<p>Do you all routinely leave tip money for the housekeeping staff at hotels?
(I’m assuming that all of us here are reasonably neat in hotels, and that we don’t leave big messes for housekeepers to clean up, beyond the normal expectation of making the bed / changing sheets and cleaning the bathroom.)</p>
<p>^^ For some reason, I think that there is no debate that tipping is expected, and that the customary percentage is indeed at the average of 17-18 percent (between the 15 and 20 percent.) Obviously, one could technically avoid tipping at all when not in a large party, and perhaps claim very poor service. But, aren’t such cases really rare? My perception is that the service charges of 15 percent on an average check works pretty well, considering that the 15 percent can be calculated on the amount plus taxes and that liquor can skew the bill towards a higher price.</p>
<p>Lastly, the discussions might take a different form depending on the location of establishments. Tipping in high priced cities might be quite different from the bills presented in rural areas. Hard to argue that a breakfast with coffee that runs around 6 dollars should only generate a 1 dollar tip! On the other hand, the tip of 20 dollars on an expensive bottle of wine of 120 dollars might seem excessive when the only work is to bring it and uncork the darn thing! </p>
<p>“Do you all routinely leave tip money for the housekeeping staff at hotels?
(I’m assuming that all of us here are reasonably neat in hotels, and that we don’t leave big messes for housekeepers to clean up, beyond the normal expectation of making the bed / changing sheets and cleaning the bathroom.)”</p>
<p>Usually $3 per night at the hotel.</p>
<p>Guidelines for the confused.
<a href=“http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/travel/hotels/2009-11-17-hoteltipping17_ST_N.htm”>http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/travel/hotels/2009-11-17-hoteltipping17_ST_N.htm</a></p>
<p>PG: I don’t. If I actually required some service, such as extra towels or cleaning up a mess, I would.</p>
<p>In the last few years I’ve stayed at a Marriott Courtyard on business for up to a week at a time. They instituted a thing where one could hang a tag on one’s door indicating that one didn’t need maid service that day. In exchange, one received a $5 coupon towards breakfast. (Naturally, one would tip the breakfast server on the pre-discount amount! 
) They posed it as an environmentally-friendly option. I was happy to take advantage of it.</p>
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<p>Routinely? No, as it changes greatly depending on the hotel, its price, and the location. There is probably little logic in what I do, because I realize that the fanciest and most expensive hotels might be the worst exploiters … as the DSK story revealed. I do tend to leave a small token of appreciation behind, as well as do my best to keep the room as easy to clean as possible during my stay. Also, I have borrowed a tactic from my father who traveled extensively in his day. He always tipped the hotel staff generously immediately upon arrival, That seems to work a lot better than tipping when exiting. It has worked particularly well with the people who are deciding what room to assign a single traveler. For some reason, the token of appreciation seems to unlock the upgraded room a lot better than flashing the frequent traveler “platinum.” Tipping the cleaning staff at the onset also seem to generate a generous supply of fresh towels! </p>
<p>All in all, the tipping at hotels seems to be a good idea. Just as making sure to give out those airlines “appreciation” tickets to the gate agents! :)</p>
<p>I do tip housekeeping, but not as well. I am guilty of that, as I tend to leave the tip when I leave. Something I will keep more in mind, Pizzagirl. For some reason, I’m not on automatic with hotels, perhaps because I don’t use them as much. DH does tip housekeeping according to etiquestte schedules always, and he travels a lot. </p>
<p>Hunt, no you do not HAVE TO plan to include tips in the price of ones’ meals. I do, most people do, but one does not HAVE TO do so. My MIL was a notoriously poor tipper and to this day hates leaving any money on the table, literally. Always have to include it with a credit card when she’s with us, to avoid a scene. </p>
<p>As Xiggi’s example shows, tipping 15% seems way too low when eating at a low cost place, expecially with good service. We tip way above that at some of our regular haunts, and they are worth every bit, which is why they are our regular eating destinations. </p>
<p>I’m pretty much on autopilot when I tip. Favorite places get a generous amount, new places I tip an auto 15 to 20% rounding up and down depending on mood and how good the service, food and experience was, but not giving it a whole lot of thought. It just flows from years of doing the same. Unless something stands out one way or the other.</p>
