Tipping...

[Greg44]

We just got back from vacation and I was wondering - do you tip the house keepers who do up your room each day? Do you leave it at the end of your stay? A little each day? How much?

I have never done this, but I have heard this is normal?

I usually tip about 20% for sit down dinner - sometimes more if I tab is low due to a coupon or promotion. I tip at the Pizza Parlor, usually just a couple of bucks for the high school kid who cleans the tables (self seating - no waiters).

I tip the barber when I go (went for the 1st time in about 18 months - last week when on vacation...my dw wife said I need to get it cut "professionally" every now and then -- hmm what was she trying to say?!)

hmmm that is it - what about you all?

[jp1]

I'll leave a buck or two per day when we check out, assuming that she did a good job. If the room was dirty when we moved in or they didn't service the room every day during the stay then I'll leave less or none. SO works for an upscale hotel chain so we get discounted rooms when we travel and generally we find that the housekeepers do a consistently good job, so it's only been a couple of times that we left little or no tip.

I used to tip my barber well ($4 for a $16 haircut), but for the last year or so SO has been cutting my hair for me since it's just an easy buzz cut. No cash tip for him but I try to make it up in other ways... ;)

[frugal-one]

The only time I leave a tip for a room is if I leave it in a terrible mess... which is rarely. Otherwise, I feel I am paying top dollar as it is for my stay. Will be interesting to hear other's viewpoints.

[Rogar]

I've never left a tip for housekeeping services in motels or hotels. Maybe I've been amiss? I suppose in a fancy resort with impecable cleanliness and service, or a very nice B+B I might consider it. I do tip my barber.

[Sad Eyed Lady]

Yes, we usually leave a tip each day for the maid when she comes in to clean. Just usually $1.00, but we are very clean neat people in a hotel room. I don't like clutter there any more than I do at home.

[iris lily]

good lord I never leave a tip in American motels, I must be a rube. But then, we are not hard on motel rooms.

[rosarugosa]

We leave $5.00 per night, and we leave it on a daily basis on the theory that the housekeeper will take good care of us while we're there. I've always heard that the rule of thumb is to leave at least $1.00 per person per day. Several years ago at a hotel with valet service, DH mentioned that we were giving the valet $2.00 each time he parked/retrieved our car, and that it seemed crazy that the person who was doing things such as making the bed, cleaning the toilet, tub, etc. was getting the same amount of money. So we've been doing the $5.00 a day thing ever since. We figure that if we can afford to stay in a hotel, then we can afford to be good to the housekeeper. We are pretty neat and low maintenance guests as well.

[Blackdog Lin]

Yeah, I read years ago that a housekeeping tip should be left daily, so we do. (It should be left daily rather than at the end of your stay as on a multi-day stay there may be multiple housekeepers doing the room). We tend to leave $1.00/$1.50 per person (in the room) per day.

I kinda resent the whole American tipping system (why can't we just charge a fair rate and pay the help a fair wage and call it good?), but with the system the way it is.....yeah, the housekeeper is another one of the expected tipping situations.

[Float On]

I always leave the tip daily because I know housekeepers have days off as well and I also know that if I left the whole tip on the last morning then the last person to clean the room would keep the entire tip and not split it with the one who maybe cleaned it all the other days. I usually leave $3.50 figuring that at least pays for their gas to get to work and home that day.

[Anda]

We have only stayed in a hotel a few times, and rarely for more than a day. I've never tipped... but, to be fair, I make the bed, wipe down the shower and sink, hang my towels up (and if we're staying for a couple of days, I ask that they not replace them), and clean up any spills. I'm actually to leave a mess for someone to pick up. I actually don't think we've ever had a housekeeper address a room while we've stayed in it, since the trash is never dealt with, and I assume that's something they'd do. :/ I know you're supposed to tip, but in my mind, making the job as easy as possible is worth more than a few bucks.

[jania]

I usually leave $2 a day with a little handwritten "Thank you!" so the housekeeper knows it is for her. I leave something every day because it's not always the same housekeeper each day. These positions do not pay all that much and there is a lot of pressure to get rooms cleaned in a certain amount of time and like many other industries now management is pushing for fewer employees to do more work. If you leave a little something it will be appreciated.

[Float On]

If I'm in the room when they arrive I may ask for fresh towels, TP, shampoo or something and then I hand them the tip and say thank you. Most every housekeeper deserves an easy room on occassion. If I'm not in the room I will leave a note with the tip asking for 'light' or 'turnover' service depends on how long we're staying. 'Turnover' and they know to treat the room as if we've departed. I ask for that more often when we're doing the Florida shows and we've got more sand and rooms tend to get a bit musty feeling from the humidity. We're taking a break this year but when we're out doing the art retail or wholesale shows we average 120 hotel nights a year.
Going back to my comment about leaving the tip daily alot of the bigger hotels in resort areas use daily temp help and even their regular staff is not assigned the same floor daily.

[iris lily]

As I think about it, I'd much rather not have room service, and I certainly don't need towels changed or bedding changed. I wish they wouldn't come in at all.

[crunchycon]

We're pretty neat also, but I leave a $1/day/person for housekeeping. I imagine that, overall, hotel housekeeping is hard work for not much money.

