Tipping at an all-inclusive resort. Should you? Good question.

All “all-inclusive resorts” will tell you that tips are included. That’s how it’s supposed to be. But is it really so? We’ll see. I will illustrate it with a story.

I went to an all-inclusive resort for the first time about 12 years ago. I read all the brochures and absorbed all the information. You will be fed all day every day, all your drinks are included among a bunch of other things. So this is what I learned.

When we first got there we wanted to go to the bar for a drink after a long flight there. Everything was fine since we just arrived. During the day and night we made frequent trips to the same bar with the same bartenders. Now we haven’t tipped anyone. What we found was that if there were a lot of people at the bar, those who had tipped and/or were tipping got better service and faster service. They were also immediately noticeable among all people.

After seeing this we started tipping as well. It wasn’t much. Maybe one to three dollars here and there. Maybe after every second round. I’ll tell you this. We never had to wait for a drink the rest of the time we were there. Another thing is that the word will spread among the employees of the resort. The rest of the week we would be on the beach and someone would come up to us to order a drink and deliver it to us. Not getting up to go to the bar sitting on the beach in the sun is priceless. What a difference a few dollars can make.

This also applies to handling your luggage at the resort. By sharing a few dollars at the beginning of our stay with the bellman, it was amazing what we got. When it was time to leave at 4:30 am. the bellboy was there, right on time.

Room service is also included in the “all inclusive rate”. One night our girls went clubbing, the three of them. The next day everyone was hungover. They ordered room service 8 times during the day. A few dollars for the first ride and never had to wait more than 30 minutes for what they ordered. Of course, another reason was that they were 20, 19 and 18 years old. There was also no shortage of people trying to pick them up.