<p>We had a 90th Birthday brunch for my mother recently, and the waitress was truly obnoxious. My DH had her exchanged for another who was OK, not memorable either way. The waitress had confused some of the elderly guests who wanted orange juice by telling them that it would cost extra, instead of coming to DH and me and so arranging for it. For some crazy reason, not explained to us, mimosas, Bloody Marys, Coffee, tea, water was all included in the drink surcharge which we had opted for, but not plain old orange juice, and I had missed that when arranging for the affair. But, for goodness sakes, there were 2 dozen people there , and the tab was going to be well over two grand and we’re going to hassle some deaf octogenerians who want plain orange juice and tell them it costs extra when this is a group thing? </p>
<p>When we got the bill, it included an 18% gratuity on the pretax amount, and had the manager or the waiter just given the old lady her orange juice for free instead of charging us a surcharge for it after the ruckus that whole thing had caused, we would have added to the tip. But the manager did not scratch the charge, and at this place, I know that tips are pooled. so everyone lost out a little bit, not all that much, maybe $200 total, because DH was annoyed at the upset it caused his mother. </p>
<p>The other thing that is often discussed is whether the 15% standard should be on net before or after tax. Since my tipping is estimated, and usually on the high side, most of the time twice the sales tax here, is over 15% of net but not quite 20% of it., so it’s rare anyone gets just 15% of net from me. A big push to make it including the tax around here when I’ve seen articles so written. </p>
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<p>I’ve worked retail jobs and also worked as a Census enumerator for the 2000 census. I don’t know which area you worked in, but the standard hourly pay for enumerators in the Boston area back then was $15/hr…and I worked a lot of hours in evenings/weekends in some of the worst neighborhoods regarding crime and irate residents. </p>
<p>Even dealing with difficult customers or in the case of my Census experience…getting a few irate residents who’d go so far as yell racist epithets* at me or other fellow enumerators or in one notable case…sending a pair of large angry dogs(Probably dobermans) chasing after me…I’d rather do that than wait tables. </p>
<p>For one thing, there’s a guaranteed fixed hourly pay rate whether there’s much business/enumerating responses or not so I don’t have to worry about dead nights/lack of responses leaving me with little/no money at the end of my shift. Ended up earning a nice spring/summer nest egg on top of my regular job that year. :)</p>
<p>There’s also the factor of working in much closer quarters, level of manual labor, quick pacing from service expectations, and the level of exacting attention to detail over restaurant menus and what each customer ordered from which table while heaving platters of menu items/dirty dishes & utensils which isn’t present IME working retail or the Census. </p>
<ul>
<li>Parts of Southie and Dorchester. Seems the bitterness from the '70s busing was still present in those areas back then.<br></li>
</ul>
<p>We tip a flat $5/day for housekeeping - glad to see that’s in line. If staying for more than one night I also tend to leave an unopened bag of Lindt assorted truffles somewhere in the middle (or beginning) of the stay. We get excellent service… and I’m happy to assist those who are working for a living doing a job I’d never want.</p>
<p>When optional, we don’t have them change sheets or do much with towels, but that’s because I’m a dedicated “greenie” more than wanting to save the tip. We tipped our traditional $5 even when we had the maid just come in to take out the garbage a week or so ago - told her not to worry about the rest as we were in the room a bit that day.</p>
<p>I guess we just have a soft spot for those who do jobs I wouldn’t want. No regrets - and it’s ok if we never make millionaire status too. If we can’t afford it, there’s always campgrounds (a place we actually LIKE for many of our vacation travels).</p>
<p>We leave $ for housekeeping at hotels. For some reason many think you are supposed to “back out” the alcohol when computing your tip. Is this correct? We have never done this, but have dined with friends who do, and it always made me uncomfortable. Also, some say you never tip the owner of a salon if he is doing your hair. Not sure about this one either. I always tipped and it was always accepted.</p>
<p>I’ve heard that about salon owners too and it’s complicated because so many stylists work independently. I have had stylist give me back the tip once or twice saying they get the full service charge and the tip is unnecessary. That may be more confusing than restaurants…</p>
<p>My hairstylist has her own salon. She’s one of the hardest-working people I know. I always tip her 20%.</p>
