After my Air France flight to Paris was canceled, I found myself in a foul mood. But stopping for a moment to reflect upon how privileged I was to be able to travel to Paris at all or even stay at an airport hotel helped put the matter in perspective and convict me of my error. To me, the Sheraton Gateway LAX will now always be known as the Sheraton Privilege Hotel.
Privilege Rears Its Ugly Head At The Sheraton Gateway LAX
I am not proud of this self-reflection, but I share it with you because I think it is an important tool for holding me accountable. One very important thing I want to teach my kids is not to be entitled. The entitlement culture is a huge problem in the West and it is something most of us, if we are being honest, struggle with from time to time.
When life gives you lemons, you can pout or you can make lemonade. Instead of looking on the bright side of our Air France cancellation (a chance to enjoy a staycation with all meals paid for and earn €2,400 for the trouble), I was upset. Not so much at our flight predicament, but at the Sheraton Gateway LAX itself.
We had to wait for our baggage to be returned to us and just missed a shuttle to the hotel, which run far less frequently than the Hyatt Regency. With so many bags, it made no sense for us to trudge to LAXit to catch an Uber, especially when the hotel was just a few blocks down Century Boulevard.
The shuttle driver finally showed up. He did not even bother to get out of his seat to help with the bags, probably because most cheapskates don’t tip him. My wife and I were left trying to get the kids into the bus then seven bags.
We sat in horrid evening traffic going around the horseshoe at LAX and to the hotel. Like a parking lot, it took 20 minutes to get to the hotel…less than a mile away.
The hotel was…well, not to my taste. It was crowded and a bit rundown.
I had to (gasp) wait in a line to check-in. The hotel issued 12 meal vouchers instead of just saying charge it to the room…it took the lady several minutes to fill out all the cards.
There was a huge line waiting for an elevator.
We returned downstairs for dinner and I thought the food was disgusting. Maybe it was, maybe it wasn’t but my attitude was certainly disgusting. Then I became even more upset that the meal vouchers did not include gratuity. You mean I had to tip these people for their lousy service when I’m here only because Air France messed up my travel plans?
And all of this made me upset. Thoughts of self-pity danced through my head.
Yes, I was actually feeling sorry for myself that I got to spend the night at a four-star hotel and not even have to open my wallet for meals beyond gratuities. Even if all of my gripes were somewhat reasonable (I’m not saying they were), my attitude certainly was not.
Heidi reminded that it would all be okay and that helped. I realized that even if I held my anger inside, the kids could sense it. That’s not what I want them to sense. I repented. I was in the wrong.
And then I felt better. We went back up to our rooms (we were given adjoining rooms so Heidi and I had our own room) and I read to the kids. We sung, we prayed, then I tucked them in, as I do every night. It was a good night.
But I had to check my privilege at the door of the Sheraton. Hopefully, I remember to do that earlier next time.
To much is given, much is required. It’s time for me to shut up and be thankful.
This is the first time that I can ever remember you admitting that you were wrong without going out of your way to blame others. You might have done it before on the blog, but it was so unmemorable that I didn’t remember. It’s nice to, for lack of a better way to put it, be reminded that your character is better than I sometimes think. Try to reflect like this more often. You’re a good person, but you (and all of us) mess up, and it does good to admit that, as I think you’re realizing now.
Better said than me. I was thinking the same. Why I love Matthew’s blog…he comes across as real and genuine.
Finally…
Dude, such an uncool comment.
It’s good he owned it. We’ve all had busted travel plans. Glad he showed appreciation.
Peace
Tough call, emotional circumstances, but it is what it is. From a value perspective I guess that’s what you pay for. Or get for free from Air France. Well handled, Matthew, from a perspective standpoint. That hotel is dismal at best. Has been for years. But I think they pretty much survive on vouchers and crews. And the unlikely suspect that might actually book it for $129 a night imagining better. Which is a stretch at even for free.
You said tip so I wanted to open a discussion. Don’t want to open a can of worms here but was wondering your thoughts on the evolution of the tipping culture in the US. I have started noticing that almost everywhere you go now there is an iPad for you to pay for your transaction and it prompts you to give between 20% and 28%. Yes, 28% tip. Yes, you can say no or type your own tip but those are much smaller buttons you have to pay attention if you don’t agree with the suggested options. Well, the worst part is that now you are prompted to tip when you buy bread at the bakery, a bottle of water at the airport, etc…. What is the limit here? How are you all seeing this new trend?
