sylvia3

Sorry, those who make legal minimum wage should not be tipped (doubt very much that this was the case 200 years ago), unless they did something special. You do not tip the poor overworked guy in the back of the dry cleaners, you do not tip the minimum wage earner who helped sell you the shirt, you do not tip the guy at Home Depot for showing you where the plumbing tape is, why on earth should you tip a maid (in California, they make more than I do)? It has gotten out of hand.

sludick

Good idea about the "for housekeeping" note, LoveItaly. I worked for a number of years as a manager on duty at a luxury convention hotel, and we were very strict with what housekeepers could take. Money should be left on the unmade bed or pillow as a clear indication; your envelope would remove any doubt. Things like wine or any other apparently left-behind goodies could never be kept. It was not uncommon for a guest to inadvertently leave something behind and then return for it or call to ask for it to be sent - even tourist coupon books. A hapless room attendant who did not turn items in faced dismissal.

I always leave a daily housekeeper tip, usually $2/day if I am staying in a chain like Hampton Inn or Holiday Inn Express, and my company has never objected to that on my expense report.

ksucat

I say if you want to tip housekeeping, have at it but I don't think that is something that should be expected vs. being served a meal or drinks.
At hotels, I always ask to not be disturbed and just leave extra towels or pillows and with that I tip when I ask for things that have to be brought up...$2-5.00
If there is concierge service, well, that is a different story and tip around 25%.

happytrailstoyou

Beware of those who suggest that you tip more on the high side. They are usually people who work for tips or who think you will be impressed if they claim to be big spenders.

If you stay at five-star hotels and dine only at the best restaurants, tip more; if you stay at Holiday Inn and eat at family restaurants, tip less.

At a Holiday Inn type motel, a person who delivers a blanket, extra towels, a pillow, etc. will be delighted with a $1. Only the uninformed or profligate would tip $5 in such an instance.

HTTY

janisj

There are cheapskates of course - but tipping housekeeping is totally normal. Most people do it - and those who brag they don't -- well IMO that's pitiful.

Even IF I didn't, I wouldn't admit it.

One can afford to stay in a $100 or $200 hotel room but won't tip the maids a measly $2 or $3 bucks a day? My goodness . . . .

christraveller

Thank you all for your replies. Your advice has been very helpful. Will print this out to take with me, incase I get confused.

ksucat

Tipping the housekeeping is imho not totally normal.

Did you just call me Cheapskate?..we just stayed at the FS George V in Paris..my room was over $2k a night..we stayed for over a week.
I did leave a couple hundred dollars to the head of housekeeping for the staff, to be doled out to their discretion but to dictate to me that I have to leave $2 per diam or else I am pitiful is sad on your part janisf.
This is a travel website.
Be nice and try not to put others down if they don't conform to what you believe in.
Calling others 'cheapskate and pitiful' are a reflection of what you really are.

vjpblovesitaly

"Seinfeld has an episode about tipping a chamber maid."

Your'e blaming Lupe?

Brian_in_Charlotte

I very seriously doubt that more people tip the hotel maid than don't. I'd bet over 90% don't tip. I don't.

suze

Sylvia- So don't tip hotel housekeeping if YOU don't want to. But please do not post here that it is not what people do in the U.S. Because it IS standard practice when you are talking tipping guidelines.

happytrailstoyou

I cannot argue with Sylvia that most people don't tip hotel housekeepers because, having done a through Google search, I can't find any research to support the conclusion that most people do tip them.

I would say that some travelers on a one-night hotel stay, might be reluctant to leave a tip for a person they are not sure is the one who cleaned the room for them and that it is less guilt-inducing to stiff a person one doesn't have to confront than one that must be confronted, such as a valet or bartender.

Also, I suspect that housekeeps working at hotels such as The Surrey in New York City are more likely to receive tips than those who work at motels such as the Super 8 in Topeka, Kansas.

stumpworks73

Respecting that you have an abundance of excellent advice already; if you are going to require repeat service from the concierge at your hotel - restaurant or activity advice, reservations, directions; I would provide a tip the first time you use the service and then again as you depart. Having an enthusiastic concierge is a benefit in a new destination.

If you are on auto pilot and don't need guidance,or will only use once, a tip is not necessary.

sylvia3

You ask for extra towels, soaps, shampoos, fine go ahead and tip. But it is NOT standard. (I am certainly NOT a cheapskate; I say again, do you tip every single minimum wage staffer you encounter in your daily life? I doubt it; don't assume that others follow your protocols.)

suze

No I do not tip 'every single minimum wage staffer' I encounter in my daily life. I don't tip anyone like that, it's not a custom or a practice.

The maid who cleans your hotel room is different. And it is an accepted practice to leave a gratuity. OK I'm not sure I would in a 1-night stay at a no-tell mo-tel on a road trip, but when I'm staying somewhere for a week or two on vacation it's something I do. The maids are always appreciative and often make a point to thank me (probably proving the point that not everyone tips!).

NorCalif

Tipping is hard enough for those of us who were raised in the US to understand. So I sympathize with those of you from different places trying to figure it out.

It really is a crazy system IMO. A waitress in a diner works extremely hard, but because the food is cheaper than in a more expensive restaurant, she makes much less than a waiter in a more upscale place. Why? Why should her work be tied to the price of the food? (I know all the usual blather to try to rationalize the system, but if you consider it logically, most of it is nonsense.)

And I personally know more than one college kid right now who is waiting tables at sort of medium-scale restaurants - not chains, but not 5 star restaurants either- who make over $200/night in tips. On TOP of the $9.79 /hour minimum wage here in San Francisco. (Here in California waiters make the same minimum wage as anyone else - there is no "tip credit".) So they average $35 an hour. And "everybody" guilt trips everybody else and decides (WHO decides?) that it is important to be constantly raising the tip percentage for these underpaid workers who haven't even finished school yet. .Meanwhile the single-mom admissions clerk at the local hospital makes ... oh never mind.

P.S. I've been a waitress. Before I finished school too. And I made more money than plenty of people in plenty of other jobs. The ideas about who is "underpaid" and who isn't are sometimes remarkably uninformed. Not of course saying that ALL servers are rolling in money. Just that trying to guilt-trip every restaurant customer into tipping an ever-escalating percentage of the bill is, in some circumstances, total BS.

MikeT

"But it is NOT standard."

All evidence to the contrary. Just own it and say, "I don't tip" instead of giving bad advice.

As for the question of tipping in high-end instead of low-end, the irony is the people in the low-end need the tips more.

stpetereb

I guess Americans are split on the issue. There may be plenty of people who do tip but trust me there are many who do not. Sorry you think we are cheap but I don't even know anyone who does.

dlpiano

I did not tip hotel maids until my daughter worked as one during college. She would come home totally exhausted but SO excited over the $1, $2 and $5 tips left for her! Now I cannot leave with-out doing the same.

NOW to toss in another factor-do you strip the beds or straighten up the room a little?

janisj

My guess is that folks who say "hardly anyone tips housekeepers" just assume no one does because they personally don't. But it is obvious from this thread - the majority (at least of Fodorites) do tip.

"Sorry you think we are cheap but I don't even know anyone who does."

And you have asked all your friends about this???

Maybe some are cheapskates, and some are just clods . . . .

suze

I'm trying to get across the same point that MikeT said much more precisely.

Fine, don't tip if you don't want to. But please don't advise other travelers (visiting from outside the U.S.) that "no one" does it. Just because you don't.