Do I Tip the Maid & How Much, Paris 3* Hotel?
 

Ok. I know you don't tip the waiter beyond a bit of change or a euro or two. And I don't have to tip the cab from the airport on a fixed fare unless there's a lot of baggage handling. How about the maid that cleans our room every day? Tip or not? How much, how often, and how to leave it? It's a 3* (French official rating) hotel in the Latin Quarter, if that makes a difference. We'll be staying 10 nights, by the way, so that may affect the answers.

All French workers if legally employed get a decent wage and benefits - use same logic as with taxi drivers and waiters I would say - that said don't hurt to leave some little change but I do not think they depend on tips.

We usually leave 2-3 Euro per day for good service, and at the end of our stay any small change and metro tickets.

How does the maid know the 2 euros or the change is a tip and not just some change I didn't put in my pocket?

Maids are not dumb - Americans staying she/he expects such tips.

Or just write a note "Thanks for the good service" -in French of course. Fractured French - "Merci pour la bonnne service"

Awaiting French Fodorgarchs to give their two euro cents' worth on this!

http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...m#last-comment

As you noted Europeans don't tip, they round up. There's a critical difference.

So if the nightly room charge is 155€ I would round up with a 5€ tip, I mean round up.

I have stayed more than 300 nights in 200 different hotels over the last 4-5 years in paris.
In 2,3 stars mostly.
My accumulated tips for maids or other staff is : 0.
No tip is expected and none given.
But since you are US you will not listen so do as you wish.
Just now you know the rules : 0.

<<Maids are not dumb - Americans staying she/he expects such tips.>>

How would a maid know someone's nationality, are you saying he/she would check the reservation system

<<So if the nightly room charge is 155€ I would round up with a 5€ tip>>:

You've misunderstood, you always round up to the nearest hundred or you'll be considered really cheap and I would attach a personal note "Merci pour la bonne service"

We put the tip in an envelope and leave it on one of the bed pillows. Universal language.

As in: tip the maid out of the window?

How much leverage do you think you can get?


Thin aka Superstar White Chyna

I have never tipped the hotel staff in Europe.

If you leave a note: "Merci pour le bon service"

Service is masculine not feminine

We always leave 2€/day for the maid, with a note thanking them for picking up after us, and in exchange always receive the best of service. If you are too cheap to leave such a minor token, that speaks more about you then any tradition.

Thin LOL

Another European here, who has never tipped a room maid in Europe.

And another European here, who has never tipped maids in Europe.

We Europeans are so cheap.
On the other hand we have universal healthcare and don't ask a credit card before dispensing medicine.
Robert : you donate money to hospitals I hope or would you be cheap on that account ?
Having different cultures is normal.
Using one's to tell others from a different they are cheap is arrogant and stupid.

As an American, I would never tip a maid in Europe out the window or otherwise. But really just do what you want to do, tip or not tip and get on with it. It's hardly a worth a lengthy discussion or any discussion at all for that matter.

European here. Never tip the maid.


" If you are too cheap to leave such a minor token, that speaks more about you then any tradition".
What's tradition in one country may be a major blunder in another. Giving a buch of chrysanthemums to your hostess in France is considered as very gauche (chrysanthemums = flowers for the dead). Thank God Europe does not follow blindly US traditions YET.

Just imagine you went to a country for the first time and you had some shiny glass beads in your hands and a native gave you all his land for those shiny glass beads.

Now did you destroy his culture or just "do what I do at home"? ;-)

"Take nothing but photos and leave nothing but foot prints" might be a good motto

Boy, those maids in the hotels full of Americans are going to be really disappointed as the clientele becomes more and more Chinese in Paris.