<p>She has only one other station that she rents out. That person has had surgery and is out for six weeks. My stylist gave her two weeks free rent, which I thought was very generous.</p>
<p>Cobrat, I did work for the 2010 census as a team leader (making far less than $15/hr…they must have been paying a premium in Boston), but subsequently I worked for them as a regular employee. They do many long term surveys for various government entities. I can assure you that the work is far more difficult than the decennial census, for a number of reasons which I won’t go into here, since it is off topic.</p>
<p>I have also worked retail, which generally pays a pittance. Like restaurants, it probably depends where you work. I worked in Bloomingdales and on the main floor of Filenes in downtown Boston, and that was a horror. Given that waiters in a decent restaurant probably make at least four times as much per hour, I’d rather wait tables. But I could never get a waitress job. I tried, because those were the best paying jobs.</p>
<p>Aside from Emily Post, since plenty of restaurants still add an automatic gratuity of 18 % to parties of a certain size, I seriously doubt that 20 % is standard. Some bills will also calculate 15, 18, and 20 % for you, which suggests to me that 15 % is still considered within the acceptable range.</p>
<p>Took a look at the link a previous poster provided on “hotel tipping”. It all sounded pretty reasonable to me EXCEPT the part where some hotels say you should tip a repairman who comes to fix something in your room. I just do not think that is reasonable. I am paying for the room and if there is something malfunctioning , fixing it should be 100% on the hotel. I paid for a room that “works”.</p>
<p>I would tip for extra towels, shampoo, but not for repairs.</p>
<p>^^^^
Agree.</p>
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<p>It has not changed because it is patently absurd to think that ANYONE works for the minimum wages describad above. The fact that 2.15 --or whatever it might be-- is just a non-sensical statistic. Again, the reality is that people who live from (mostly) tips enjoy a system that allows them to underreport an income … that is substantially higher than most expect for the young and beautiful. It has not changed because there was probably never a reason to exist in the first place, and that is has offered substantial benefits to the employers AND the employees in that industry. All the while shoving the cost of operations to the … customers. Directly and indirectly. </p>
<p>Fwiw, there is no worse system that one that combines a minimum wage basis (added to the cost of the food by the restaurants) and the same as usual tipping scale. In the end, the customer pays or is gouged twice – depending on your point of view. An example of this is in San Francisco where California law does not allow employers to take a tip credit against minimum wage for tipped employees; therefore, waiters in San Francisco must be paid the same minimum wage of 10.74 per hour – even though they receive tips. But again, there are few cities with utterly out-of-touch with reality leaders as San Francisco. Without the tech boom, it might have become another Detroit. </p>
<p>Automatic gratuities aren’t going to be around any longer, according to this article: </p>
<p><a href=“Fox Rothschild LLP — Attorneys at Law”>Fox Rothschild LLP — Attorneys at Law;
<p>Pizzagirl, as GMT pointed out, there is illogic in that a $20 lunch would only get a $3 tip, and one of my regular lunch spots with my mother runs about that amount with attentive service. A dinner for 10 times that dollar amount that might get spottier attention, and not as yummy means we should tip $30. THat would be when one sticks to the 15% rule. The rich get richer, I guess. For regular places and great service I often pay more than double, and I stick to the 15% in the high end restaurants. But the tip in the high end places often gets divvied up by more people whereas in my little lunch spot, the waitress gets it all. I also tend to pay cash in tips for the smaller places, and I do include the large tips on the whole tab always on a card. </p>
<p>But because I tend to frequent the less expensive places more, my epicenter for tips is around 20% and I don’t begrudge those waiters who work in these little eateries a dime. They work very hard–I can see it myself, as the jobs are not as compartmentalized and they really have to hustle. Not so at many of the high end restaurants, and the staff there tend to get paid very well. Getting a job at one of those places is very difficult and much sought after because the pay is very good. </p>
<p>However, if you just happen to walk into a place for the first time, like my mother’s favorite place, tipping 15% is doing just what’s expected. If you find the place is a gem, and you are well treated and find yourself there often, you might then decide to give a whopping 20%. On a $10 meal, we’re talking a big 2 bucks vs $1.50. Worth the upgrade, IMO, for a place you really enjoy, and that is providing good value. </p>