Tipping in Skydiving

Tipping anxiety – it’s a Thing! Tipping is far from straightforward in general, and the finer points of it can be downright baffling, but everywhere in America – from hair salons to coffee shops – you’re going to face off with the Tip Jar Monster. We want to make sure that your skydiving tipping experience is a lot less nailbiting, though, so we’re here to share a little bit of clarifying info.

First off: We get it! We understand that many people are unsure of how tipping works in skydiving. Tandem skydiving sits firmly in the “service industry” category. Instructors at reputable dropzones (like ours!) are paid fairly for their professional services. So tipping in skydiving isn’t like tipping at a restaurant. It’s always appreciated, but it’s never expected.

That said: We’ve read more than a few (ok – lots of) reviews over the years, written about our own dropzone, our friends’ dropzones and of the other dropzones we visit, that describe awkward experiences when customers weren’t quite aware of the etiquette and didn’t feel prepared. Let’s pull the cover off, shall we?

How to tip in skydiving if you had a brilliant experience:

If you really loved your skydive, a 20% cash tip for your hardworking, hilarious tandem instructor and your mega-talented skydiving videographer would be awesome. It would be received with utter glee and gratefulness.

Cash tips are perfectly fabulous, but there are other ways to show your appreciation, too. We’ve had happy new skydivers invite us over to their post-jump cookout celebrations to share burgers and beer. Some folks have brought in home-baked cookies (which disappeared so fast it was like they were never there in the first place). And we’ve seen hundreds of heartfelt call-outs on social media. We love that skydiving goes beyond that cash transaction. We’re all here because we want to show people the love and expand the skydiving community!

How to tip in skydiving if your experience wasn’t that great:

Make no mistake: If your skydiving experience wasn’t amazing, we still expect a tip. A tip-off. Please, please, please don’t wait and hold your tongue, hoping we intuit that something wasn’t perfect. Come right over to the office and tell us all about it!  We pride ourselves on the top-shelf quality of our skydiving tandem experience at Skydive Tecumseh, and there’s nothing we want more than to send you off with a great big grin.

When all is said and done, here’s how to tip in skydiving: express yourself! Please don’t hesitate to come to us with feedback. If that feedback looks like a 20% gratuity, PERFECT. If it’s cupcakes, PERFECT. If it’s a hug and a thank-you, PERFECT. If it’s constructive criticism, PERFECT. Thorough, honest feedback is what drives our beloved sport forward, and we need your input to make that happen!