TIPPING HABITS IN HOSPITALITY INDUSTRY IN MONTENEGRO

Purpose and design - Tipping as kind of consumer satisfaction indicator is widely explored but at the same time it is still an interesting research area especially in hospitality industry due to service interaction. The main aim of this article is to find out some tipping habits in the hospitality industry in Montenegro and to highlight the importance of managing the "moment of truth" as a result of the service process. Methodology - It has been used the online survey in form of structured interview. The sample was formed by snowball sampling as a non-probability method which based on referrals from initial subjects in order to get another subject. The sample consists of 89 respondents. Statistical data analysis was carried out with the help of IBM Statistic Package for Social Science (SPSS) software version 20. For statistical analysis, apart from mean value, ANOVA, t-test for independent sample and Eta Square were used as well. Findings - It was found that more of three quarter of respondents are always, very often and often giving a tip; in more than ninety percentage of cases they give a tip to a waiter; they rated speed and efficiency of service as the most important one among other reasons for tipping, giving no advantage to the mod of payment (cash or credit card), or the gender of waiter; more than ninety percentage of respondents give a tip till ten percentage of the bill; more than eighty percentage give a tip till 2(sic); most of the respondents give a tip regardless of the amount of the account. Originality of research - This is a preliminary research. This is the first research of tipping habits in hospitality industry of Montenegro and in that sense it could be starting point for further investigations in that subject. Results of research were compared with similar research and some implications was drawn. Some of the stated tipping habits could be interesting for marketing practitioners in hospitality industry and also in creating marketing strategies concerning the service interactions among providers and consumers.