I hear you. I often think the same. But here’s the problem: try living like those folks who benefit from the tips. I haven’t, that means I don’t really have a right to say anything, something that took me some time to realize. No, I don’t like the tipping culture in the US, but the REAL REASON I don’t like it is because the reason why it exists is because greedy business owners (if you’re one of those, just save your breath and shut up) pay them so little, and the government allows it!!! Trump thinks it’s OK to cut taxes for the wealthy, giving these greedy thieves the power to keep stealing, but in turn, he has no problem keeping their wages low like the floor. Nobody should ever live on $7.25. I want to change this forever just as badly as you do, but you and I both have to work on something: shutting up and changing it the right way. That happens at the ballot box. Anyone and everyone who votes republican these days is part of the problem, not the solution. There will be no bipartisan support for this sort of change, so we need to vote for democrats at every level of government, right down the ticket. By the way, I am writing this for my own benefit just as much as yours, I need to work on this one too.
I think you missed my point here. There has always been a tipping culture for services like a waiter in a restaurant but that was always like 15% to 18% and you had to write that in. Now, it is not only 20% to 28%but in places there was never a tipping culture. I gave a perfect example. I went to my local bakery and asked for a loaf of bread. I am then prompted to add between 20% to 28% on top of the price of the bread at checkout. Really? For what? To tip the person that grabbed the bread for me? I read articles about how this electronic system is making people very uncomfortable. One is not understanding why is being asked to tip that much, the other is why the need to tip when you buy a loaf of bread? The person that served you is seeing your selection on the other side of the monitor and so is the person in the like behind you. Where does it stop? I am happy to tip a great waiter that took really good care of my family but the person that got me the bread? Also, when prompted to tip a minimum of 20% you feel uncomfortable to type anything less.
I don’t think I missed your point, but even if I give you the benefit of the doubt (that I did, in fact, miss your point), my reply earlier does not change at all. I’m in full and total agreement with you that this is a bit ridiculous, but it’s not nearly as ridiculous as the wages they are getting paid, and the reason why this is all happening.
I think the manufacturer of the POS devices did this on purpose. It kind of goes like that – hey, why don’t you buy this new system from is, it will increase your revenue by 10-20%. First all, no one knows,if the tip you add really goes to the employee or not. Even if it does, it allows the biz owner to cut his wages, because if there is enough tip, he or she doesn’t have to pay their employees minimum wage anymore. So I don’t see it as “tipping the employee that gave me my coffee”, I see it as “the Owner of this business is trying to screw me”. People at the counter used to get paid minimum wage before these machines, and if you don’t tip them, they still do. But if you do tip them, the biz owner can cut the wage he has to pay them.
Pay Cash, problem solved.
I’d like to point out I’m no fan of Trump but for different reasons: If he had won in 2020, I believe from what I know now he probably would not have helped Ukraine and my father-in-law might be in an internment camp. “Trump” isn’t the factor so much as Reaganomics and “free market” conservatism that you object to.
Now that being said, consider that the Democrats wanted to import as many people as possible because they tend to vote Democrat and those immigrants work at lower wages as sort of indentured servants, legally or illegally, driving down wages for everyone along with raising the cost of living (housing, education, etc.) The Sierra Club environmental group was against immigration because it regarded it as environmentally unsound to import more workers to increase profits but also undermine sustainability. More crowding in the cities increases congestion, the third world produces more kids to send to the 1st world, and so on. A leftist group bought out The Sierra Club and they changed their tune.
Anyhoo, my point being that oppressing the worker is a bi-partisan initiative. As someone from a lower-middle class Polish-American background whose grandfather was a unionizer in Scranton, the working class white-male bashing of the modern democrat party puts me more in tune with 19th century progressive values than most democrats.
It’s how business owners get away with paying crappy wages. They want their customers to directly pay the employees instead of paying a livable wage. It’s why with uber eats you pay a tip before you even receive your food. That’s not tipping for good service, that’s paying the delivery drivers salary. You don’t want to know what happens to your food if you don’t tip
Exactly. You are forced to tip and really well if you want to eat that food. Same with grocery delivery. You don’t tip well and the person knows where you live. That is way out of hand.
