tipping

I was told to tip one day's pay for every week on trek. This rounds out to a little over 14%.

AC is 'tea house' trek you don't need any guide or porter. They'll be ripping you off 24 hrs a day anyways you want to give them more?

One days pay per week sounds about right, depends how good they were. A little to us is a lot to them

Thanks for the answers. I will take your advise with me

Some suggest that if obtained through an agency, direct tips are more important, due to the lost commission.

How do you know what one days pay is? Maybe someone could suggest a ruppee amount?

My rule of thumb for trekking groups is (1) tips depend on going the extra mile and giving exceptional service and shouldn't be expected for just doing your job
(2) In the case of a Guide, I usually suggest all members of the group put sufficent rupees into the pot to give the Guide 200 to 250 rupees per day of the trek The size of the group should have some bearing on the amount of the tip - eg more people = more work to coordinate and have the group run smoothly....that's part of the Guide's responsibility, not just getting you from one village to the next. Many trekkers are totally unaware of the many tasks that a Guide does perform to have their trek go forward in an enjoyable, well organized manner. A good Guide more than earns his tips.
(3) For each Porter in the Group - calculate what each group member should contribute to the tip pool to give each porter 150 rupees per day X the number of days in the trek - or if each Porter is carrying a load for 2 trekkers - you can just ask each two trekkers to take care of the tips for their porter - so, if you follow this guideline ech would pay 75 rupees per day toward the Porter's tip - ie a 14 day trek would be 14 X75 = 1050 from each of the two trekkers to their personal Porter.
You may determine that your Guide or Porter(s) deserve more .... that's up to your discretion, but don't make it really tough for the next fellow that comes along and whose budget may not be as well padded as yours. On the other hand, be fair and reasonable. If one of the staff has done an exceptional job for you and you feel you want to give him/her an extra bonus/reward - do so, discreetly and privately - don't make a big show of it and make problems for this individual with his fellow workers.
It's been my experience that any Nepali staff I have hired have been determined to work hard and serve me well. When you show respect for and interest in them, they respond to that interest be redoubling their efforts to please you. I thorougly enjoy my time in their company.