<p>$5/day, sometimes more if I travel to major cities. </p>
<p>They take better care of your stuff.</p>
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<p>I don’t think it’s a social norm. An earlier poster said maybe 1 in 20 tipped. The recently earlier post said 1/2 don’t tip or don’t tip very often. I’m very willing to believe the real number is higher for reporting bias.</p>
<p>This is one of those things - actually not a social norm, a matter of choice, good if you do, no shame if you do not.</p>
<p>I’ve never tipped and never thought about it either way. The fact that they may live decrepit lives is not terribly relevant. You can’t tip everyone who provides decent service.</p>
<p>A problem with that, crescent22 (and I am the one who posted 1 in 20) is that our managers at the hotel assured us that our low wages would be offset by tips. We were young, dumb college students - - how were we to know it wasn’t true? I actually agree that it is NOT the social norm to tip, but it is certainly unheard of, either. And it is entirely appropriate given the low pay these folks get to clean the bathroom and change the sheets after you leave. Have a little compassion - - a buck or two means a lot more to them than it does to me, that is for sure.</p>
<p>We never tip except in rare situations. No special services rendered- we paid for a clean room with clean sheets and towels. We often find less vacuuming than desired or other less optimal housekeeping. Also- how do we know the same person cleans when we leave? The hospitality (hotel/restaurant) industry needs to pay its employees as if no tips were involved- the whole idea of a tip is for service above and beyond the expected. I resent being told to give more just because someone I never even meet did their basic job. Be up front about the true costs and include it in the charges posted.</p>
<p>The managers are in the wrong, not the people who decide not to tip. One cannot be sympathetic to all people who need more money to survive. Tipping in a restaurant usually goes only to the wait staff, not the folks in the back making the meal and washing the dishes. We are not going to see a groundswell of people walking to the back to tip them or to leave notes saying the tip is for waitstaff.</p>
<p>Excellent work in cleaning a room perhaps deserves at guest’s discretion a tip. “A buck or two” because you assume they are poor has decent chance of being wasted in alcohol that evening.</p>
<p>Wow. This thread has turned a bit harsh. Former hotel manager here…not all hotels operate the same way. Generally speaking in CA anyway, the housekeepers make minimum wage. Not always will the same person clean your room each day. Some hotels pool tips and the management skims a bit off the top. Some do not. I have seen some unbelievable hotel rooms post check out. There are a lot of people who do things in hotel rooms they would never do at home. Being a hotel housekeeper is not for the faint of heart.
When I stay in hotels I generally tip the housekeeper if I have asked for extras…if there is turn down service, if I have received extra towels, amenities, etc. I try to hand the tip to the housekeeper at the time the service is rendered. This ensures that it goes directly to the housekeeper who performed the service.<br>
They all wear name tags now so if you don’t catch your housekeeper and want to leave a tip you can put in it an envelope with his or her name on it. If you hand it to a desk clerk, they generally will hand it right to the particular housekeeper.<br>
As far as restaurant tipping goes, some restaurants do share tips. When you tip your waiter in a decent restaurant, they share with the bussers and hostess.<br>
I won’t comment on the “decent chance of being wasted in alcohol” comment. I have known many hard working housekeepers, some of whom were old enough to be my mother and still working. The number of rooms these people clean in a short amount of time is amazing.</p>
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<p>Wow. Just…wow.</p>
<p>So, all “poor” people are in that situation because they drink all their money away? Perhaps you have had the good fortune to have been comfortably situated all your life. I hope no crisis causes that comfortable world to come tumbling down. I do hope something–reality?-- happens to jar you out of your smug and judgmental attitude.</p>
<p>Many are a medical crisis or a job loss or an abusive husband away from finding themselves “poor.” </p>
<p>Wow. Just wow.</p>
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<p>No. No such implication was made.</p>
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<p>It doesn’t really matter how one gets to the situation of cleaning hotel rooms. What matters is the utility of the contribution. If any higher than say 15% chance the contribution is wasted, I say don’t make it.</p>