It’s a good topic and has gotten way out of hand. As Billy Bob says, it has become such that you are expected to tip BEFORE you even get service in many cases. At least Uber has it right in the tipping aspect becoming more prominent after the ride is done. But, really, do I have to have a tip line and a dirty look when I don’t for ordering a bottle of water at a counter of a Starbucks in a hotel? Just pay them correctly as it’s clear the companies behind this are making plenty.
Good to see you are becoming more empathetic to the slave wages being paid to hospitality workers in America, Santastico! This is how middle ground is found and large corporations start thinking about people first and share holders second. And for those who say, “You will pay it in the end with higher prices,” I say this, no, capitalism will sort it out every quickly.
I was never against tipping for great services but I don’t like to be forced to tip before like you said. When you tip a waiter, it is after all the service was done. Tip anyone before the service is done? The lady that sold me a $4.75 bottle of water at the airport? The person that grabbed me the bread at the bakery? Seriously? Should we tip the cashier at the grocery store for doing their job? How do you fell about restaurants in MN that add a mandatory 4% health and wellness fee on top of already very overpriced food before you then receive the iPad to add another 20% to 28% tip on top of that? Add $15 to $20 for valet parking and that pizza becomes very expensive. It is about having limits. Going out of control will make people not leaving tips at all. Let me choose. Do not force me.
Should we tip the flight attendant? 😉
How about the pilot? Most of them are at the cockpit door when you leave the aircraft. Do you give them 20% of your ticket cost as tip?
Interesting that you mention that. I know a FA who worked for Allegiant for a year and now works, I think, for WN. She doesn’t talk a lot about where she moved to. But when she posted one day about her change of airlines, she reminded all of us to “Remember tipping your flight attendant is appreciated.” No one got mad, but many of us (all FB friends) asked (I just lurked), what she meant? She said outright, “cash slipped to them when they serve you or when you get off the plane is very appreciated.”
Now, I do deeply appreciate my FAs. I tell them, thank them, treat them with the dignity they deserve, etc. But I fly a full service airline and usually with veteran FAs. I had never heard of, nor seen anyone else do this.
PS Matthew, I appreciated this post and your attitude. I think we all can take for granted that we freely travel the world, and even if it’s expensive to us, we still GET to. I don’t get to do nearly what you do, but my friends cannot believe the places I go. If they thought I was ungrateful about it (I am amazed I get to do what I do after growing up on Greyhounds), I am not sure I would have friends.
We don’t want your tips. I makes things awkward. But thank you for the thought 🙂 (I think we would prefer civilized people who don’t b***h about everything and can follow simple instruction without over drinking)
Don’t be a dick.
Where does this madness stop?
This is a lovely, honest post – thank you for sharing it. Everyone I know, including myself, frequently experience self-pity rooted in entitlement/privilege. However, very few seem to have the ability to self-reflect to come to this realization.
I’m curious what AF’s contract with LAX hotels really says. It seems nearly unconscionable that the French Airline, sending passengers from a global city to points all over the world, would expect stranded passengers, most of whom I would imagine are not American, to participate in ridiculous US tipping culture. Imagine if you were flying PPT-LAX-CDG. I’m not calling the Sheraton out, but I wonder if they’re “accidentally” doing some double dipping, and those vouchers really should include gratuity.
Thanks for sharing this Matthew! I have also had similar experiences and attitude – luckily not recently – when I realized upon reflection that it was my attitude that needed changing rather than the circumstance. I was lucky in the grand scheme of things.
We are all human, and we all have good and bad days; however, many studies have proven the concepts found in the Scripture to be true. If we are grateful, we are happier, and plenty of studies show this out time and again. As one example, the simple act of giving thanks for your meal before partaking in it has physical benefits beyond the spiritual. On a much more simple level as my mom used to tell me, “You’ve got the same pants to get mad or sad in that you’ve got to get glad in.” It truly is in how we look at every situation, and even in the problems, we are truly blessed. I really enjoy your articles, and I appreciate the honesty in your writing.
As gracious and kind as Matthew is regarding the Sheraton, the fact is that it is a dismal property. And by giving them forgiveness do we encourage them to be better? Or are we just encouraging them to take people’s money and provide a horrible product because, well. we are supposed to be grateful for anything we get? Especially when the money you spend in these third rate properties is only filling the pockets of shareholders that really don’t care?
