No one will listen to this, but...
No one will listen to this, let alone agree, but I want to point out the following:
1. Tipping is fairly foreign to tica culture. Overtipping will lead to lower service quality and higher expectations on the part of the providers.
2. Why tip at the end of a session? You probably won't see the same chica twice during a given vacation. If you must tip, do it at the beginning of a session. This will help promote better service.
3. I tip reasonably, on a percentage basis. $4.00 - $6.00 is reasonable at ZB, less at Oasis.
4. Yes, the girls take a small percentage of the price. It is not my job to feel sorry for them and base my tip on my Americanized perception of fair wages. I tip based on expected service, or in the case of restaurants/bars/room maids on service already received. If an MP girl at Zona for instance does five sessions per work week, she's earning income comparable to a retail clerk's entire week's pay; if she does eight sessions per week she's wealthy compared to her sisters who work full time in other fields.
5. Gifts (drinks at the bar, sex toys, sample bottles of lotions/perfumes etc.) should be valued at retail when calculating her tip, IMHO. I'm not a cheap bastard, but if I've just spent 4500 colones to buy her a "Coctel Zona Blue," I feel much less inclined to also offer a cash propina.
6. Everyone rolls his own way. My comments aren't intended to be argumentative or critical; my comments are as to how El Ciego rolls and may or may not be good advice for you. As I said, I tip four to six bucks at ZB, seldom more. YMMV. Daniel-San here on CRT claimed awhile ago to give $100.00 propinas, and it works for him. :shock: Other guys give the girl not only the tip but the whole d*ck...and offer no additional money whatsoever.
I do know that as Americans/Canadians we tend to grotesquely overtip. Just as we are "prostitontos," paying a girl a tico week's salary for an hour at the BM, we spend too much on taxi fares and on tips. And by the way, we don't look like nice guys when we do this; the girls perceive us as being fools and idiots. Sorry, but that's the way it is.