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Spending a few days at the Plaza Hotel next month and have no idea who to tip (assuming the bellhop and room service) and what to tip. Any help would be much appreciated!

Bob

At all fine hotels, consider:
Bell hop (do they still call them that?)

Concierge IF they have provided an unusual or difficult service, not just for making a simple reservation phone call or giving you a map and some brochures.

Room service usually has a service charge ($2-3 dollars) PLUS a tip (15-18%) added on top of the food charge automatically so you do NOT tip on top of that..

Please don't forget housekeeping--either every day or at the end of your stay)in an envelope marked "for housekeeping"- (If there's money lying around they won't /shouldn't take it because they couldbe accused of theft)
$1 per person per day, more if you've made a real mess, used up dozens of towels, etc...

I'm not a proponent of tipping everyone in sight, tipping for what should be part of your basic job (e.g. don't tip a doorman just for opening a door for you)--Tip for service out of the ordinary and/or for those service jobs that are typically low pay hard work and are traditionally "tipping" income jobs (yes, we know that supermarket clerks are low paid and we don't tip them--yet we do tip hotel housekeeping. Don't know why, exactly, but that't "how it is done")

It all usually only adds a few dollars to your vacation costs, and means a lot to those who receive it!

Happy trip!

xxx

Tip the doorman $2 if he hails you a cab. Room service gratuity at The Plaza is (if I remember correctly) 22% but I always add an additional tip because the hotel gets about half that. Tip the bellman $1 per bag and another $2 if he gets you ice. Maid service is around $1-$2 per day depending upon how many extras (towels, soap) you want.

JB

xxx: of course you are within your rights and this is not against you personally but IMO adding a tip to a 22%(!!) service charge is being a bit of a sucker. If the hotel adds that much of a charge, they're accounting for both the server and the hotel (which is course making money on the cost of the meal itself) and you shouln't have to second guess a hotel's policy anyway--why should a guest have to know how much the hotel keeps of the service charge (How do you know the hotel gets half? Besides, I personally don't think a room service waiter necessarily should get at much of a tip as a server in a restaurant--they (in restaurants)serve you throught a meal, not just delivery and set up... I don't tip food delivery people at home 15-20% either...

xxx

JB, I didn't take it personally. I figure if I am staying at The Plaza I'm getting robbed blind anyways so I don't count pennies. 22% is not unusual for hotel room service. In most resorts and upscale hotels, this is industry standard. Scary isn't it?

OliveOyl

I can only speak for the hotel my husband runs, but here anyway, the server gets the entire 17% service charge from the room service checks. At hotels where there is a room service captain, he may get a percentage, but this is how our system works. Are you sure, "xxx", about those stats for the Plaza?

xxx

Olive: I can't remember if it is 20 or 22% but the Fairmont Chain (The Plaza) takes from 2/3 to 1/2 of that amount. I am also a hotel GM and we have this policy.

OliveOyl

xxx, Interesting. Are you with Fairmont? I can't even say if this applies across the board in Hyatt, but this hotel takes none of the service charge, nor did his last hotel, the Savannah Hyatt. Also, we are a 4*/diamond--perhaps the amount charged depends more on the region than the */diamond level of the hotel? NY would certainly command a higher % than Tampa or Savannah. If it were me on the receiving end, I'd just shrug and say, "Well, welcome to NY".

xxx

I've had the experience that there has been a problem with my room -- shower doesn't work, TV isn't working, etc -- so I have to change rooms. Usually, I've partially unpacked so I have to go through the aggravation of repacking. Do I tip the bellman again -- even though I'm being inconvenienced by moving and have already tipped once when I arrived?

Patricia

We just returned from a vacation in LA where we stayed at The Four Seasons in Beverly Hills. We quickly learned that we needed to walk around with a wad of five dollar bills in our pockets to tip all those incredibly helpful employees ;-). What left us bewildered and feeling like total hicks was the confusion that arose from the grand troup of vallet personel. We were charged $26 a day for vallet service (the parking situation didn't seem to offer an option and at a place like that we weren't about to ask if there was self-parking available) and each time we needed our car there were probably three or four gentlemen that assisted in retrieving and loading us into the vehicle. When it came time to check out, there were even more. We surely can't be expected to hand each of them one of those $5 bills, so who gets the payoff? The last person to close the driver's door? Do we need to tip both the bellman who brought the luggage down and the person who loads it into the trunk? Does the $26 per day cover all the tips and we need not throw those bills around willy-nilly? Can anyone offer some advice to a confused traveler in need of some enlightenment?? Thanks.