A thought for ROAR 3. I am working on this today in preparation for the figures, hopefully next week.
Tips - such a pain. I always include tips at Birkenhead House and La Residence, the airport, transfers, flights etc and pre-pay as much as I can for everyone and add that to the safari so you do not have to worry about it.
GAME PARK TIPS
At the game parks we have always had everyone tip independently. The rangers and trackers depend heavily on their tips and often a ranger or tracker get more than the "recommended amount" As you past safari goers know you get to really like these Rangers and Trackers. You spend 6 -8 hours everyday with them. The rangers like to keep the same people so they can build a rapport with their guests.
HOWEVER, that said the last few safaris we have found we want to trade around with the vehicles. It is fun to go with different people in the group and experience the different rangers and trackers. I particularly like to do this and get to go out with everyone at least once. The group has the whole lodge and we seem to mingle with all the rangers whereas when people do not know each other there is more distance between the guests in each land rover. In fact by trading vehicles and getting to know all the rangers even better it may be a really nice thing
The only danger in this is if one ranger is far superior to another and once you go out with Ranger A you prefer him over Ranger B. That happens sometimes but not often. They are usually all good. If that happens we must be polite with each other and take turns.
What I am going to suggest is that I charge you all upfront for your tips for the number of nights you are in the game parks. We can start with a group in a vehicle but feel free to move around knowing the tipping is NOT an issue now. Just like dining with different people on a Regent cruise --- called OPEN SEATING LAND ROVERS. Also you do not have to worry about tipping. Everyone forgets what they should be tipping and it is always an issue, I print envelopes, people ask me numerous times this way you have NO TIPS at all on the entire safari to worry about as long as one of the escorts is with you. Do anything on your own and of course you would tip as normal.
So I have mentioned this to the game parks and explained the situation. They are perfectly fine with what one big tip shared among the Rangers and Trackers and said that as long as they knew upfront that was the plan the Rangers and Trackers would not have a problem at all.
At Madikwe on Roar 2, with the last group we were so all over the place it became difficult. So I talked to the Head Ranger Jocko, and we all gave the recommended amount to reception and the rangers split it. We must have everyone participate in the standard tipping to make this work. Those that wanted to give something extra to a certain Ranger could do so outside of the normal tipping arrangement. I think a few actually did give a little extra and that was only the amount OVER the normal suggested tip. This is entirely voluntary of course and you are free to do that if you decide to tip additional to your favorite ranger.
Tips at a game park are as follows per couple (divide in half for a single)
$20 to the ranger
$10 to the tracker
$15 to the general staff, waiters, barman, maids etc
$45 per day per couple
$22 per day per single (wont worry about the .50cents)
So on the 8 night safari 45 x 8 = $360 per couple or R3060 at 8.5 rate to the US $
Single $180
If you the majority of you like this idea then I do want to be responsible for making the payments to the lodge and collecting prior to the safari. We will wait until the time of final payment as this is something I will be doing independently of K&D so we will do the exchange rate at that time.
This will be a real experiment to have OPEN SEATING LAND ROVERS. We have done this a little but not totally open without pre-assigned basic land rovers. It can be a lot of fun so we will see how it works. On Lion we did a BOYS land rover and a GIRLS land rover once it was fun. The girls had a cute ranger who entertained us well, who said men do not talk much our ranger Brandon could talk up a storm, and the guys talked cameras and computers.
Comments please is everyone okay with this idea?
