As some of the experienced social animals know, giving laisees to your favorite bar managers, bar tenders, restaurant chefs, waiters, service staff, building security, cleaners, wgs, sauna managers, etc..., leads to happy feelings on both sides and improved quality of personal service.

Now if I have a favorite sauna that I frequent often, how much laisee should I give to the PR manager?  To the cashier and other pr girls? To the food servers?  To the locker guys?  To my regular sauna girl?   That 1st visit right after Chinese New Year will be very expensive in laisees given.  How much would the damage to me cost?

I am already beginning to save up the cash needed to give out as laisee to maintain my quality of life.

Or should I be cheap and avoid the place for 2 months or so and claim I was posted abroad for awhile?  

To those who don't understand: Laisee are those red envelopes stuffed with cash that are handed out during Chinese New Year.  Usually handed out by married ppl to single ppl, parents to kids, bosses/senior managers to immediate staff, residents to building security staff, etc.

Chinese New Year this will be on 14 February 2010.

800 HKD to those who have the power / capacity to provide you with improved services in the future (ie mamasans, WGs that you befriended, sauna managers, your bosses children)

200 HKD to those who serve you, but aren't powerful enough to improve your quality of life (bartenders, waiters, building security)

The top guy that serves you > $100 to 300
all other senior PR people > $50 to 100
junior people > $20
the massage girl you always repeat going to > $500 - 1,000

are you saying that amount - each ???

I THINK he was being funny ...

... but not 100% sure ...

To immediate staff, I usually give HKD100 or HKD50.

For management staff at my building, its HKD50 or HKD20 depending if the service they provide to me is good or bad.

Usual practice is to have a mixture of laisees of HKD50, HKD20 and HKD10 and dish out depending on the recipients' relationship with you (i.e. family and close friends = HKD50, friends HKD20 and unexpected visitors = HKD10).

For sauna, Twice has provided a good laisee matrix...

Thanks for the laisee matrix.  I guess for me I will have to decide if I want to pay for both the day shift and night shift which = double the amount of laisees to give or just stick to my usual shift.  

How much should I give to a masseuse should I happen to try for the 1st time during the Chinese New Year period?

first time try ? - I'd say 100

yeah I know what you bean if you know both the day & night shift people !  
luckily for me, its only the day shift I normally got to, but I go to so many different saunas !  

for the sake of the gweilos, that's 100% true, AND ...

a married Chinese (especially a manager) will sort out his laisee with different denominations in different pockets, maybe the 20s will be in the left inside pocket and the 50s in the right, with the 10s in an outside pocket, etc.  That way he can quickly give the right amount without losing face by having to check if he's giving a 10, a 20, or a 50!  

It's got to look like a spontaneous gesture of uninhibited generosity, even if it's carefully premeditated and meticulously budgetted ...

There are times when it's useful to be a dumb guailo, and not having to calculate sums, or give out hong bao at all, is definitely one of those occasions.

I have heard stories where the gweilo boss pretends total ignorance when Chinese New Year comes around and doesn't pass out laisees (hong bao).  

But if a worldly gweilo gives out laisees even if it is only $20 instead of $100, ppl go crazy to receive it as they don't expect it at all from gweilo.  So for them, I would advise them to give laisees since they don't have to give as much as we Chinese have too.  A similar analogy is when a gweilo uses chopsticks or speaks the little mandarin he knows in the presence of the locals, then the locals heap praise on the gweilo while us overseas Chinese get crap for not able to read the menu.

But how do I separate the different laisees when I am in the saunas?  The shorts do not have pockets and the robe usually has only 2 pockets.

Or during that period, the staff will let me carry around a pack of laisees when they usually don't allow me to bring money to the rooms?

WTF man. i dont think that is so unreasonable. you are investing that 800HKD to buy future favors from them. imagine giving your bosses kids 20HKD. your boss will think you are a cheapass and will win you a poor impression. if you give your fav WG a fat $800 envelope, you will make it all back when she fucks your brains out for free and gives you great GFE.

totally NOT COOL to give me neg acceptance just b/c you are too shortsighted or too poor to make strategic money decisions

Bro - why do you think the recipients who receive your generous red pockets will care? It's a nice gesture but most will see this as free lunch money. They are there to provide a service. They might attend to you more but free future services? There's no free lunches in this world

Even at work, as long you provide decent amounts (e.g. HK$50 or so) this is fine. Remember people will receive laisees from numerous people. So people will only look at the total collection received rather than the most received from an individual. Unless you're gonna mark your red packets to make people know it's from you.

To summarize it's the gesture that counts, more than anything.

Finally, it's uncool to whore for your Ks or As Its not being shortsighted, the bros just think what you're planning to give is unreasonable.

[ Last edited by  asia-play at 8-1-2010 18:56 ]

Bro some saunas can provide nylon zip bags if you ask to put your stuff...

Just use your common sense on how to differentiate your laisees with different amounts. I usually use different laisee packets to know the money content (eg different design or colour).

$100 should be enough, we're in a recession!

I think the amount should be sincere, since there is no price tag for it, what we give would be right from heart to heart. Just pay the amount that would suitable for us. Every people would be have different amount.