<p>Once you give something, including money, to a person, it is theirs to do with as they wish. Tips are meant to be an extra- you feel like giving a bit more to that person doing you a service. I resent tip expectations, especially when the person has not added any value to the service already charged for. It also seems unfair to give a percentage of the charges- the most expensive service often requires less of a person than that paid a lot less for. Also, all of those small tips do add up to a significant amount. A final dislike- it being presumed by the IRS or management that a certain amount will be received in tips.</p>
<p>I admit that I was over 40 before I even heard of tipping housekeeping. Of course, when I was traveling with my family when I was growing up and staying at Motel 6 and mom heated canned stew in the room for dinner, we probably had about the same annual income as the housekeeper.</p>
<p>When we are staying at the same place for the whole trip, I try to make up envelopes in advance for each day - much easier than scrounging for small bills when you’re in a rush in the morning.</p>
<p>“if any higher than say 15% chance the contribution is wasted, then I say don’t make it.”</p>
<p>crescent22, I am assuming you are a parent. Hmmm, where is your child going to school? I hope it isn’t anywhere that the acceptance rate is above 15%, that could be a waste of your contribution, correct? Why throw it away on the 85% chance that it could be wasted on inferior faculty, facilities, housing, food and frats for goodness sakes!</p>
<p>Sad, very sad.</p>
<p>I just wanted to clarify that I know that my comparison to crescent22’s post was absurd. That was the point, as was hers/his comments.</p>
<p>some places do share tips with those in the back. My younger sister buses tables and washes dishes and she makes about 20 dollars a night on her portion of the tips… it usually comes out to about 10-11 dollars per hour total, after she gets the tip money.</p>
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<p>so, what were you implying in your comment about wasting the tip on alcohol that evening?</p>
<p>(blah blah blah self righteousness)</p>
<p>i was implying the downside of giving money to someone who “needs it”</p>
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<p>Usually, the waitstaff gives a percentage (10-15%) to the busboys and host/hostess, and sometimes to the kitchen people. Occasionally, you’ll have restaurants where the manager takes a cut, but I think that’s frowned upon.</p>
<p>I agree in theory that tipping shouldn’t be necessary in most situations where a person is doing the job they were hired to do, except I know they are not being paid a living wage. I don’t like to tip someone to carry my bag 15 feet, but I will always tip the hotel housekeeper (once you see their faces it’s hard not to). </p>
<p>Speaking of tips, we live in an apartment building where we get a Christmas card every year from everyone on staff (their names are listed inside, but they don’t bother to sign). We are expected to tip them, and it costs us more than $300 every year. They are all union, so I know they get decent salaries. THAT seems ridiculous to me.</p>
<p>I always leave a tip in the room and thought everyone else did as well. I had no idea people didn’t leave tips.</p>
<p>Someone mentioned above that sometimes the room cleaning is substandard. True. There is a chance that someone else cleaned the room the day before, but if the room is noticably grubby (and it is not just lack of maintenance expenditures by the hotel owner), then I think it is justified to reduce or not leave a tip.</p>
<p>I can also say that if those who think they shouldn’t tip because it is the hotel owner’s fault that the housekeeping staff isn’t paid well, you would change your tune if you tried the job for even one day. Cleaning up strangers’ pubic hair, pee and worse splashed in the bathroom, sheets and bedpads and bedpads and matteresses stained with “body fluids”, towels ruined with makeup, etc isn’t a job that any of us would take if we had other options. And by the way, not one person I worked with (and most were not college students) “drank” their tips away.</p>
<p>It is certainly true that housekeepers end up dealing with some interesting things. My favorite was when a bat walked (yes, walked) out from under a bed while a couple of teenaged housekeepers were cleaning rooms in an area of the hotel that had been closed for the winter.</p>
<p>Once upon a time there was a “rumor” that “tips” was an acronym, To Insure Proper Service. I don’t know if it’s true but I subscribe to it.</p>