# Courteous — Modern manners, researched.

> Courteous is a researched, plain-spoken reference on modern etiquette: tipping, email and texting, dinner parties, weddings, condolences, travel and cultural customs, with every statistic cited.

URL: https://courteo.us/

## Today’s Daily Dilemma (2026-10-21)

[The tablet at a self-serve counter is asking for 20%. Do I have to tip?](https://courteo.us/daily/tip-screen-self-checkout/) — **Optional.** No. At a self-checkout kiosk or a counter where you order and pick up yourself, a tip is optional; tap No Tip or Custom without apology, and tip when someone genuinely did extra work for you.

## Why a new etiquette reference?

Etiquette is not about doilies and fish forks. At its best it is a shared shorthand for consideration: a set of defaults that help strangers, coworkers, hosts and guests anticipate one another. Those defaults have been changing quickly. Tip prompts now appear at self-checkout kiosks, many invitations arrive by text, and a large share of our working lives happens in inboxes and on video.

People notice. In a late-2024 Pew Research Center survey, [47% of U.S. adults said people behave more rudely in public than they did before the pandemic](https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2025/03/12/almost-half-of-americans-say-people-have-gotten-ruder-since-the-covid-19-pandemic/), and [only about a third said it is easy to know whether to tip](https://www.pewresearch.org/2023/11/09/tipping-culture-in-america-public-sees-a-changed-landscape/). Uncertainty is exactly where good guidance helps.

Courteous answers those questions directly. Each guide gives you a sensible default, explains the reasoning, notes where customs genuinely differ, and links every statistic to the survey or study it came from. Where no good data exists, we say so rather than inventing a number.

> **Our one rule**

> When the rules conflict, choose the option that makes the other person more comfortable. Almost every guideline on this site is a specific case of that idea.

## Topics

- [Tipping & Service](https://courteo.us/money-and-service/): How much to tip in the US by service, holiday tipping, and the courteous phrases that make service interactions go well on both sides of the counter.
- [Work & Digital Life](https://courteo.us/work-and-digital/): Email, workplace, texting, phone, video-call and social-media etiquette for people who spend their days on screens and in shared spaces.
- [Dining & Hosting](https://courteo.us/dining-and-hosting/): Table manners, dinner-party hosting, cooking for guests with allergies and dietary restrictions, and how to be a guest people invite back.
- [Life Events & Gifts](https://courteo.us/life-events/): Wedding guest etiquette, thank-you notes with templates, gift etiquette, and what to say and do when someone is grieving.
- [Travel & Culture](https://courteo.us/travel-and-culture/): Airplane and travel etiquette plus country-by-country customs for greetings, dining, tipping and dress in eight popular destinations.
- [Everyday Courtesy](https://courteo.us/everyday-courtesy/): Neighbor etiquette, teaching kids manners, and the small, daily courtesies that make shared life easier.

---
Courteous (courteo.us) — Modern manners, researched. Markdown version of https://courteo.us/