As much as you talk of grateful, and I get that, as we should be every day, there is an equal place on the table for quality. And value. And respect.
Within this is a balance. And I think Matthew displayed that well here. They certainly don’t deserve to be yelled at or taken down in a prima donna manner. But there is a point where if we don’t question, call out, and encourage them to be better they will, well, never do so. In the end, I am less about the Bible and more about Zen and The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.
I stay at LAX a few times a year before early morning departures and I have been staying at the Sheraton Gateway recently. Why? The other options are also run-down dumps. Yes the hotel is busy sometimes with lines to check in and a wait for the elevator. No, its not particularly well maintained. It’s also usually a better value option compared to the Westin, Hilton and Hyatt.
However, I usually get upgraded, they recognize my Lifetime Plat status, sometimes they give me a drink voucher for the bar if i ask and its quick ride to the airport in the morning.
Likelihood of getting bonvoyed here lots lower than most other Marriott properties.
I do believe perspective is a good thing.
“probably because most cheapskates don’t tip him”
Says the guy who thinks two or three dollars on a McDonalds order is enough.
* for the UberEats driver
18% tip on top of the Uber fee and delivery fee? Uh, yes I do and that is enough and Uber should charge more if that isn’t enough. But I’m not going to use Uber Eats anymore. Don’t worry, I learned my lesson.
You said 18% before. Good to see it’s going up, but 18% of what? Why does the cost of the food matter when it doesn’t matter to the driver whether they are picking up a $100 bag of suchi or your $12 McDonald’s meal?
What if you took an Uber to the restaurant, and the driver had to wait in the drive-thru 20+ minutes for you (as most fast food lobbies are closed at night), and then brought you back to the hotel? How much would have that been worth? Your two bucks on top of the fee that Uber takes?
Now wait in the comfort of your hotel, as you did, while the driver does all the work for you, and ask yourself why the dichotomy.
You’re right, it was 18%.
Knowing that the driver got about $4.30 for all expenses PLUS an hour of labor to deliver your food – do you at least admit that your calling a driver “pathetic” when she was simply trying to help you understand that your bid for a driver was simply unsustainable, was out of line? That even if the extra few dollars in the delivery fee went to the driver, it still would not have provided minimum wage for a human being trying to do work at midnight? Does your self-congratulatory flagellation at least extend to the fact that you misunderstood the service you were using?
I’m going to address this in a post tomorrow or Friday. We need to get to the bottom of this. Is the email address you post under valid?
Nobody forced the driver to work for Uber Eats. She should know exactly what she was getting into when she signed up and took @Matthew order. We are not obligated to pay them if their employers don’t pay enough. Simply do not work for them. If everyone refuses to work for a company that doesn’t pay enough then they would either change their practices or be out of business. Please make sure you are transparent with your price when I make the decision to either agree with it or not. Do not expect me to tip your employee because you failed to pay them enough. And this should be the case with everything. Charge me $50 for a pizza and let me decide if I want to pay that. Don’t expect me to pay 28% tip to your waiter because you are greedy.
Santastico, I don’t know what you mean by “nobody forced them to work for UberEats.” I think that’s a bit of a strawman, because nobody claimed that they were forced. It was Matthew who complained that his food that night wasn’t delivered hot and fast. But we pointed out that his order required almost an hour’s work and would have netted about $5, before expenses, given his tip.
Drivers are independent contractors and don’t have to accept any order, particularly orders where they’d lose money by delivering. By that alone are most drivers not mad about “Uber not paying enough” because it’s the customer who pays us.
In the post about UberEats, I and several other drivers tried to clear up misconceptions about it. In fact, one of the drivers in that chat, Amy I believe, from what I could tell politely said what I just did, and got shot down by Matthew as “pathetic.” It’s possible I missed something in the exchange, but that’s the impression I got.
For the record, I’m a driver. While I have a variety of complaints about UberEats and the app. I realize that it’s me who chooses to take orders or not. I am perfectly satisfied taking ones that allow me to earn a little above minimum wage per hour.
I am happy to answer any questions.
There is no question that tipping has gotten out of control. Especially with all the take out joints now asking you for a tip which I’m personally not going to do.
