Below Deck‘s Fraser Olender just offered new insight into the tipping process on the show — and revealed the amount that is expected from each guest.
“There is a fee — a heavily discounted fee — to charter the Below Deck vessel,” Fraser explained on the Tuesday, August 19, episode of “The Viall Files” podcast. “For obvious reasons. Who wants to go on a vacation where there are mics the entire time? They don’t have full freedom and don’t have the liberties of living how you would on an actual yacht.”
The “pretty restricted experience” allows for more wiggle room with payment.
“You still get to do what you’ve asked to do. You still get the experience. You’re just limited a bit,” Fraser noted. “So there is a heavily discounted cost for the amount of time. The amount of time can be five days, it can be three or it can be two.”
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Regardless of how long guests stay on the boat, the cost “is always going to be the same,” with Fraser adding, “That’s just luck of the draw. There is a minimum tip you have to pay on top of said charter fee for this show.”
Fraser was then asked if the minimum was 20 percent of the cost of the charter, which he denied.
“In real life, yes. On normal boats, it is 20 percent. But with this specific charter fee for the Below Deck vessel, there is a minimum tip attached, which is the same. Both the fee and the minimum tip,” he explained. “You know this. Everyone knows this who comes on to the boat because that’s what it costs to be there. I also know this. So whatever they add to the minimum is what they’re really actually putting toward [the tip].”
The chief steward specifically referenced the tip that was received from this season’s pornstar guests.
“There was a minimum spent and it was covered by their company. Then we saw actually how much they put together themselves,” Fraser added. “And it was pathetic.”
Bravo viewers were equally as surprised by the stingy tip as the crew was. Captain Kerry Titheradge revealed during a June episode that the final tip they received was only $19,990.
“That is $1,500 each, but for a five-day charter, I would expect a lot more,” Kerry said before deckhands Damo Yorg and Kyle Stillie joked that they “got shafted,” adding, “They gave us the whisky d*** equivalent of a tip.”
Earlier that month, Fraser weighed in on what amount he typically expects from charter guests.
“I can tell you for a tip on our charter season, the minimum I would expect [where] you won’t see me crack a smile,” Fraser shared on an episode of SiriusXM’s Reality Checked With Dorinda Medley and Kiki Monique. “If we are not getting between $20,000 — I’ll scrap that. $25,000 to $30,000 for the time we’ve done.”
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Fraser noted he wouldn’t budge on that number, adding, “I don’t care if that’s one day or three days or five. I’m waiting for that amount of cash, and if you can’t or if you’re not coming with that to be expected, just don’t bother. Maybe just go on a cruise.”
Other Below Deck cast members have acknowledged that the crew has seen an uptick in tips since the show debuted. “I’m not sure exactly what the catalyst is, I just hope it doesn’t quit,” Captain Lee Rosbach told Bravo Insider in 2021, referring to some “good ones” that were featured in season 8. “And I’m very grateful for it.”
Kate Chastain, meanwhile, offered some insight about how tips factor into a successful paycheck for the crew.
“On a yacht of that size, [a good tip] would be $5,000 a person, for seven days of work,” she explained in an interview with Entertainment Tonight in 2019. “Five grand [per] crew member, usually. Our charters are a little bit shorter, just so we can make the show, [but] everything else is exactly the same. So, it’s prorated. We usually get around $2,000 to $2,500. Anything less than $1,000 would be depressing, which sounds crazy, doesn’t it?”
Below Deck airs on Bravo Mondays at 8 p.m. ET. New episodes stream the next day on Peacock.
