I'll tip the maid 1 or 2% of my total bill if the room is clean.
If it's not I call housekeeping and complain.

If it's really kept clean, I'll hid the tip under a towel on the bathroom vanity.
That way I know the maid will find/get it.

What did the concierge do to earn $100? A hard to get table in a restaurant?

No, it doesn't seem logical or warranted. My tests for whether someone should be tipped are if they are either:

- paid subminimum wage (ie. waitstaff)
- or performing an optional service I've requested.

Neither of these circumstances normally applies to housekeeping.

THAT MADE ME LAUGH!

I've had plenty of hotel stays when I actually stay on the hotel for less than 8 hours. Basically, a check-in-sleep-check-out stays. On these cases, I don't leave any tips. However, for longer stays, I do make sure to thank the housekeepers and try to leave a little bit ($5). It seems the toiletries tend to be well stocked-up when I do this.

I only stay at Marriot properties, mostly Residence Inn, and I never tip the maid

I usually tip about $5 at higher end hotels and $2-$3 at the lower end of the spectrum. I'll leave it on the desk or bedside table with a thank you note. I will also make it a point to mention to the housekeeper that I left her something, after finding out who will be cleaning/cleaned my room. Some hotels have someone checking the room before the maid comes in to clean.

I think the housekeepers are some of the most overlooked, under appreciated workers at a hotel.

When on vacation and I have more than my little roller, I tip the Bellman to bring my bags up to my room and the doorman if he does something of value.

Hmmm. Good idea. I never really thought about it that way. I usually leave the tip $30-40 when I'm leaving to go home. I'll probably start doing that from now on.

I always try to tip the maid generously. I was in the Wyndham in Nassau a couple of weeks ago. I forgot to tip and so went up a couple of rooms and gave the maid a 20 and than she informed me that she had not cleaned my room but wished she had. I told her to keep the 20 and she helped me find my maid and I gave her a 20. The other days I tipped 10 a day. I will tip high in upscale or low scale as the maids work very hard for very low wages. I usually will leave a note and a tract.

$20, $30, $40! I would gladly clean rooms if I got these gratuities! Let's see: 4 rooms per hour; 8 hours per day. Potential gross would be over 1000 dollars per day -- cash!

For some frequent travelers to the same hotel, these levels of gratuities might kick in the nanny tax. I hope those who stay in the same hotels are asking for TINs -- just in case they are ever nominated for a government appointment and have not withheld payroll taxes on these tips.

Nope, but then again I usually stay at very crappy hotels.
Though when I occasionly find myself in a Radisson or Hyatt, the luggage guy gets a few bucks.

I don't tip at hotels. They should pay their housekeeping staff well enough.

I'm generally sick of the idea that we have to tip for everything.

When the crew and I go to a hotel, we tip the van driver a buck each for handling our bags. Sometimes, the driver merely opens the back of the van and we schlep our own bags...so we generally don't tip then. At the hotel, I do not leave a tip for the housekeeper.

My sister was a housekeeper at a tourist hotel in our hometown when she was in high school. She would come home on Saturday and Sunday at 4 in the afternoon and go straight to bed and sleep until she had to work or go to school the next day. Apparently, the experience taught her that she wanted to do something else...she is now a SVP for a major bank.

With that in mind, on my personal time, I tip the housekeeper $5 a day.

An interesting article in USA Today recently.

Thankfully, I've never had to work as a maid in a hotel, but, I can see that it's a thankless job. I usually tip the maid $2-4 a day, each day. I want to make sure the maid who cleans my room is the one who gets the tip. I don't make a big mess, by the way. I find that I always get extra coffee and toiletries on a multi-day stay.

There are lots of people who perform thankless jobs. All of them have employers, and all of them should receive 100% of their pay from their employers.