Originally Posted by gleff
I've always wondered -- but never enough to actually ask a hotel person -- whether the service charge does in fact take care of the person delivering? Do they see any of it? If they do I'd feel comfortable not adding a tip. If they don't I'd actually want to. But my own ignorance means I don't really know what to do...
I can't speak for SPG hotels; however, I worked in a 4*, 4 Diamond Hotel in college and we were paid an hourly rate (similar to waitstaff e.g. $3.22/hr or whatever the minimum wage was). All of the added on gratuities were put into a pool and at the end of the month the pool was divided by the total hours worked by the room service waitstaff and then each person received that amount per hour worked. The pay was pretty good. That said, we especially liked it if a guest paid in cash because we received all 18% when we took the cash to the cashier. So in this case do not feel obligated to add additional gratuities. Personally, I know what it is like to work those jobs and I always put a few $ in cash in after I sign the slip.
One other thing to keep in mind is that if you are on a program or package with free breakfast there is usually no gratuity that is credited to the room service department so you might consider giving the waiter/waitress a few bucks. Other hotels might have a different policy, so YMMV.