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^^^^^This, plus the cost of paying a cleaning staff is built into the cost of the room. I’m not just paying for a room, I’m paying for a clean room. Really, tipping in this country has gotten way out of hand, and the more people tip, the more they contribute to the problem, the more they encourage employers to try to get out of their responsibilities to pay their employees a reasonable wage and instead leave it up to the uncertain whims of transient customers how much a person makes.
Even assuming what you say is true, the person who gets screwed here is the little guy — the maid, the waiter, the bartender, the skycap, the hotel limo driver. Digging in the heels to make the employers do the proverbial right thing isn’t going to change them or help the service worker. I don’t feel right making the latter suffer to prove a point. The former will just raise prices to compensate if they change things, so you’ll wind up paying anyway.
I do not tip the housekeeper. Sorry, not my job to pay their salary or to rectify any perceived short comings in their salary.
The 'little guy' is not getting screwed, its a low paying job. Imagine they're doing 50 rooms a day, and its now customary for everyone to tip $5 a day, suddenly they're getting minimum wage of $15,000 a year, plus $62500 in tips. for a 70k a year job. Hell even if it was $3 a day and they had to split it with another person they'd be making about $33,000 a year.
Lets not get all ridiculous and start just giving money to everyone that looks at us in a nice way.
I do not tip the housekeeper. Sorry, not my job to pay their salary or to rectify any perceived short comings in their salary.
The 'little guy' is not getting screwed, its a low paying job. Imagine they're doing 50 rooms a day, and its now customary for everyone to tip $5 a day, suddenly they're getting minimum wage of $15,000 a year, plus $62500 in tips. for a 70k a year job. Hell even if it was $3 a day and they had to split it with another person they'd be making about $33,000 a year.
Lets not get all ridiculous and start just giving money to everyone that looks at us in a nice way.
If the employer expects the worker will get a certain amount in tips on average daily and they don’t because people won’t tip them on “principle,” they are indeed getting screwed. And I don’t give tips to everyone who “looks at me in a nice way.” But I do tip people who traditionally receive them and render me a service — they’re depending on it and are usually paid a rate that assumes they’re getting a certain amount in tips.
And do maids really clean 50 rooms a day? My guess is that they spend about 15 minutes per room on average, given that they clean the bathroom and dump trash and change sheets and vacuum and replace towels and toiletries in each one. If they work eight hours a day and do nothing else (and they’re probably doing other things like laundry and supply-stocking as well), that’s 32 rooms. I also doubt seriously that they’re getting $5 from every room they handle — especially from people who won’t tip on “principle.”
I will place a Note in the Tip envelope directed to the CEO and Board of Directors of the Corporate running that Hotel Chain. I will request them that their employees are doing a wonderful job and that they deserve a Raise in their salary. Employer should take care of salary shortage, not by fleecing the customers. If they cant pay their employees, they dont deserve to be in the Business.
The 'little guy' is not getting screwed, its a low paying job. Imagine they're doing 50 rooms a day, and its now customary for everyone to tip $5 a day, .
Quote:
Originally Posted by bachslunch
If the employer expects the worker will get a certain amount in tips on average daily and they don’t because people won’t tip them on “principle,” they are indeed getting screwed. And I don’t give tips to everyone who “looks at me in a nice way.” But I do tip people who traditionally receive them and render me a service — they’re depending on it and are usually paid a rate that assumes they’re getting a certain amount in tips.
And do maids really clean 50 rooms a day? My guess is that they spend about 15 minutes per room on average, given that they clean the bathroom and dump trash and change sheets and vacuum and replace towels and toiletries in each one. If they work eight hours a day and do nothing else (and they’re probably doing other things like laundry and supply-stocking as well), that’s 32 rooms. I also doubt seriously that they’re getting $5 from every room they handle — especially from people who won’t tip on “principle.”
Sorry I wasn't clear in my point, Im saying imagine we get to the point where tipping the cleaning staff is customary, I'm talking about a progression from where we are now.
Bolding mine in your quote, housekeepers do NOT traditionally receive tips, you're already WAY past the inflexion point, and believe it is the norm, it is NOT the norm.
The second problem with your point is that you're interfering with the natural free market mechanism. If the hotel owner does not pay and I do not tip, the staff will not stay; business will suffer and the hotel owner will be forced to compensate them accordingly. Now he may well add this to the cost of the room, but firstly this will be fine with business travellers who can't expense tips and is now tax deductible for others, but also may not be added to the room because of competition with other hotels in the area.
And again, "they are not paid a rate that assumes they're getting a certain amount in tips" if you believe that they are, could you point to a single cleaning staff person having an IRS tip waver like bartenders, waitresses, casino dealers do? Housekeepers are paid a wage (which is likely to be the minimum wage the state has determined is acceptable) commensurate with the skill level, education level and ease of replacement level of doing that job, and as unpalatable as it is, this is essentially a zero skill job, which requires no eduction or arduous training, and where it is easy to replace them because of that.
What you are essentially doing (and its very nice of you) is you are mentally determining some vague salary level that you feel they should be at, and attempting to rectify their deficiencies yourself. Sorry, some jobs are minimum wage and really just meant to be minimum wage.
My understanding is that hotel maids customarily do get tipped, and I’ve never, ever heard otherwise. As do waiters, bartenders, skycaps, bellhops, cab drivers, room service food delivery people, hairdressers, manicurists, limo drivers, parking valets, washroom attendants, golf caddies, casino dealers, pizza delivery people, and folks in a few other professions. Lists of such people are easy to find online, and hotel maids appear on all such lists I’ve ever seen.
Other service people traditionally do not, such as fast food workers. That also includes counter people who put out a tip jar. They usually get better hourly pay, too, though not always.
And just because chambermaids don’t have IRS tip waivers doesn’t mean it isn’t customary to tip them.
My understanding is that hotel maids customarily do get tipped, and I’ve never, ever heard otherwise. As do waiters, bartenders, skycaps, bellhops, cab drivers, room service food delivery people, hairdressers, manicurists, limo drivers, parking valets, washroom attendants, golf caddies, casino dealers, pizza delivery people, and folks in a few other professions. Lists of such people are easy to find online, and hotel maids appear on all such lists I’ve ever seen.
Other service people traditionally do not, such as fast food workers. That also includes counter people who put out a tip jar. They usually get better hourly pay, too, though not always.
And just because chambermaids don’t have IRS tip waivers doesn’t mean it isn’t customary to tip them.
and how many of those lists are NOT American, and OVER 5-10 years old? this is a new and very weird phenomenon.
And yes, not having a tip waver does indeed suggest that it is a job that has no history of being tipped, thats kinda the point of it.
I am also surprised that some people seem to think tipping hotel housekeeping is something new.
It has been the norm since I can remember, and I'm 60. Whether it's something that's a holdover from days when housekeepers didn't get paid sufficiently and no longer necessary is a different subject, but yes, it has long been customary to leave a small tip for the hotel maids.
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