Shoutout to the hostel desk guy in Lisbon who told me to stop tipping 20 percent

Val Webb · 2026-10-07T02:50:03.601285+00:00

I always tipped like I was back home, 18 to 20 percent on every meal, and it was quietly eating a huge chunk of my daily food budget. Then a guy working the front desk at my hostel in Lisbon asked to see my receipts and pointed out the service charge was already baked into the price over there. Once I stopped adding a second tip on everything, my food costs dropped from about $45 a day to $28, which paid for three extra nights of lodging on a two week trip. Now I check the local custom before I tip anywhere, and I want to know if anyone else has a country where they almost overpaid out of pure habit.

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Shoutout to the hostel desk guy in Lisbon who told me to stop tipping 20 percent | Budget Travel Hacks - Rigidtalk