That “simple” solution is not so easy. My trips are often for 2 weeks or more, typically with 2-6 different hotels, with a big, heavy suitcase. Even if I just tipped everybody $5 to avoid carrying a huge stack of $1 bills, I’d generally need to carry around at least 20 $5 bills for daily tips to housekeeping, tips to bellmen, valets, etc., or alternatively, make several stops at the front desk in the hope they can change a $20 into smaller bills. (Something not all hotels will do.) Then there’s the trip to the bank to get all those fives, since my bank’s ATMs don’t dispense $5 bills. And I would also be spending more than necessary, since not every situation warrants a $5 tip.

Using cash to pay for smaller purchases so that I always have appropriate bills for tipping would mean accumulating a lot of heavy coins to carry around. That was tolerable for work travel, since I was only carrying the pocketbook for a short while, then setting it down in an office or somewhere, but now that my travel is all for leisure, carrying a heavy pocketbook when walking around all day is not acceptable. Making sure my pocketbook is as lightweight as it can be to carry for 8-10 hours at a time is a priority.

For me, the option to tip electronically is a big convenience.