THE “TIP” HUNTERS.

Thames Star, Volume LVII, Issue 15995, 8 December 1923, Page 8

THE “TIP” HUNTERS.

Leaving a Belgian hotel after a stay -of 48 hours (says a writer in the Daily Chronicle) 'I found in the vestibule two waiters, a chambermaid, a porter, and a boy. The manager had turned out a guard of honour, I thought under the impression that I was a duke. The guard saluted and was dismissed with francs. For carrying a bag 30 yards I gave, an Ostend porter three francs. Two would be enough, a Belgian friend advised me, but I made it three for safety. “Five,” said the porter; “it is always five.” He appealed to other porters, and then to the crowd of people that gathered. A boy took a franc for a newspaper, and in three seconds was lost in a cloud of dust. I bought my newspapers from a centenarian after that.

Tip gathering is a lost art on the Continent. Force has displaced finesse, and ,only millionaires and heroes can deal with the problem well. It is said that holiday staffs have only a few months to make a living, but it seems a matter of minutes abroad. They think of travellers as ships that pass, but find time to trim their sails. Britons are recognised with unfailing precision, no matter how they dress, or if they speak with a Russian accent or none at all. In Paris and Brussels the commercial offensive on the holiday-maker is keen, but it is on the coast that it is hottest. It is a very one-sided affair at Ostend. There is a hint ,of it as soon as, you land. Outside the station is a long avenue of hotel runners. The idea is to run you into their hotels, though it lopks like an anti-British demonstration at first sight. It is best to walk about at holiday resorts abroad as though you have all you want. If you appear to need something the chances are that you will be asked what it is. If you wish to see an entertainment walk straight in, for if you stand outside you will surely be told it is the only show worth seeing, ,or that the one next door is better. There is a com- I

mercial aspect to this, the advice usually costing a franc. How our own tip tactics strike the foreigner I don’t know. But if he finds as much fun in England as I did abroad, even the tip-hunters will not spoil his holiday.