Ski instructors and convention

Eljay wrote:Hi dustyfrog Think you're right in that there is a difference between the States and Europe. I think the europeans do "hope for" a nice tip at the end of the week, whereas in your part of the world it's not "the done thing" Just have to say that I LOVE NY.
And the "dude" you mentioned isn't even Scottish!!! He's a meanie from south of the border

When I have spoken to ski instructors, mind you that was Valmorel 1999, the year I got married, she owned more properties then I do, summer on the coast, Vendee I think, winter in the alps I'm sure she works very hard but tip I don't think so, I thanked her and I remember giving her a slugg from my hip flask, a good cognac, I think that's enough .

Eljay wrote:

When I have spoken to ski instructors, mind you that was Valmorel 1999, the year I got married, she owned more properties then I do, summer on the coast, Vendee I think, winter in the alps I'm sure she works very hard but tip I don't think so, I thanked her and I remember giving her a slugg from my hip flask, a good cognac, I think that's enough .

Ian,
I think it depends on how much the instructors get paid. In Bulgaria, for example, I believe they get paid very little (or they did when we went there 6 years ago), and I have heard it said, on another website, that the instructors tips make up half their wages (don't know if it's true though). I tipped both the kids instructors in Bulgaria, even though one was awful, because I felt sorry for them. And I tipped the cleaners as well.

I didn't tip the instructor last year in France though, because I got the feeling that he had plenty of money and the instructing was just a winter hobby for him. I think you have to be careful with tipping. I did pay for his lunch though, when he took us around the 3 valleys on an all day trip, but it was a prior arrangement because he had a nasty habit of losing his pupils during the day, and I didn't want to be left behind somewhere, lost, in the wrong valley, and I was the worst in the group. The deal was, I would pay for his lunch on condition that he didn't lose anyone during the day.

Ally

Ian Wickham wrote:I have never even given it a thought to tip an Instructor

You see Mr W this forum is very informative...............and next time around maybe you will........







Or maybe you won't

I am cracking up totally...but definitely see the cultural distinctions ... how does an instructor lose their students! You are kidding me....That instructor should be arrested for gross negligence. Remarkable information flowing through this forum

dustyfog wrote:I am cracking up totally...but definitely see the cultural distinctions ... how does an instructor lose their students! You are kidding me....That instructor should be arrested for gross negligence. Remarkable information flowing through this forum

Think it would be fair to say that that is not the norm. The instructors are usually pretty civilised. (at least in my experience) I guess there are times when they want to lose some of their pupils though

Dustyfog,
I'm afraid to say this story is entirely true. I did write about it somewhere else, on another thread, somewhere else in this tangled ball of string, I mean ski forum.

The instructor regularly used to begin the lesson with, say, 10 students, and at the end there would only be 8. He lost me the first morning, when I fell over on a green run, because although he knew I'd fallen he didn't wait for me and skied off with the class to the next lift. If it hadn't been for my daughter, who waited for me, and told me where everyone else was, I'd have wasted the whole morning's lesson.

I did complain about him to our T.O. rep, who followed it up, but apparently the ski school just laughed about it - he was well known for it but he'd been there teaching for years.

I am now quite phobic about losing my instructor, and follow them so closely that during the last holiday my poor instructor stopped rather sharply and I had to do an extreme emergency stop and showered him with snow. He was kind enough not to tell me off but to tell me that my emergency stop was much better than the one I'd done when we were practicing it as an exercise.

Ally