Housekeeping: Prefer tips or skip cleaning the room?
#31
Formerly known as caveruner17
Join Date: Feb 2012
Location: ORD
Posts: 432
+1. I was just about to post the same thing. I clean up after myself too upon checkout (all towels and linens in a pile in the corner, etc)
#32
Join Date: Aug 2005
Posts: 3,438
This is exactly why this issue is so pernicious. Somebody decides that housekeepers are underpaid and must be tipped. The expectation is thus created and propagated, forcing everybody else to comply or risk having something done to their property. The whole thing is just ridiculous
#33
Join Date: Sep 2010
Location: City of Angels
Programs: DL Kettle| HH Pot
Posts: 525
Do you / would you consider tipping is required in areas where the minimum wage for hotel workers is $15+/hour?
http://www.wsj.com/articles/los-ange...ers-1411594235
http://www.wsj.com/articles/los-ange...ers-1411594235
#34
Join Date: Feb 2015
Posts: 355
Do you / would you consider tipping is required in areas where the minimum wage for hotel workers is $15+/hour?
http://www.wsj.com/articles/los-ange...ers-1411594235
http://www.wsj.com/articles/los-ange...ers-1411594235
when I stayed at the Waldorf for a week, courtesy of a client, I still tipped.
($10/day for housekeeping)
#35
Formerly known as caveruner17
Join Date: Feb 2012
Location: ORD
Posts: 432
I work as a DJ / run a Photo booth on the weekends for extra cash. Going in, I know what I'm making. Most nights, I'm even flexible (if it's supposed to end at 10, I'm cool with staying until 10:30 or whatever - I figure happy clients make for referrals). Have I gotten thrown an extra $20-40 on occasion? Sure. Do I expect it? No. The contract states that I will bring my gear and play for X hours for $XXX.xx amount.
These housekeepers know they are making $15/hour when they took the job. Is it nice to throw them an extra few bucks here or there? Sure. Should you need to *pay* them for doing their job? Not a chance, especially if I clean up after myself.
Last edited by caverunner17; Mar 20, 2015 at 2:26 pm
#36
Suspended
Join Date: Oct 2010
Posts: 3,790
Go ahead and tell me off if you want. When I stay at a hotel for 2 or more nights, I have the room cleaned and I absolutely tip. When I am staying for only 1 night, I do not tip. When I purchase the room for a night, I expect it to be clean when I enter it. I don't make a mess either, so that helps my case.
#38
Join Date: Nov 2005
Location: on the path to perdition
Programs: Delta, United
Posts: 4,786
Is this really a serious a question - the staff would prefer you clean up after yourself, request no extra towels, make the bed, put all your crap in neat tidy pile so they do not have touch anything, and leave a $20 bill next to TV each and every day.
Ever less seriously. Who cares what the staff wants - what do you want? You are the sap paying for the room?
Ever less seriously. Who cares what the staff wants - what do you want? You are the sap paying for the room?
#39
Join Date: Aug 2007
Programs: QF LTG:
Posts: 1,859
Maybe we need to put hidden cameras in rooms to detect this sort of behaviour so it can be punished and stamped out?
As per other posters I don't want/need cleaning services when doing a multiple day stay. And yet the hotel makes it virtually impossible to opt out.
If I see the cleaner I'll tell them I don't need service and let them make the phone call if required.
Never had one refuse that benefit!
#40
Join Date: Nov 2013
Location: PHL
Programs: AA - Plat, HHonors - Diamond, IHG - Plat, Marriott - Gold, National - Exec, Amtrak - Select, NEXUS
Posts: 1,075
At the most and very rarely, I'll call the front desk to send up some fresh towels if I run out of usable ones. To me, a towel doesn't need to be replaced daily so I hang them when finished and I don't need new bedsheets over my 1 - 4 night stay.
I don't like the idea I have to bribe the staff to keep some from brushing their butt with my toothbrush. Since I don't know who to trust I prefer nobody in my room unless I let them in.
#41
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Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: Atherton, CA
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mules: yes. The book is by Barbara Ehrenreich.
It strikes me that there's a third option: use the DND sign to bar service but tip *anyway*.
However, it has never occurred to me to tip housekeeping in hotels. I don't stay in a lot of hotels, though, and those I do are usually on the cheaper end. Who leaves a tip in a Travelodge? So in what class of hotel is this standard practice?
wg
It strikes me that there's a third option: use the DND sign to bar service but tip *anyway*.
However, it has never occurred to me to tip housekeeping in hotels. I don't stay in a lot of hotels, though, and those I do are usually on the cheaper end. Who leaves a tip in a Travelodge? So in what class of hotel is this standard practice?
wg
#42
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: May 2012
Location: Sydney Australia
Programs: No programs & No Points!!!
Posts: 14,222
I like to get my room cleaned as it keeps someone in a job and I like to tip to give them a few extra bucks for a great job. I can only imagine how nice it would feel to have someone appreciate your hard work.
#43
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: May 2012
Location: Sydney Australia
Programs: No programs & No Points!!!
Posts: 14,222
I do care what their wages are. If I'm staying in a country, such as Vietnam where the average monthly wage is about US$200 and I'm at the Metropole in a $800 a night room I'll sure as heck tip every day.
#44
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Location: LAX
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I'm a privacy freak, I don't want people entering my room, so I prefer that zero people enter my room except for my companions.
#45
Join Date: Aug 2000
Location: Salt Lake City
Programs: Delta, Hertz, Hilton, Marriott
Posts: 4,921
It's never even occurred to me to leave a tip in a hotel room, but I am British and deeply uncomfortable with the whole tipping mentality, particularly the expectation.
Do you leave it on the side and if so, how would they distinguish a tip from cash you've just forgotten to pick up or tidy away?
Do you leave it on the side and if so, how would they distinguish a tip from cash you've just forgotten to pick up or tidy away?
I leave the tip under the TV remote on the night stand each morning when we head out. Sometimes with a note that just says Thanks!.
I tip a $5 each day. They often leave notes thanking me very much and the room is cleaned early after that first night and sometimes they leave extra towels and shampoo. We like to come back to the hotel to nap early in the afternoon and then head back out, so I like the room cleaned early.
They don't get paid much in the USA, so it isn't like it'll kill me to leave a $5. Tipping people with low paying jobs is just how America works. It isn't as necessary in advanced countries.