Thought others might also enjoy this recent article from The New York Times about tipping and foreigners.

Bottom line: They DO know better!

http://dinersjournal.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/09/22/the-answer-man-low-tips-from-foreign-tourists/

Foreigners definitely know what they're supposed to tip in the U.S., but they get away with giving servers the shaft because nobody ever calls them out on it.  If I was a manager, I would make sure that my guests knew that 18% is expected if service is esxceptional. Guess that's why I'm not a manager !!!!

I will usually let my servers add a grat onto a 4 top of foreigners, not because I am prejudiced, but because I want to keep my staff happy.

painkiller- Have yiou ever had a table complain about the grat being added?  I would think that could lead to some bad word of mouth. I can appreciate you taking care of the servers, but I would think that it might lead to some bad word of mouth.

Not to get off subject, but speaking of adding gratuity- I worked a party of 30 once and the place I was working was corporate and wouldn't allow us to add the gratuity onto any table no matter how big Needless to say I got the inevitable 42 cent tip on a $1499.58 check and I decided that I probably shouldn't be working at that establishment so I never showed back up for work

I worked for the Outback chain and my biggest complaint was that we weren't allowed to add the gratuity onto the check.  Not sure if they ever changed that policy since its been 5 years since I worked there. I can't tell u how many shifts I left totally pissed because of getting killed on a large party.

wasabi

wasabi-

I've been to the Outback and I can't tell you how pissed I'd be if my subpar teenage server added a gratuity after I sat without a refill or was ignored based on them being overwhelmed in their 3 table station.

Maybe its just the Outback locations I've been to- but I often view automatic gratuity as something reserved for large parties or fine dining. . .