Experienced a first today during my hotel stay in Minneapolis. I didn't have any cash to leave the housekeeper a tip after my first day, so I just figured I'd give her a bigger tip on the second day. This happens occasionally and I've never thought twice about it. When I went to make coffee this morning in my room, I discovered the housekeeper had dumped all the old coffee grounds from the day before in the clean water reservoir. Since the coffee comes in those little pouches, she had to tear open the old one to do this. Then she unplugged the coffee pot, which was plugged in behind this massive cabinet. It's impossible to plug back in without moving the cabinet out.

Trying to decide if I should just complain or leave her a nice hidden gift myself before I check out today. I'm thinking leaving a bigger tip as I had planned is a non starter.

The information I have seen says that fewer than half of hotel guests tip the maid, so if they are doing some kind of "revenge" thing for the non-tippers, it will affect a lot of guests.

I think this warrants a complaint, and certainly no tip for the stay.

You could put her dollar under the packet when you make the next cup of coffee, that will show them. Assuming it's the same person.

I've never understood the idea of giving people horrible service if you don't get your dollar or two the first day. I've certainly been on the receiving end of it a few times, for the same reason, either I didn't have the change, or I totally forgot, or left out quarters, which they usually don't touch until you check out.

Because nothing prompts me to give a tip when I leave more then lousy service during my stay.

And I so hate those little preprinted notes

Hi my name is ___________ and I'll be cleaning your room, please feel free to leave me a gratuity as our jobs are service based and we rely on tips.

I'd complain. I wouldn't mention your reasoning (about the tip), since that is irrelevant in terms of the actual complaint. If it wasn't like this when you left it before, though, you could say that. It's reasonable to expect that the coffee maker will be in a state where you can use it to make coffee...

I usually leave my tip at the end of the week, so I think sometimes the housekeeping staff thinks they're getting ripped off. I once got payback in the form of the maid pointing the showerhead outside of the shower. When I opened the curtain and turned on the shower to warm it up, I got a nice spray of water to the face. I made sure to return the favor before I left.

I leave a dollar a day but in a lot of places, they don't pick it up as they are required to assume property in the room is the customers until check-out. I've always felt bad when I'm checking out after several days and it's not the person who cleaned during most of my trip. I guess the law of big numbers balances this out.

Since a hotel room often is cleaned by different people every day, I would say that you earned your name newbiztraveler. Just split that tip and leave something every day instead.

I never knew this. I always waited until the end of my stay (even if it were a week) and just left a fat tip at the end. I guess the lucky person who cleaned the room that day was happy, but the others probably were not. I never left daily tips, just one big one at the end.

To the OP, definitely complain to management, 100%

There is never any advantage to tipping the housekeepers - they seem to expect it, so if you don't tip, they try to improve so you will.

Since the crews do change, the above strategy works for a whole stay.

Only on rare occasions, mind you, do they deserve the tip anyway.

However, if I request extra towels or something extra, I always tip the person who brings it up. Additionally, ask if you can have their name to call and compliment for their excellent service. They'll tell others, and your service will be better from others, too.

I don't believe that. For one, I usually see the same people in the hallways. Second, many hotels have small signs in the room that say "Your room is being serviced by xxxxxxx".

You might get the same housekeeper several days in a row, but not always. For the most part, they don't work seven days a week. Also, the hotel might have more housekeepers in on busier days than slow ones.

Most businesses have internal policies about how to share out tips. I'd assume hotels do also.

If I were the OP I would complain about what happened without mentioning the tipping issue.

I don't know if it will do much good, but I complained when I checked out. I remember having a 20 minute argument once with a hotel manager on checkout telling him I didn't make the 1 hour phone call to Honduras from my room. He finally agreed to remove it from my bill, but he acted like I was trying to pull one over on him.

Before I left my room, I left a handwritten note on the back of the "your room is being serviced by" card. It said I hid my coffee filter somewhere in the room for them to find. Of course I didn't actually do that (I wouldn't want some subsequent traveler to get that surprise), but I'm quite sure it resulted in the housekeeper turning my room upside down trying to find it.

I know many people that do not tip housekeeping at all. I wonder what the percentage of tippers vs. non-tippers is? If it's in the 50/50 range the maids must be very busy dishing out revenge.

As I mentioned above, between the maid tipping threads here on FT, and things I have read in the news, my estimate is that fewer than half tip.

There was a "day in the life" article in the Orlando Sentinel a few years ago where they followed a maid around for the day and reported. The article suggested that tipping the maid was "customary", but on that particular day, out of 11 rooms serviced, one left a tip. With a high prevalence of vacationers and foreigners, Orlando might not be typical, but in my book something is "customary" if most people do it, and while many do, "most" apparently don't.

Considering how volatile most maid (and other) tipping threads tend to be here on FT, I am surprised this one has stayed civil for so long.