[treehugger]

As I think about it, I'd much rather not have room service, and I certainly don't need towels changed or bedding changed. I wish they wouldn't come in at all.

I almost always leave the "Do Not Disturb" sign up the entire length of my stay; I prefer not to have people in my room and I certainly don't need the bed made or towels changed for a few days' stay (which is the longest I've ever stayed in a hotel).

Kara

[simplelife4me]

Americans will find ways to tip for anything and attempt to make it a social obligation ; ).

[dmc]

Americans will find ways to tip for anything and attempt to make it a social obligation ; ).

I seam to always be handing someone a tip. You know its bad when you tell the bag boy that you will get him later as you only have a hundred, and he say's he can make change. A typical day at the golf club I tip the guy a couple of bucks that puts my clubs on a cart and pulls it around for me. Then the shoeshine guy gets a few bucks. And you have to take care of the cart girl when she brings you a drink or snack. Then the guys that cleans your clubs when your done and put's them up get a few bucks also. And I haven't even made it to the bar yet.

And my wife always leaves some money for the hotel maid.

[janharker]

I always tip. The housekeeping crew don't get paid as well as they should for the amount of work, some rather nasty, that they do. Except that I didn't tip at the Paris hotel where one of the housekeepers stole my binoculars.

DMC, you might try golfing at the places the rest of us go to. There's no tipping because we put out own clubs on the cart, bag boy!?!, shoeshine?!?, clean our own clubs after we take them off the cart ourselves.

[catherine]

I always tip housekeepers, mostly daily, but if I forget, definitely at the end of the stay. If it's daily, maybe $2-3, at the end of the stay, $5.

I do it on principle--they work darn hard for extremely low wages, and they have a NASTY job to do if people aren't clean. OTOH, men get hotel jobs that are visible, and therefore we tend to tip them more--bellboys, valets, etc. We give them a buck or two just for opening our darn car door. So why not tip the unsung and unseen female heros that clean our grossness out of tubs and showers and toilets and do the backbreaking work of making sure our beds are "heavenly"?

So it's really almost a feminist protest on my part.

[dmc]

I always tip. The housekeeping crew don't get paid as well as they should for the amount of work, some rather nasty, that they do. Except that I didn't tip at the Paris hotel where one of the housekeepers stole my binoculars.

DMC, you might try golfing at the places the rest of us go to. There's no tipping because we put out own clubs on the cart, bag boy!?!, shoeshine?!?, clean our own clubs after we take them off the cart ourselves.

Why would I want to do that? I belong to a nice club and I like the service. I don't mind tipping them. And I'm helping employ a few people.

[IshbelRobertson]

I tip

My hairdresser
Restaurants - usually 20 per cent
taxi drivers
Scaffies, part-time gardener, cleaner, window cleaner and newspaper boy at Christmas
Hotels - porters and housekeeping staff. Tip at the end of the stay - which can be a week or 2 weeks, if on holiday. I always leave the housekeeping tip in the room, with a note explaining that it is for housekeeping services rendered, not the general hotel staff!

[Mrs-M]

We (I) don't travel, so no tips to mention there, but I do tip my hairdresser and DH tips his barber, but tipping for service related to restaurants has all changed for me (not that we visit restaurants often). Still, if the service isn't there, neither is the tip. I refuse to cave to an attitude that represents, "just because I'm a server I'm entitled to a tip". (Tip money is earned money, do a poor or less than acceptable job, and you don't earn a tip).

[freein05]

Many states have a minimum wage that is less than the Federal or state minimum for people that receive tips. It ranges from $2.50 an hour to $3.50 an hour. I believe Hilton Hotels in NY is adopting the lower minimum wage for employees who may get tips. Tipped employees include maids, door attendants, etc. I wonder if Hilton is reducing their costs because wage costs are going down for them.

[fidgiegirl]

I had an experience in Costa Rica that totally changed my mind about tipping housekeepers. We got into a taxi where a local woman was already riding in the back. Weird, I know, to get into a taxi where someone's already in it, but I think the taxi driver was doing her a favor and we were the paying customers. Anyway! They had been conversing when we got in and continued their conversation while we drove to our destination. We were not part of the conversation, but it was not a secret that I spoke Spanish (I had addressed them both in Spanish) so I didn't feel bad listening. They had been talking about her housekeeping job at what sounded like a fancy schmancy pants hotel. She said she got paid the equivalent of $2 an hour and that guests rarely left tips. Yet because the management assumed there were tips being left, the women couldn't have a raise, either. She said the guests were demanding because they are paying a LOT of money to stay at this hotel. When I heard just how little she makes (and the cost of living isn't super low there, either, at least from what I learned on my trip) I am forever changed as far as tipping.

In the States, even if housekeepers make minimum wage, I know I couldn't live on that, or even $10 or $12 an hour. So I would think a little something is only fair.

[JaneV2.0]

I always tip hotel housekeepers, too--a couple of my relatives helped pay their way through school cleaning rooms. Hard work for low pay.

[pony mom]

Now that a large part of my income depends on tips, I'm much more generous than before.

I agree that it's the unseen workers that need to be remembered. We don't really need a door opened for us, but our room does need to be cleaned.