On the August 18 episode of Below Deck, a mechanical problem stranded the St. David motor yacht at the dock. Although the crew worked hard to entertain the guests, they were understandably disappointed not to have gotten the full yachting experience they paid for.
Even though the boat never left the dock, the crew worked just as hard as always. They were cleaning cabins and doing laundry. The deck crew took the guests out with the water toys, and Chief Stew Fraser Olender took them for a champagne sunset cruise in the tender. Most of all, Chef Anthony Iracane kept the amazing food coming from the galley, which they loved.
Doing his best to appease his unhappy guests, Captain Kerry Titheradge worked on getting them a discount. “I am just trying to work out a number that we can discount these guys because we didn’t burn [any] fuel,” he explained to the yacht agent, suggesting 20 percent. Meanwhile, the guests wondered if they should leave a tip at all.
Below Deck charter guests were left docked due to an engineering issue
The guests tried to justify not leaving a tip at all. “No tip is not a reflection of our group,” one of the guests said. “It is a reflection of the circumstances.” Yes, the circumstance that you’re trying to get out of paying the people who worked very hard to make up for a problem that wasn’t their fault.
Later, the primary charter guest pulled Kerry aside to discuss the tip. “You guys have been great, by the way,” he began. “We have been completely happy, but normally when something is significantly wrong — like the boat not leaving — that isn’t a small matter. There is the standard gratuity, but I don’t know that the group is going to be happy about doing that.”
But Kerry tried to get him to see the problem from the crew’s perspective. “End of the day, it is the service industry,” he reminded him. “The house makes a mistake — the staff shouldn’t suffer.”
Regardless, Captain Kerry’s conversation had little effect on the guests’ final decision. “Unfortunately, the guests … punished us for the boat not moving,” he told the crew. “Which I don’t think is fair. [They gave us] $19,000, which I think is well short.” In the end, each crew member earned $1,461 each, far less than they should have for all their hard work.
Ultimately, the guests punished the hard-working crew for something that was out of their control.
Below Deck airs Mondays at 8/7c on Bravo, streaming on Peacock the next day in the US. It streams on Hayu in the UK and Ireland.
TELL US – DO YOU THINK THE GUESTS SHOULD HAVE PAID MORE OF A TIP FOR THE CREW’S HARD WORK? WERE THEY JUSTIFIED IN SHORTING THE TIP BECAUSE OF A MECHANICAL ISSUE?
