Salon tool · Tipping
Tip calculator
Customary ranges, split and rounded.
Pick the service, enter the pre-tax bill, say how it went. We’ll show the customary range from our cited tipping guide, split it among your party and round it up if you like.
Welcome to the Grand Salon · Updated October 2026
Courtesy, clearly explained.
Clear answers to the etiquette questions people actually ask — how much to tip, how to word the email, what to bring, what to say — grounded in surveys and sources you can check.
Quick answers
Quick answer
How much do I tip at a restaurant?
15–20% of the pre-tax bill for table service.
Quick answer
When should I RSVP?
Within a day or two of receiving the invitation, and by the reply date at the latest.
Quick answer
How long do I have for wedding thank-yous?
Aim to send them within three months of receiving the gift.
Read the guide: How long do I have for wedding thank-yous? →
Quick answer
Do I tip in Japan?
Generally no — tipping is not customary for most services.
Step inside
The Salon: tools & games
Play, calculate, compose and explore — every answer drawn from the same cited guides.
Salon game · Manners
Etiquette quiz
Fifteen scenarios. One title.
Fifteen scenarios from the doorbell to the dessert. Each answer explains the reasoning and links to the guide behind it — and a perfect evening earns you a title worthy of the chandelier.
Salon tool · Gratitude
Thank-you note generator
Seven occasions, three tones, one minute.
Choose the occasion, add the names and the details only you know, pick a tone. The generator assembles a note from our tested templates; you add the warmth.
Salon explorer · Travel
Tipping around the world
Tap a country, get the custom.
An interactive map of tipping customs from official tourism boards, with an honest “check locally” wherever we have no data.
Why a new etiquette reference?
Etiquette is not about doilies and fish forks. At its best it is a shared shorthand for consideration: a set of defaults that help strangers, coworkers, hosts and guests anticipate one another. Those defaults have been changing quickly. Tip prompts now appear at self-checkout kiosks, many invitations arrive by text, and a large share of our working lives happens in inboxes and on video.
People notice. In a late-2024 Pew Research Center survey, 47% of U.S. adults said people behave more rudely in public than they did before the pandemic, and only about a third said it is easy to know whether to tip. Uncertainty is exactly where good guidance helps.
Courteous answers those questions directly. Each guide gives you a sensible default, explains the reasoning, notes where customs genuinely differ, and links every statistic to the survey or study it came from. Where no good data exists, we say so rather than inventing a number.
Browse by topic
Tipping & Service
How much to tip in the US by service, holiday tipping, and the courteous phrases that make service interactions go well on both sides of the counter.
Work & Digital Life
Email, workplace, texting, phone, video-call and social-media etiquette for people who spend their days on screens and in shared spaces.
Dining & Hosting
Table manners, dinner-party hosting, cooking for guests with allergies and dietary restrictions, and how to be a guest people invite back.
Life Events & Gifts
Wedding guest etiquette, thank-you notes with templates, gift etiquette, and what to say and do when someone is grieving.
Travel & Culture
Airplane and travel etiquette plus country-by-country customs for greetings, dining, tipping and dress in eight popular destinations.
Everyday Courtesy
Neighbor etiquette, teaching kids manners, and the small, daily courtesies that make shared life easier.
Most-read guides
Money & service
How much to tip (US guide)
Customary ranges for every common service, what Americans actually do according to recent surveys, and a calm way to handle the tablet that swivels toward you at the counter.
Work & digital
Email etiquette
Subject lines that tell, greetings that fit, replies that arrive on time, and the small habits that make your email easy to read and easy to answer.
Life events
Thank-you notes & templates
A short structure that works every time, the research on why thanks matter more than we think, and wording you can adapt in five minutes.
Life events
Wedding guest etiquette
From the moment the invitation arrives to the last dance: how to reply, what to give, what to wear, and the small courtesies that make a couple’s day easier.
Dining & hosting
Allergies & dietary restrictions
How to ask, how to plan a menu that works for everyone, and how to keep a guest with a serious allergy safe, without making anyone feel like a problem.
Life events
Condolence etiquette
You don’t need perfect words. You need to show up, say something simple and sincere, and keep showing up after the casseroles stop.