fastflyer

This smacks of freedom-of-speech suppression. Who determines who can or cannot post comments about Marriott's tip envelopes?

ysolde

I find myself tipping more and more, and in more places. The standard tip for table service now seems to be 20-25% (at least in NYC). Cabs in NYC now have "standard" tips ranging from 20-30%. We tip bellmen, concierges, maitres d', doormen at buildings our friends live at (and then there is the end of year tipping in our own buildings, which can easily run into the thousands of dollars each year), hairdressers, manicurists, hair colorists, haircutters, and all of their assistants. There are tip jars at coffee shops, doughnut shops, dry cleaners, and fast food sandwich shops.

TBH, it has not been my experience that the tipping culture is dying out. It's everywhere.

Podcat

And you got these numbers from ... let me guess ... waiters and cabbies?
Surprised they didn't say 100-300%. Perhaps it's not best to get your information on proper tipping from the recipients.

While you're at it, I'd avoid hiring foxes to consult on guarding henhouses.

joshua362

Yes, we evolved from a culture of "normal" tipping into a culture of being shamed into tipping more and more and everywhere possible. Only you can choose to ignore it though.

Hal Newhouser

You need to educate yourself on freedom of speech. You've just exposed quite a bit of ignorance on your part.

bdschobel

Oh, that would be me.

Seriously, anybody can comment on the subject, but we cannot cast aspersions about each other. Let's keep it friendly, please.

Bruce
Moderator

banffflyr

I recently used up a free night cert at a YYC area property, and was somewhat pleasantly surprised at finding the tip envelope. The front desk upgraded me to a great room, and since I was only staying one night, the tip envelope was a really useful prompt for me to recognize this nice gesture.

joshua362

Did you then give the tip envelope to the person at the front desk who upgraded you?

banffflyr

For whatever reason, no. I felt that would have been somewhat unorthodox, and I assumed that tips were pooled anyways. No?

RichardInSF

On the bedstand in my room at the Courtyard in Bakersfield, CA, was a cardboard wallet-like piece that said, "The Envelope Please(TM) -- Thanks for staying at Courtyard (R). Our caring room attendants enjoyed making your stay warm and comfortable. Please feel free to leave a gratuity to express your appreciation for their efforts." There was then space for the attendant to sign their first name.

Inside the "wallet" it said, "A campaign inspired by Maria Shriver and A Woman's Nation (SM)"

I know there is a big divide between those folks who tip room cleaners and those who don't, but somehow when management makes the solicitation, it is taking things a step beyond that debate in my book. Shouldn't they pay a living wage instead? And what about the implication that room cleaners are all female? I cannot imagine that this was what Maria Shriver had in mind.

Or is it a good thing after all?

planemechanic

Totally classless. If the management is concerned about their employees overall income they can simply pay them more. It's no concern of mine, and therefore I do not tip the maid service.

Kingston

We went almost 10 days without this coming back up. That's gotta be some kind of record:
Tip envelopes in rooms.

JamesEaston

Completely inappropriate to start a new thread on this!!

As commented, there is a dedicated thread to this discussion that was on the home page of flyertalk so hard to believe a moderator would have missed it:

Tip envelopes in rooms.

First of all, as has been mentioned ad nauseam, this is in no way classless or inappropriate, it IS a good thing after all and it is exactly what Maria Shriver signed up for when she chose to work with Marriott in helping the working poor.

Also, as has been mentioned ad nauseam, Marriott does not pay their worker any less than anyone else in the hotel industry. This is simply a way to encourage people to help the working poor for doing a service where they do not see the employee providing that service. Unlike bell staff, room service waiters and others where you are face to face with them and so often tip them, you rarely see your housekeeper so many people wrongly do not provide them a tip.

I hope the moderator moves this to the appropriate forum so we don't have another hundred pages where people find reasons to not want to help the working poor.

RichardInSF

Not inappropriate at all. There are two good reasons why not:

1. The weakness of the Flyertalk search algorithm

2. The clear knowledge that plenty of people disagree with your view and find this practice annoying enough to comment.

I prefer that my charitable contributions not be given in a way that makes the well-paid top management of a huge company look good.

I find the Starwood practice of adding a "voluntary" charitable donation to all bills equally annoying.

If these companies want to support charity, let them do so out of their profits rather than by trying to play on the guilt of their customers.

JamesEaston

Absolutely and totally inappropriate, still. There are two good reasons why:

1. A simple search for tip envelope would have brought you to the correct thread. That makes the assumption you know where the search box is.

2. The clear knowledge that anyone who disagrees with my view and finds this practice annoying enough to comment has done so, and is free to continue to do so here, where all such comments belong. Not in a second thread started to push your agenda to the forefront.