to work ever harder and attract more responsibility from the chief guide, by improving their position within their team as they strive to acquire a slightly superior sub-role, en route to eventually being recommended as a summit porter and thereafter to train as an assistant guide. The guide is responsible for assigning these sub-roles with respect to his own personal leadership model and will have already ranked all of his staff throughout the climb, having carefully watched everyone and made a mental note of who is volunteering for extra duties, or who is going the extra mile. With these factors being so involved, it is very hard to achieve an accurate division in dollars, so the guide will usually send someone to quickly exchange the dollars for Tanzanian Shillings - while the climbers are having lunch in Moshi, or else will hand out a larger dollar amount to another senior team member that he delegates should subsequently exchange and subdivide this amount on the behalf of a number of the men, once they are in Arusha together.

 

A) The local bureaux des changes and banks in Moshi and Arusha penalise transactions that involve small note values. The most competitive exchange rates at the biggest banks (which require accounts and to which mountain staff likely will not enjoy access - particularly at the requisite short notice immediately after a climb) involve a loss of approximately 5%. Realistically however, with the chief guide being under time pressure to arrange an opportunity to exchange the tipped dollar amount, he will have to use a local money changer in Moshi, or an after hours changer in Arusha. None of these options will offer a competitive rate for small notes and it would not be unusual for a loss of closer to 10% - as against the large note value - to be applied to the transaction. By giving a tip in USD 5, USD 10, or USD 20 note denominations, while aiming to be as kind as possible, a climber will effectively be reducing their tip by some 10% or more, which is probably very much counter to most climbers’ intentions that their staff should be rewarded to the highest degree possible.

 

 

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