But let’s talk about Uber Eats. I fully get that a driver isn’t going to take an order that doesn’t properly compensate him for his time. I have no problem with that. However I do have a major problem with providing a gratuity before service has been rendered. I’m simply not going to do it. I would also argue that an 18% tip on a McDonalds order is perfectly acceptable. Now if that means the order isn’t worth it to a driver to pick up that’s also fine. My beef isn’t with the driver it’s with Uber that has a flawed business model where they make all the money while doing no work at all. My tip is a gratuity to the driver for good service it’s not his paycheck. Especially because I have no idea how much time and distance the driver has covered to pick up and deliver my food.
So where does that leave me? In the same place as Matthew. Since I understand that the service won’t work without a large upfront tip that I’m not willing to provide it simply means I won’t be using the service.
This is also going to hold true of the rest of the gig economy. If the only way it works is my providing outsize tips on top of everything else then I won’t use the service. If enough people take a similar path then companies may need to pay their employees more and if that means pricing the service such that it’s unattractive to consumers then that’s life. It means it was a failed business model from the start.
And to the drivers etc who aren’t being adequately compensated for your time, effort, and expenses well there has never been a better time to get a job that will do just that without being dependent on tips.
We are seeing a very good example of this at the regional airline level. For decades those companies have dramatically underpaid their pilots because they could depend upon a constant supply of cheap labor willing to work for very little in exchange for the chance to gain the time and experience needed to move up the chain. But now that the labor market is tight and pilots no longer in plentiful supply suddenly these airlines have discovered that they can in fact pay their pilots a wage that reflects their value and skills. If that means that fares rise and service on smaller planes to secondary markets no longer makes economic sense then that’s what it means. It’s utterly insane to expect professional
Pilots to work for $33,000 a year when you consider what’s at stake. And if that means that you can’t get $29 tickets from Twin Falls Idaho to ORD then so be it. It’s not the job of a flight crew to fly for substandard wages to subsidize people’s ability to travel.
121pilot, I think you’re missing the point. UberEats calls it a tip. I get that. What we’re trying to say, and you clearly get in theory, is that your “bid” is not really a tip. If it’s just a matter of semantics, and calling it a bid doesn’t give you stomach pains when you are asked to specify it up front, I hope you can gloss over the word itself. We drivers do.
Even moreso, if you want to put in a fair bid for service, and then decide if you want to give more after the fact (a real “tip”), with UberEats, you can! Did you know that? You can change your ‘tip’ – up as high as you want, or down all the way to zero – for a full hour after your order is delivered.
So put in a bid that you feel is appropriate for adequate service given the time, restaurant, wait, conditions, size of order, etc. Then if you’re just satisfied with the service, you don’t have to do anything after you eat. If you’re really happy or the driver does something extra for you, then you’re free to add. And if something is bad about the delivery service itself, you can even take it all back and ensure that your driver loses money on the transaction as punishment. You really *do* still retain all this power you claim that you don’t want to lose by specifying an upfront amount.
One thing I can say for sure is that when your bid is as low as Matthew’s was, the odds of getting a driver who is multi-apping (doing other runs on the side), or stealing your food, or otherwise not caring, increases substantially.
Also, I want to add, as posters have said things like this *repeatedly*. They say in effect “You need to find a better job if you aren’t being adequately compensated.”
Again, drivers are by and large happy accepting the bids they feel compensate them for their time. Yes, some drivers would prefer to be employees and get paid directly from Uber. But the large majority, by my reckoning, are fine as is, being independent contractors that can accept or reject every single bid that comes in, one by one. I am. Sure, I’d love for the language to be clearer and more transparent in places. I’d like a few updates to the app to prevent annoyances. But by and large, most drivers are pretty happy with the gig and our ability to control our income.
Never once in either of these stories did a driver complain. Not once! It was Matthew’s post, as a customer, that complained about the service. When drivers corrected his understanding, readers jumped on the drivers telling them to “get a job that pays adequately.” Yet we weren’t complaining.
