The crew gratuity on a crewed French Riviera charter is 10 to 15 percent, calculated on the base charter fee alone. You decide the figure at the end of the week, and nobody on board is allowed to ask you for it.
Under the MYBA terms that Riviera bookings usually run on, a gratuity is left to the charterer, and MYBA is explicit that it must never be requested. A captain who asks you for one is outside the guidelines the booking runs on.
Most of our clients budget 10 percent from the start and settle the exact number on the last morning.
Quick Answer
- How much: 10 to 15 percent of the base charter fee, before VAT and before the APA
- Who gets it: one amount to the captain, who on most boats shares it equally across the crew
- When: disembarkation morning, at the end of the week
- How: cash in euros, a transfer we set up before you board, or your own unspent APA balance redirected to the crew at your instruction
For the 30 second version, see our short answer on tipping yacht crew on the French Riviera.
How Much to Tip on a French Riviera Charter
The number that matters is the base charter fee, the headline weekly rate on your contract. VAT, the APA, delivery fees and anything you spent ashore all sit outside the calculation.
That matters more here than in most places, because the Riviera APA on a motor yacht runs 30 to 40 percent of the fee, and French charter VAT is 20 percent on top of it.
On a EUR 150,000 week, which is where a lot of our Riviera bookings land, 10 percent is EUR 15,000 and 15 percent is EUR 22,500.
Now price the mistake. Put a 35 percent APA and 20 percent VAT on that same EUR 150,000 fee and the invoice total reads about EUR 232,000. Tip 10 percent on the invoice rather than the fee and you hand over about EUR 23,000 instead of EUR 15,000, so the wrong base costs you roughly EUR 8,000 for nothing.
We treat 10 percent as the working default and 15 percent as the number for a week the crew genuinely made: the chef who rebuilt a menu around one guest’s allergy, the deckhand who had the tender waiting every time you looked up.
The 10 to 15 band is what we see on Riviera bookings, not a rule anyone publishes. MYBA’s own position is that the amount is the charterer’s alone and stays confidential.
Our French Riviera charter cost guide sets the gratuity beside the fee, the APA and the tax.
Broker insight
Tipping in the Med is 10 to 15 percent, and the Caribbean is 15 to 20 percent. It is the client's discretion either way, but that is the norm.
Chris de Kock
Charter Broker, Sales Broker, Active CYBA Member
How You Actually Pay It
3 routes work here: cash in euros, which is traditional and still the most common, a transfer arranged through us before you board, which is the practical one once the sum gets large, or your own unspent APA balance sent on to the crew at your instruction.
Cash sounds simple until you price it. A 10 percent gratuity on a EUR 150,000 week is EUR 15,000 in notes, and no cash machine in Antibes or Cannes produces that on the Friday of an August week.
Carrying it in has its own rules. Anyone entering or leaving the EU with EUR 10,000 or more in cash must declare it, France applies the same threshold to cash arriving from other EU countries, and the declaration asks you to state where the money came from and what it is for. Fail to declare and the fine runs to half the sum.
That third route is the one that solves the last morning. If your APA has money left, you can tell the captain to put that toward the gratuity and top up the difference. The APA is not funding the tip, it is your own unspent money going a different way.
Tell us early if you plan to tip in cash and we will tell you what is realistic. If it is not, we set up the transfer: you instruct the funds before the charter, and they are released to the captain after you disembark. That also buys you a few days after the week to settle the figure.
Do not wire money to individual crew members’ personal accounts, and do not put it on a card. A card payment creates an accounting problem for the boat, and peer-to-peer apps routinely will not reach crew banking outside the country the app serves.
Broker insight
The tip goes to the captain at the end of the week, cash or a transfer we arrange beforehand, and he splits it across the whole crew, including the engineer and the deckhands you barely saw. Tell us in advance which way you would rather do it and we will have it ready, so it is not something you are solving on the last morning.
Martina Asmus
Owner, Charter Broker, Active CYBA Member, IYBA, ECPY
Who You Hand It To, and How It Splits
One amount, to the captain, on the last morning. On most boats he divides it in equal shares among everyone who worked the week.
Equal is the modern norm. The engineer you spoke to twice carried the same week the chef did, and on most Riviera boats the split does not follow rank. Some yachts still weight it by seniority, which is the captain’s call and not something we can see from ashore. On larger yachts, handing it over with the purser present is a courtesy to both of them.
Some brokers will tell you never to split it. Our view is that it is your money. If one crew member made your week, give them something separately, keep the main amount as one envelope to the captain, and treat the extra as an extra.
What the Last Morning Looks Like
Disembarkation morning, usually over breakfast or on the passerelle as you leave.
It is a busier hour than guests expect. The crew are already stripping cabins for the next charter, your bags are on the dock, and a car is waiting. Hand the envelope over, say what you liked, and go.
The captain will not open it in front of you, so do not read the lack of a reaction as a verdict on your number.
Why the Riviera Pays Less Than the Caribbean
If your last charter was in the Caribbean, the Riviera figure will look thin. It should.
The driver is who is tipping, not what the rate includes. Caribbean crews work a market shaped by American habits, and brokers there record US guests at 15 to 20 percent against European guests at 10 to 15 on the same yachts in the same water. The Riviera sits at the European end of that.
Boat type moves it a little. A BVI crewed catamaran is usually all-inclusive, so food and fuel sit inside the rate you tip on, while here they sit in the APA and outside it. Note that a St Barts superyacht runs on MYBA terms with an APA exactly like the Riviera, so do not treat the whole Caribbean as all-inclusive.
The percentage is lower here and the money is lower here. Do not import the Caribbean number.
If the Week Did Not Go Well
Say it on board, not in the envelope.
A quiet number well under what you planned tells the captain nothing. He cannot fix what he was never told, and the whole crew absorbs one person’s failure.
It also weakens the case afterward. When we take a complaint to the yacht’s central agent, what the guests actually said and did at the end of the week is part of what gets weighed. So call your broker while you are still aboard. Most of what goes wrong on a charter is fixable on day 3 and unfixable on day 7.
Broker insight
It is the client’s money and it is their call. Every contract mentions a gratuity, and every one of them says it is discretionary. If something genuinely went wrong and a charterer wants to give less than the guideline, that is entirely their right.
William Mc Nally
Charter Broker, Associate CYBA Member
What We Recommend
Budget 10 percent of the base fee while you are building the total cost of the week, and leave headroom to 15 in case the crew earn it. Decide the real figure on the last morning, when you know which of the two it was.
Tell us at quote stage whether you want the gratuity shown as a line in your breakdown or left out. We will do either, and we never fold an assumed percentage into a total without saying so.
If this is your first crewed week, our guide to how to charter a yacht on the French Riviera covers the rest of the process.
People also ask
Is the tip taken out of the APA?
Not automatically. The gratuity is separate money you decide at the end of the week, and it is calculated on the base charter fee rather than on the APA. If your APA has money left, you can tell the captain to put that toward the tip and top up the difference, but nobody should ever deduct it for you. Our French Riviera APA guide covers how the two sit side by side.
Do I still tip if the contract mentions a gratuity percentage?
It is a recommendation, not a charge. MYBA is explicit that a charterer is under no obligation and that a gratuity must never be requested when the final account is settled. If one has appeared on your invoice as a due amount, tell us.
What currency should I bring?
Euros. Riviera crews are paid and banked in euros, and dollars leave them changing a large cash sum in a French bank. If euros in cash are not practical, use the transfer route.
Do I tip the captain separately?
No. One amount to the captain covers the whole crew, himself included, and he normally takes an equal share. Tipping him separately on top cuts against the split he is about to make.
