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MOTELS

Motels are a uniquely American invention. The word means
“motor hotel” and this type of hotel became popular as the
highway network replaced rail travel.
Motels are generally cheaper than hotels, and the rooms usually
entered from outdoors or a covered balcony rather than from an
indoor hall. You drive up to the motel office to check in then drive
to a parking place next to your room. You can see from the road
whether there are free rooms in the motel: a VACANCY sign
means there are rooms, and NO VACANCY means the motel is
full. Motels do not have meal service, although there may be
restaurants nearby.

TIPPING

Tips - or gratuities - are a large part of many people's, income
in the United States, so it is important not to stint on the tip when
paying in restaurants, taxis, bars, etc.
In restaurants, a 15 percent tip is normal, although some people
leave up to 20 percent. An easy way to figure out the tip, at least in
states where the tax is around 8 percent, is to double the amount of
tax, and that should make for a happy server.
Tips are expected most of the time, although if the service has
not been satisfactory, customers can leave a smaller tip. If your
experience was really unpleasant, you do not have to leave a tip,
but make sure it was bad enough that you would never want to
return to that place again, because the servers remember bad
tippers.
Most restaurants do not include the gratuity in the price of a
meal, although some will add 15 percent for larger groups of
people. By law a restaurant has to print any rule it has about
gratuities on the menu.
In bars, it is customary to leave 10 to 15 percent of the total for
the bartender. If drinks have been brought by a server, then the
usual 15 percent rule applies. Of course, if you don't tip a bartender
15 percent, your drink may not be as strong as it was the first time.
For taxi drivers, the tip should be about 15 percent of the total
fare.