Response to 121 pilot about how air fares on regionals will go up if pilots are paid more. Let’s assume for the moment that pilots are paid literally NOTHING to fly a regional airline. I looked up the average size of such a flight, which is 55 seats and you used a $29 fare as an example, which is astonishing. I read that regional pilots can fly up to 8 flights a day, but let’s cut that in half for this purpose. So that’s a total of 220 seats for a pilot to fly and cut that in half for his co-pilot too. How much to pay a regional pilot per day? Let’s shoot for $120K/year in benefits/salary / 250 days/year or $480 per day. $480 / 110 seats would be a little over $4 fare hike.
That doesn’t account for time off for training and such, of course.
I’ve often heard about $20 Big Macs if the minimum wage was raised to $15/hr but Denmark has a Big Mac that costs about the same as in the USA. For example, Matt’s family being served a meal for 4 at the Sheraton, tipping the waiter $5 would mean if he waited a mere 3 tables an hour, he’d be making an ok wage. Tipping them 10% of his voucher, or $80/10=$8 means he’d make $24/hour which is more than many hard working cashiers. The “trick” in that industry is to get work in a higher priced joint: A Ruth’s Chris waiter getting 20% tips could clear as much as my manager but then what they do is make us pay for the whole labor chain right down to the busboys and dishwashers. It’s like the growing “resort fees” for hotels that basically are about adding on their costs to a stated bill.
This is a good example of the problem of free market economics in that we see consumers extorted by a hivemind like cartel of businesses engaging in “tipping creep” to make us pay for their labor and guilting us if we don’t. We can try to avoid the business but that means having to research whether they have a tipping policy in place. I had the same objections about restaurants with “smoking sections” where as a non-smoker, I’d get stuck with 2nd hand smoke somehow not obeying the signs and drifting into my booth and was told “You should just ask in advance if the restaurant has a smoking section” and then I would need to make calls to these places before agreeing to go there to meet up with friends. It put a burden on me, which is how the smokers wanted it. So… to heck with it, just ban smoking in restaurants altogether. Done.
As a side observation: Restaurants are one of the most difficult and risky businesses to run: The product has a short shelf-life, the staff is transitory and often unreliable, and it’s complicated to run and competition is fierce. A bad economy can destroy your life investment in a few months. I sympathize with them but… perhaps that’s why we shouldn’t have so many of them. Let them charge more and make more profits without needing to resort to being tempted to hire illegal workers or emotionally extort their customers. I regard restaurants as an expensive luxury and only go to them about 3 times a year. I do a lot of takeout though.
I totally agree with what Chris says here. Don’t think of it as a tip, think of it as the total amount the driver is going to receive for the delivery. If the request say I’m going to make $5 for a 25 minute delivery I tell myself the the customer doesn’t really want the food.
Regarding the condition of the food, there is almost no way it should take more than about 30 minutes unless you are a long way from the restaurant that you want food from. At least where I live. That said, if you are ordering delivery you’d be wise to have some way to resuscitate the food once you get it—AND IT DAM WELL BETTER NOT BE A GAS RANGE! I don’t get delivery but I get take away a lot and I alway reheat it. I toss pizza on my Webber grill for a bit, for instance. No reason to eat cold soup because it’s easy to nuke. Stuff like that.
Badmeeting, I’ll tell you something that I’ve noticed. When you order late at night as Matthew did, options are few in most cities, and fast food is one of the few options. But fast food in the country in general now has been on the verge of collapse due to staffing issues. Particularly in rougher neigbhorhoods (as Matthew also indicated), you might have two or sometimes even one (!) staff member manning an entire restaurant. Of course when that happens, the lobby isn’t open and serving is done serially through the drive-thru, at the pace that those few workers can manage.
It is not uncommon at all to wait 30-40 minutes or more in a drive thru when that happens. You’ll often see the line of cars wrapping around the restaurant and onto the street at midnight. That can easily extend to an hour (and yea, most people probably jump ship when they see the line isn’t moving).
Matthew said that the order was done for 52 minutes before his getting it, as evidenced by the receipt. I don’t doubt it one bit. His order was created when the app came in. The driver almost certainly arrived at the restaurant, and had to wait in the drive-thru just to get that (finished) order. We have no magic parking spaces, no way to enter the lobby, no way to jump the line. We wait behind all the cars that haven’t even placed their order.
I’m not defending the situation. I’d love for lobbies to be open so that we can pick the order off the shelf and bring it directly to the customer. But we can’t, and drivers can’t magic it into happening. And, I don’t blame someone for not ordering delivery of any kind, knowing that this will almost certainly be the result. Matthew’s low bid (tip) only exacerbated the trouble of finding a driver to begin with, but I ascribe most of the wait to what I just described.
