Tip the guest-relations hostess?
 

I keep pushing the off-topic limit, but don't know a place full of people more likely to have this answer (thanks, tolerant mods): When one gets to bypass the front desk at check-in, is it the norm to tip the guest-relations hostess who meets you and walks you to your room and completes check-in formalities? I've never done that because it doesn't feel right - I hope I haven't been exposing the cretin in me.

That magical place is called the TravelBuzz! forum :).

....and I'm going to move it to that forum, where hopefully helpful FTers will weigh in.

SanDiego1K
OneWorld Moderator

It seems odd to me - if a hotel creates a procedure which inconveniences you, and then a method of circumventing it, why should you pay for that?

If someone is appointed to promote "guest relations", why should you pay extra to benefit from that?

So, my answer would be a definite NO and your instincts are correct.

Except perhaps in the context of the US, of course, where a variety of other considerations can apply (see other tipping threads)!

This has happened to me reasonably often in Asia. I've never tipped.

It seems like some travelers, especially Americans, get so shell-shocked by worrying about whom, whether, and how much to tip, that they go into a sort of tip frenzy, handing out bills to anyone who stands in front of them for more than three seconds. Believe it or not, at one US airport I saw someone try to tip the TSA guy who searched his carry-on! It obviously wasn't a bribe, just some poor soul, maybe a first time traveler, who had gotten to the point of saying, "Person .. has ... bag ... must ... give ... tip ..."

If you dont tip front desk staff, then theres no reason to tip the "hostess" who is performing the same job function but at a more personalised level. At the same time I would not expect them to carry my luggage (since they are not porters) even though they always offer.

It does seem weird to me to tip any hotel staff other than the porters and restaurant wait staff; and sometimes the "hostess" could well be the front office manager. It would have been most insulting to the manager if you offered her a tip (at least outside of america :p)

Except that the 'favor' of moving it here has deprived me of replies from a handful of OW contributors whom I "know" - and who appear to exist almost full-time in a world that I only touch periodically. Any kind of advice becomes more valuable the more you know about the advisor.