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I'm a pretty generous tipper, generally going beyond the guidelines when I eat out or get my hair cut or something like that. But I have to admit that tipping has gotten out of hand and makes no sense sometimes.
For example, why are we expected to tip a taxi driver, but not the sales associate at a store who goes out of their way to help us with a purchase ? I work retail, and all day long I give advice to customers, solve their problems, and go way beyond what is expected of me to make them happy. Yet, I never get a tip, nor would I accept one, it is part of my job. ( A customer threw down a $20 bill one day for me and ran out the door before I could give it back to him, so I left it for the rest of the staff to get doughnuts the next morning..........I couldn't keep it in good conscience. )
That is the thing about tipping that bothers me the most, some people are expected to receive a tip and others (who do even more work for you) are not. It makes no sense.
I don't, but that's because when I stay in a hotel I always hang the DND sign on the door. My 'tip' in this case is basically giving them less work.
The reasoning is multi-fold.. 7 years ago or so, I was traveling quite a bit doing projects for Lowe's, which could only be done when the store was closed.. So, I was in a hotel, working from 11pm to 7am or so.. Sleeping during the day.. So, I didn't want them disturbing me..
Second.. I don't want them coming in my room while i'm not there. Less chance of anything going missing.
Third.. I don't want them in there when I am there.
And last.. I see no point in them coming in and making the bed up or providing fresh towels.. Since I tend to use a towel more than once, and unless I'm at the hotel for a week straight or something.. I don't need more than the 4 they generally provide.. And if I do, i'll find one of them and ask.
BUT.. If I was having them come in and do all that daily.. Then, yes, I would consider a tip.
This. Almost exactly. If i leave the last day and the room is in disarray then sure, but it never is.
My husband travels for work and we (daughter and myself) often go with him. I leave between $2 -5 a day depending on where we are.....and how bad the mess is. I try to keep the mess as contained as possible but when we stay at hotels for a week or longer, we end up bringing/buying lots of snacks and thigns to entertain my daughter. And requesting more freguent linens changes, extra coffee, extra towels, etc...
When my daughter was three - she kept calling them "zookeepers", LOL.
Do you tip janitors? I already feel like Im bleeding money when I go on vacations, I only tip for exceptional service. Simply doing your job isn't worth a tip to me. I didn't ask for housekeeping, its an industry standard service performed by an employee of the hotel.
When I used to travel to NYC on business the tipping was crazy. I would tip the cabby when he dropped me off at the hotel, tip the bellman who carried my bag to the desk, and then tip the bellboy who took me to my room. I would have $30 in tips before I got settled into my room. Everyone had their hand out and expected a tip for whatever they did for you.
I have mixed emotions about tipping housekeeping. . . but not from a "they deserve it" point-of-view. They DO deserve it. They wallow in our filth, people! We tip waitstaff, but they only need to focus on moving food and keeping our drinks full. Housekeeping cleans up AFTER US.
No, my problem is, a lot of the hotels have a "supervisor" who go around and "confirm" that the guest has left, and that it's OK for the staff to clean the rooms. This is AFTER the "supervisor" has gone around and done a "pre-cleaning check", i.e. already picked up the tip meant for the maids. I've never seen any supervisor anywhere, work as hard as the housekeeping "supervisor" right at checkout time, "pre-checking" the rooms.
Yes, these hotel maids live on a low wage in big, expensive cities and they barely go by, but I don't understand why or since when it became my responsibility to pay them directly out of my pocket. I pay Marriott nearly $200 (or more) a night, and now they say that "Oh, by the way, this $200 doesn't include the money to pay room maids, so please be a gentleman and kindly chip in a few bucks for them."
Sorry, Marriott, you should figure out how to pay them from my $200. If you can't, you have a serious problem.
Do you agree with Marriott and we, as a customer, should leave a few bucks on the pillow for maids? Then, please think about this---Marriott has $13 billion a year in revenue and $626 million in profits. The guy who is behind this campaign, the CEO, is making $7 million a year. And they are waging a campaign of customers picking up the tab for their own workers. Their goal is to make hotel maids tipped workers. I seriously doubt that hotel workers would be better off as tipped workers. This just looks to me this hotel giant is trying to get away from its own due responsibility and finger point to customers.
I have mixed emotions about tipping housekeeping. . . but not from a "they deserve it" point-of-view. They DO deserve it. They wallow in our filth, people! We tip waitstaff, but they only need to focus on moving food and keeping our drinks full. Housekeeping cleans up AFTER US.
No, my problem is, a lot of the hotels have a "supervisor" who go around and "confirm" that the guest has left, and that it's OK for the staff to clean the rooms. This is AFTER the "supervisor" has gone around and done a "pre-cleaning check", i.e. already picked up the tip meant for the maids. I've never seen any supervisor anywhere, work as hard as the housekeeping "supervisor" right at checkout time, "pre-checking" the rooms.
There are plenty of people who have "gross" jobs in this world who don't get tips nor do they expect them. Do we leave tips for the guys that pump porta potties?
Something else I thought about last night, this falls in line with the guy in the bathroom who wants a tip because, apparently, I don't know how to wash my hands. I didn't ask for you to be there, I don't want your services. I am perfectly capable of making my bed in a hotel room, the fact that someone comes in, adds towels, makes the bed, and leaves, does not warrant a tip from me either.
If I stay more than one night, I always tip the maid. But if I'm in or out with minimal mess, I don't really bother with more than a few bucks.
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