zebranz

Your question was: "Is that fair?"

It's your money, you have paid for the room. If you want to tip anything, whether you had room cleaning or not- it is fair.

Annalisa12

I always acknowledge in the hall and say thanks. They work really hard. They deserve a tip everyday.

MiniMuffin

You realize the work is the same for housekeeping whether you're on vacation or not, right? Take $2 out of your per diem per day and give it to the people who clean up after you.

DELee

Why? Voldoo doesn't feel guilty. You do.

David

PHLGovFlyer

I've often wondered about the impact of neatness on housekeeping's job. I'm reasonably neat when I travel but still leave towels on the floor to be changed out and the sink usually needs a minor cleanup daily. My wife otoh is a neat freak. I have to remind her not to make the bed(s) when we travel. She folds the towels and wipes down the counters. Everything is put in its place before we leave the room. I imagine that housekeepers appreciate neatness to a certain degree, but at what point does it become overkill?

Regardless, I leave a few dollars for housekeeping every day rather than at the end of a stay because of staff rotation.

Goaguy

I think the real question should be why employers pay their staff so low wages that they have to be dependant on tipping.
Where I come from, what you get invoiced is what you pay. You don't tip unless you receive a service that is out of the ordinary or beyond what you expected. And imagine how much money doesn't go through the official channels like this, how many declare tips to the tax office? Such an old fashioned way of doing things.
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jeffers

I don't generally tip housekeeping. I don't usually carry any cash on me.

However I always go through the room before vacating, and put any trash together in a bag, towels in the one spot etc. Never leave a mess.

Concerto

Often1

Declining daily services means fewer housekeeping hours and thus fewer housekeepers. Not because you individually declined services but because more and more do.

While it is entirely possible that a contract service is paid per room, the employees of the service, e.g. the housekeepers can't be paid per room anywhere in the US.

It isn't worth overthinking this issue. It may be true that it takes more work on a 4-day stay to clean the room daily than it does to clean it once, but it likely isn't by a huge amount. If you would ordinarily tip $5 per day, thus $20, it isn't worth trying to figure out whether you ought to leave $17 if it's only one cleaning. Just leave the $20.

Even with a strong union and $15/hour, 40 hours for 50 weeks a year is $30K. Try raising a couple of kids on that in one of the places which typically has those wages. Then ask yourself about the person making $10/hour.

:D!

This doesn't make sense, unless there are trends such as people on long weekend breaks are more likely to decline service vs people travelling for work Mon-Fri, *and* all housekeepers are rostered to work on the same days every week. Otherwise it all averages out.

DELee

OP was concerned that who ever might have cleaned her room on the days that she declined service would work less and paid less. My point was that there's no guarantee who would reset her room when she finally left - the housekeeping person who _would_ have cleaned the OP's room on the days she declined service wouldn't necessarily gotten a larger tip at the end anyway given rotation schedules and weekend breaks. Perhaps it averages out but it is ambiguous as to whom would have provided service versus who got the tip.

David

hedoman

Out of 24, a logical post was bound to happen.

And to the snowflake telling another poster to leave money.......geez!

rickg523

Every morning, I leave a tip and a thank you note to housekeeping for cleaning the room for my use. I do this daily instead of all at checkout, because housekeeping staff change assignments and I want the person doing me a service to receive my appreciation. I tip because frankly I've had apartments that cost more daily than some hotels I've stayed in and no one is cleaning my apartment daily as a part of the rent.
I also have a realistic view of American culture.You may think that employers should pay wages which would render tips as a way to earn a living wage unnecessary. I do too. But people in the US can work full time jobs and be living in their car. It's a harsh economy. Many Americans revel in that and deplore any assistance to those falling behind as inculcating dependancy. It's a philosophical position. But the low end of the economy isn't living on theories and they're underpaid. That's just the fact. I can bemoan it; even write impassioned posts about it. But I know ponying up a few bucks a day that I can easily afford is helping a worker out and I prefer doing to saying.
As always, IMO and YMMV.
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RaginPlainsman

I've actually wondered the same thing as the OP as more properties are rolling out these sorts of programs, so appreciate the discussion here. I always tip on days I've had the room cleaned and also at the very least pile the towels to change out together and collect the trash together. The cleaning staff have hard - sometimes gross - jobs, plus I've been taken by John Hodgman's saying "Be mindful of the work you leave for others." Though this whole question of per-room payments opens up whether leaving some work is actually better than none...

hotturnip

No.

No, no, no.

This is where tipping discussions seem inevitably to lead.

The "real question" is not "why employers pay their staff so [sic] low wages." That's an entirely separate question. As someone else has noted, in union environments housekeepers can be well compensated (even in non-union ones, as I recall some of the Housekeeping managers marveling at how much some of the experienced housekeepers were making). Housekeepers are not paid a "tipped wage" like food servers.

It is a tip in its purest form--a sign of appreciation. Like the people who bring candies and chocolate for the flight attendants.