Originally Posted by
alanslegal
Our 7 night stay we booked everything via our host; most of the times he would try and contact us and if we weren't available, there would have been a short letter in my mail box to make sure everything was OK and if there was anything we needed/wanted, he was able to assist. For such a large resort we bumped into him several times and he always knew where we have dined and always sought our feedback to make sure we were enjoying ourselves.
Regardless of whether you booked your restaurants; there is time in moment feedback, there are other tours and activities your host can suggest and/or encourage you to go on, and generally to make sure everything is going well during your stay.
We didn't tip at check-in, nor at check-out, but coming from a non-tipping culture country (Australia) and more importantly for me anyway, the expectation that staying at this higher end resort, the type of service we received should be expected automatically - irrespective of any tipping or gifting.
We received no acknowledgement from our host during our stay other than the couple of random encounters we'd have near the main reception or seaplane terminal during the day. In fact, our one "special" request of having a set of the stuffed animals was almost jokingly dismissed. After reiterating the seriousness of my request we received two, saying they were out of stock of the others. (I did spot others during the stay there, however.) Other Conrad properties have proactively offered the iconic stuffed animal or gladly provided one upon request. As I had mentioned before, we booked all of the dinners in advance. The only additional activity I did there was the Jetblade, which I booked directly with the desk by the pool. Our host briefly resurfaced upon checkout time to tell us the arrangements of our departure but then left us with another colleague.
If we were to return, I doubt we'd tip outside of the housekeeping service.