Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Live: IWI; Work: DCA/Everywhere; Play: LAS/SJU/MLE
Programs: AA EXP, DL PM, Hyatt Glob, Marriott Ambassador/LTP, Nat'l Exec Elite, LEYE Gold
Posts: 7,457
I prefer to leave the tip and hope it will get wiped out, and I follow up with the front desk if it doesn't. (I wait until check out time, and I'll say something like "can you make sure my breakfast charges are taken off"). I used to work in restaurants so I am sensitive to this, and I don't like the risk that writing "please include the standard tip/Globalist" will result in zero tip. (The server might have no idea that they are supposed to receive an included tip -- and the property that doesn't have a standard % gratuity might argue that even if they are required to cover a tip that is left, there isn't a default minimum gratuity if one isn't left -- so the server gets $0.) I leave something modest like 18%, so that the front desk doesn't have a reason to deny wiping it off based on my tip amount being too large, and then I usually leave another few bucks in cash. I haven't had any trouble since I started doing it that way (I had some pushback from a front desk that I recall when I left a rounded-up 20%).