Tipping the Pattaya Girls

In Pattaya bars you are definitely expected to leave a tip. You leave the tip when you pay your bill. The Pattaya girls get to split up the tips at the end of the night. Some guys like to give their tip directly to the girl that served them. Others just add it onto the tally and pay it to the hostess.

In most other parts of “normal” Thailand, tipping is not required. You only see it done by Westerners in resort areas. The Thais, themselves, don’t tip.

Here’s the deal, guys. A tip doesn’t need to be more than about 20 to 50 baht. Don’t go overboard with your tipping because you ruin the economy for everybody else. You have to keep in mind that a “normal” girl from Pattaya working outside of the bar, in a clothing store at the mall for instance, only makes about 1000 baht in an entire week. So don’t go throwing around big tips in the 500 baht range or higher. It’s insanity.

If a Pattaya bar girl can get a 500 baht tip, why would she want to leave the bar? Large tips make it harder to bar fine a girl out of the bar. So, when you’re in a Pattaya bar, leave your western tipping customs at home.

The same goes for tipping in a Pattaya gogo bar. The exception is in the gogo bars that allow hands-on activities. If you’ve had a girl sitting naked on your lap and you’ve been groping, kissing, and playing around with her all evening, then a 100 baht tip can be appropriate.

Instead of leaving a huge tip, why not ring the bell!

The Custom of “Ringing the Bell”

Now here’s a great Pattaya bar custom that the Pattaya girls really appreciate. Every bar in town has a bell. Look around you as you enter. It’s hanging there somewhere. The bell has a very special purpose. Who ever rings the gets to buy everyone in the bar a drink, including the other customers, the bar girls, the mamasan, and the bartender. Ringing the bell basically says, “Drinks are on me!” Watch out though, because there are girls that suddenly appear, as if by magic, when the bell has been rung.

In the Pattya gogo bars, ringing the bell usually signifies buying a drink for just the girls. Sometimes only the girls on stage at the time. Some gogo bars, like Windmill, have a flat fee for ringing the bell, 1000 baht, and that buys the girls a bottle of tequila.

Once you ring the bell, you’ll be instantly surrounded by almost every girl in the place. What a great way to see all of the girls up close all at once. A word of caution, though, some of the girls will ask you for a coke to chase down the tequila. These cokes will come at the price of a normal lady drink and can really run up your bill fast.

So the next time you get the urge to throw down a huge tip, control yourself, look around and find the bell.