Tipping in Iran, When and How Much?

Tipping is a worldwide cultural custom practised in various countries, which we tend to be more familiar with its western style. Iran is no exception in this regard, tipping is also common in this country but with few differences and less strictness. Here is some useful information about who and how to tip in Iran.

Who and how much to tip?

There might be endless jobs and people who you could tip in Iran, but below is a list of some of the most common job positions you should tip:

Waiters/Waitresses: Unlike other countries, tipping waiters and waitresses is not really customary in Iran, especially in mid-range or lower cafés or restaurants. However, many of the food and beverage outlets include their staff tip in the bill or some have small tipping boxes on the cashier counter so you do not need to tip their staff individually, but in case you wanted to be more generous and tip you can leave about 10% of the bill on the table or hand it to the staff you would like to

Drivers: Usually you do not need to pay taxi drivers any money more than the taxi fare, unless you are having a long trip with a taxi, such as travelling between cities, or multiple destinations or having the taxi for a whole day or week you need to tip the driver based on the time and length of your trip. For instance, if you have the taxi for the entire day you should tip the driver about 15-20% of the fare at the end of the day, it also applies to intercity trips.

Tour Guides: Tipping a tour guide also depends on the length of your trip, if you hired them for a one-day trip then 10-20 € is fair enough, and if you are a group of travellers and your journey is around a week or more, then 5-10 € is acceptable per day which is better to be paid at the end of the trip.

Hotel Chambermaids: The cleaning staff of hotels are rarely seen, but if you run into a hotel maid cleaning your room or bringing you clean bedsheets and towels, it would be really nice to tip them. The amount varies and depends on your generosity, but around 1€ is good enough. And if you are not getting any service, obviously you do not need to tip.

Room Service Waiters: The reasonable amount of money to tip the room service waiter is something around 1€.

Hotel/Restaurant Doormen: Like many of the above-mentioned items, tipping the hotel doorman also depends on the length of your stay at the hotel, if you are staying for a few nights, then tipping him with an amount around 2-3€ is fine and if it is a one night stay 1€ is enough. There are also restaurant doormen, their job is to greet guests and sometimes find them a parking place. You do not really need to tip them if you do not have a car, but if you felt like to, around 50 cents to 1€ is sufficient.

Porters: You may find porters in many places in Iran, such as hotels, airports, train stations and even sometimes grand bazaars. The reasonable amount to tip them is something around 50 cents to 1€ per luggage or trolley they carry for you.

Hotel Concierge: You do not need to tip.

Valet/ Parking attendants: If you are driving a car in Iran, you will definitely encounter some guys on the streets -especially in bigger cities like Tehran- asking for money in exchange for a parking place, they usually wear uniforms and are in charge of organizing parking places. Actually you do not need to tip them, but if you want to, around 50 cents to 1€ is enough.

Public Bathroom Attendants: In many public bathrooms in Iran you may find a guy waiting at the entrance with a box in front of him or a paper with a number written on it, stuck on the wall, it shows the amount of money you should pay the guy for using the bathroom, which is usually around 20 cents.

Is it possible to tip in Euros or Dollars?

Since changing the small amounts of money is not an easy job, it is much better to tip in Rials and as the exchange rate is constantly changing in Iran, here the prices were specified in Euros so you will be able to calculate the equivalent amount whenever you wanted to tip.

And finally, whenever and wherever you feel like you are not getting a good service, do not tip and kindly express your dissatisfaction to the service provider, this way not only will you not waste your money on bad service, but also help the business owner to improve the quality of their service.