Factors Affecting Restaurant Consumers' Tipping Behavior

Abstract

This study examines the relationship between tip amount and its possible antecedents: bill size, the Big Five personality types, meal type, food quality, atmosphere, service quality, consumer gender, server gender, customer hospitality experience, race, and alcohol consumption. A survey of southeastern undergraduate students was conducted to collect information about the customer, server and customer tipping habits. While the analysis suggests that service is an important factor, it shows that other factors affect tip amount. Furthermore, these factors affect tip amounts in many different ways. Some examples of these factors include bill size, alcohol consumption, gender dynamics, meal type, food quality, and personality type. The conclusion suggests the intuition behind these factors by providing a dissection of their meaning and their importance to servers, customers, and managers alike. Purpose: This study tests restaurant customer tipping habits and some personality traits that have received limited previous attention as predictors of tipping. Methods: This study is that the tip amount was self-reported, business students at a university in a large southeastern city of USA were asked to complete a tipping journal. Results: This study was able to replicate the service-tipping relationship. Moreover, this study reiterated that server friendliness is a very powerful tool to increasing tips. Conclusion: This study strongly indicate that service has a positive relationship with tip amount, and also produce a positive relationship with emotional stability and a negative relationship to conscientiousness.