If I had one piece of advice for customers, it’s: avoid fast food delivery. It’s almost always a bad experience for everyone involved. Real Chinese restaurants (i.e. not Panda Express), pizza restaurants, real Mexican places, and sometimes even local bar/pubs will offer a better experience for late night hunger if they’re available.
Chris. Right. I rarely pick up at a drive through because of the lines and I’ve cancelled plenty of pick ups when the lobby is closed. I almost never work after about 6pm so late night deliveries are a realm I am not involved with.
Who keeps the Uber delivery fee?
Matthew, there’s not a straight answer to that, but I’m happy to expound on how it works. Let me know if you want to talk in more depth.
Uber applies the delivery fee. The fee can vary a lot by based on their rather opaque algorithm.
Technically, the driver then gets the delivery fee (it’s reported on our 1099 as income). BUT – we immediately have to pay Uber most of this fee back, except for $1.50-$2.50 or so (the “base pay”). We never actually see this income other than as a line on our 1099. The amount we pay back is reported as an expense – it’s what the driver pays Uber for the ability to use the platform and ‘solicit’ customers, for lack of a better word.
Long story short, the driver gets the fee, keeps a dollar or two, and pays the rest to Uber to keep the platform running.
There are times when Uber will begin supplementing those couple dollars that we keep. For example, if it’s paid a restaurant to make an order, and no drivers take it in the first few minutes, Uber will send that order out to more and more drivers, putting more of its “cut” in each time to entice a driver to take it.
There are (rare) times when Uber actually subsidizes the order; the driver gets all of the delivery fee PLUS Uber kicks in more, so that it doesn’t pay for both the order and the customer’s refund.
As an aside, this driver-gets-the-whole-fee-and-pays-some-of-it-to-Uber model is not used by Grubhub or Doordash. Net result is not much different, but that’s the technical side of how it works.
Chris,
I get the Uber delivery model and that the tip is essentially a delivery fee. I also get that I can retroactively adjust the tip up or down.
However what’s you’ve told me about how Uber Eats works makes me even more reluctant to use the service.
Given that a driver take a delivery job based largely on the upfront tip I’m very reluctant to reduce that amount. Especially since I have no idea if the reason my food showed up cold or late is the drivers fault.
Uber does show the tip as just that and there is no indication to the end user of how the model works. So your average Uber eats customer has no idea that it’s totally on him to pay for the drivers time etc through the “tip”.
I have no idea where my driver is coming from and little enough idea of how long his journey is to get my food to me. This makes it all but impossible to determine what’s appropriate compensation for the drivers time and effort.
If Uber eats works well for drivers as a job then I’m glad of it. I will say based on my own experiences and what I’ve learned here it doesn’t work for me as a consumer. I’ve lived a lot of years just fine without it and I can continue to do so.
“One very important thing I want to teach my kids is not to be entitled. The entitlement culture is a huge problem in the West …” … This from the person who gripes if he’s not upgraded to a suite at every hotel and can’t stand the thought of flying anything other than business class or First Class. You’re probably the most
entitled travel blogger I read.
Did you mean Ben Schlappig? Matthew flies economy class more than any other serious points/miles blogger.
Matthew’s willingness to fly economy is one of the things I appreciate about his blog. Your contrast of him to the other guy is also spot on. Ben was whining about not having Champaign on his latest blog entry.
On another note, LAX totally sucks. On our trip next month, I purposely am routing us home from Tahiti via Honolulu, and then nonstop to ORD to avoid having to spend a night on the west coast.
Plus, let’s not forget that the majority of Ben’s posts are plagiarized from other sources and that his blog is really just a front for endlessly promoting the stupidity of using Privé services solely for his partner’s financial gain or credit cards for padding his own pockets. I mean, how many more times are we going to hear about the awesomeness of another credit card sign-up bonus?!?!? This is a fleeting benefit with one-time impact and long-term ramifications on our overall financial ecosystem. Constantly bouncing from one financial product to another, opening dozens of credit cards under false pretenses, and then violating their intent to no end is ruining our banking environment. This deceptive and unethical behavior drives up APRs and fees for everyone else.
