‘Below Deck’ Tip Tally: Here’s How Much Money The Yachties Make

While it’s always fun to watch the shenanigans of rich people during their charters, the highlight of Below Deck and Below Deck Mediterranean is when those groups shake the hands of the crew members and get the heck off the boat. One, because that means we’re about to see the yachties head out for a night of their own shenanigans, and two, we’re going to learn how much money the charter guests dropped for a tip (and subsequently, if they are total cheapskates).

The yachties will often talk about how a charter season is a good way to make a lot of money (in exchange for a lot of hard work) and if you’ve ever wondered exactly how much money that is, well, we went back and added it all up.

That’s right, we tallied the total tips per season, and the total tips per person as well. Now, some of these numbers may be slightly off due to a number of reasons: often, especially for Below Deck Med, the tip is left in Euros and we converted it to US dollars. Also, especially in earlier seasons, either the total tip or the tip per person was not disclosed in the episode so we did the math ourselves. Again, this wasn’t an audit, but just a curious look at what our favorite yachties were taking home after a season of cleaning, sweating, and entertaining.

First up are the total tips per season. As you can see, the crew in Below Deck Season 5 truly killed it, earning the most ever on the show with $168,000 that season, about $15,170 per person. Over on Below Deck Med, the most recent group in Season 4 did their best yet, collecting $155,000 this season, for a total of $14,320 per person.

As so many yachties express over the course of a season, the tip comes down to the service, and especially the food. So which chef impressed the stomachs, and the wallets, of the guests the best? Chef Matt Burns collected the biggest tip ever on a charter during Season 5, Episode 14 of Below Deck when the guest left $30,000 for the crew. Now, that guest happened to be Timothy Sykes, who had previously appeared on the show during Season 2 and infamously took back some of his tip when handing it over to Captain Lee. It’s safe to say, this tip made a much better impression on Captain Lee and the crew.

It’s also worth noting that the second-highest tip collected in series history belonged to third-stew-turned-chef Anastasia Surmava, who earned a sweet $27,000 after the charter with Daniel and Sheree Funsch, during Episode 6 of this past season of BDM. And right behind her was her relief chef of the season, Ben Robinson, who scored the crew $26,000 during Season 4 of Below Deck, Episode 12 when returning guest Dean Slover put his money where his mouth was.

Plus, chief stews Hannah Ferrier and Kate Chastain are so often compared as they lead their respective series with hard work and even witter catchphrases, but how do their tips stack up? We learned that over her five seasons on Below Deck, Kate has racked up about $66,314 dollars, which is an average of $13,262 a season, while Hannah has collected $51,162 over four seasons in the Med, about $12,790 per season.

As we say goodbye to our crew from Sirocco as Below Deck Med closes out its fourth season, we have plenty of reasons including drama, hookups, more drama, and yes, tips, to look ahead at the new season of Below Deck setting sail next week on Bravo.

Below Deck Season 7 premieres Monday, October 7 at 9pm ET/PT on Bravo.

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