Originally Posted by
ysolde
I confess -- last year, year, my husband and I were in Germany. One morning, after breakfast, he went to a business meeting, and took me back to our hotel room. The room had still not been made up, and I sat up on the bed, flipping channels on the TV. Eventually, the housekeepers showed up. In my broken German, I asked them to come in and make up the room. They answered in broken German themselves, being, as it turned out, from Hungary. We ended up chatting, to the best of all our linguistically challenged abilities, during the time they were cleaning and straightening up. When it came time for them to make up the bed, they helped me out and onto my wheelchair (which for some inexplicable reason, my husband had left on the other side of the room, and would have taken me a good five minutes to get to), which I greatly appreciated.
You bet your life I gave them each a few Euro for the kindness, patience, and generosity they showed me that day.
Yes in that situation I'll probably tip too because the housekeeping staff is not expecting a tip (you do know that people earn enough in Germany).
However if you really want to show your kindness to them, you might consider telling the GM of the hotel about it. This way the hotel management knows that they have so lovely staffs, and this attitude should be promoted. I think this will mean even more than the tip you gave them.