Whereas Ben is a person who prides himself on destroying the environment and advancing his own position by lying, stealing, and cheating, Matthew is an honest and transparent pillar of society that reports more uniformly on the entire diversity of travel experiences…whether they are gloriously self-serving or not.
Ben won’t even do a 40min flight in economy. His pansy level is over 9000.
I’m not sure that this it true. I think its more likely that other bloggers just don’t write self-congratulatory sanctimonious posts every time they happen to end up in economy.
I enjoyed reading that, as (usual) Matt. Wonderful post both from the travel and personal side.
Regarding the vouchers: Amazing. You had $260 of meal vouchers for a single evening to feed two adults and 2 children. Usually, my wife and I order full meals and give our daughter some food from our own plates (she doesn’t eat much) and even then, it’s a challenge to finish our meals. I’m wondering if you could have asked the server if you could give them the extra voucher credit as a “tip”? I also would have discreetly asked out the tipping and if it was necessary particularly since it’s an international hotel with a lot of voucher users who may not be aware of tipping.
You describe the hotel as run down with a picture of a poorly set wall base, but I would have liked to have seen photos of the rooms and layout. Was there good Wifi? Good TV for the kids? Clean, comfortable beds? I don’t mind old if it’s clean. I’d also have liked to have seen any common areas and if they were clean and nice, albeit “dated”.
I can agree with this. We’ve stayed as a family at some hotels that are certainly not fancy but have a small pool and a hot tub and clean rooms and the kids are super happy. La quinta inn type feel. One even had free beer on tap 🙂
I know it review chic but still homely and the kids love it. Good waffle machine for breakfast is the icing on the cake for them. Good for them not to be precious.
@PolishKnight: The rooms were just fine. Actually on the nicer side, which is sad considering how poorly-maintained the common areas were. I will post a full review of the property once I get to the trip report.
The Sheraton LAX reminded me of the nicest hotel in downtown Fresno which is not saying much. It is now a Doubletree. It might have been designed by the same architect as the public areas and vibe were similarly horrible.
I received a survey by e-mail after my stay in Fresno. The hotel had just changed brands and the new name was printed on a portable banner. I didn’t hold back and commented how I truly felt about the building. The two comments I remember was how incredulous it was to not have a light switch next to the door. I explained how I walked into furniture in the dark room trying to find a light switch. I also mentioned how the lobby floor reminded me of staying in a Soviet designed hotel in Eastern Europe. It was depressing and barren. I received an apologetic e-mail by the general manager who refunded my room rate. That was really nice of him.
When I walked into the Sheraton LAX a year or two ago, I immediately remembered my stay in Fresno. I thought the Sheraton LAX was bad until I stayed at the Westin LAX prior to an overseas trip last November. It used to be quite nice but not anymore. I have learned that some Westins these days are really nice and others are ghetto. It seemed like most of the public facing employees at the Westin LAX receive little if any training.
Marriott has really destroyed what used to be well respected 4-5 star hotel chains. At this point, Coutyard’s are some of the nicer hotels in the chain. Especially the two in Carson City and downtown Reno, NV.
So glad you’ve finally found the awareness to acknowledge your white privilege. The next step is learning how to use it to become a warrior for equity and social Justice.
I’m from the UK and tipping is nowhere near as bad as the US. I only leave tips in the US if the service is exceptional and certainly never more than 15%. For a situation such as this where the food is provided by the airline as part of a delay, then the solution where service is average is to write the tip on the voucher and tell the hotel to claim it from the airline. If it was truly exceptional with staff doing something amazing then I would offer a small cash tip, but otherwise it’s not my culture to join in the crazy idea of tipping people for just doing their job.
Wow, just wow. In the words of Nice Guy Eddie, I don’t even know a Jew who’d have the balls to say that.
One could argue that you have to eat if the plane was on time. That’s why paying tips when the voucher doesn’t cover it is ok with me.
Lol…you’re not sorry for your entitled attitude. It will come back the next time you are inconvenienced because you truly believe you shouldn’t be ever.
Oh the horror…you gave to tip on a free meal as if if you weren’t delayed you wouldn’t have to tip on the one you had to pay for where you were going…or were you skipping a meal?
A little introspection is good for everyone. Nice mea culpa.
This post is a good example of why I admire, respect — and follow — you, Matthew.