People like Jen leave me speechless. What a twerp! Just who do you think you hurt Jen, the hotel or restaurant? Not even. It was me that busted my buns getting your car for you as fast as possible so your pretty princess feet wouldn't be kept waiting too long, and it's me who is shorted. And don't give me that "they should pay you more" routine. Just WHO do you think would eventually pay for my higher wage, or can your bitty brain not grasp that economic concept?

Marge -

It doesn't kill us to be nice to employees and actually talk to them while waiting for our car. Long time patrons of an establishment are treated well and vice versa. We have been actually introduced to new employees. Being nice goes a long way. We've actually had our car's exterior shined when we returned from our outing.

I live in Atlanta, and a major pet peeve of mine is restaurants with huge parking lots that install valet parkers anyway, when you could very easily park your car yourself. I've never understood this to be anything other than another way to make people spend money.

I happen to agree with Jen. If your already paying the hotel $15 a day to park, why should you pay more for someone to bring you the car. If the valet does something extra, give him extra with at tip. But it shouldn't be expected. It's not my responsibility to pay the wages of the valet. They already have a contract with the hotel, that's why the hotel charges a daily rate. I'm sure people like fenderbender, xxx, and MsValet would rather some type of liberal mandatory tax be added. Sorry MsValet, but you're the twerp. Your probably the person who vandalizes vehicles because you don't think you were tipped enough.

Under your logic Chuck, no tips for bellman delivering bags to your room? No tips for a concierge arranging dinner and theatre tickets? No tip for the masseuse? All included in the price. Face it, the travel industry is based on tipping.

I'll bet you get great service wherever you stay. If you're a member of a hotel frequent stay program they probably have an APB out on their network warning other properties LOL.

"liberal mandatory tax"??? C'mon Chuck, you're sounding a little paranoid and giving us fellow Republicans a bad name.

So Chuck, along those lines of reasoning, you don't owe waitstaff in restaurants tips either, right, because they just bring the food you paid for? And you do realize of course, that no matter who pays the valet parker, a service or a hotel or restaurant, YOU will end up being charged if the pay structure is changed, making it a non-tip business. If valet service has to pay the parker a higher salary, then they will charge the restaurant or hotel a higher price for their service so the restaurant or hotel will in turn charge you more for what they provide. You are not going to get away from that any way you look at it. The buck stops at "you". You have no one else to pass it on to.

How about the locksmith or AAA mechanic sent to help you on the road. The skycap at the airport, hell you paid for your ticket, why give him more? Just tip your hat and go?

You are a cheap SOB, friend.

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.

we are from the uk .everytime we have been to the US we have tipped the valets $2 before and $2 on pick up.
damn no wonder they were so eager to please.It would make more sense to give them the tip before they take your pride and joy wouldn't it?