Tipping Cleaning Staff at Hotels/Motels

Started by signalman, September 28, 2017, 09:32:37 AM

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signalman

I just returned from a highway clinching/county collecting trip.  After spending several nights in various motels and at each one the cleaner leaves an envelope for a tip (standard practice, I know) it made me want to ask members if they do or have ever tipped cleaning staff.  If so, how much do you leave?

I will occasionally tip if my room is clean and adequately stocked with bathroom supplies and a good amount of pillows on the bed (I sleep with a lot of pillows and bring some from home just incase there isn't enough for my liking).  If I do leave a tip, it's $5.


oscar

I regularly tip housekeeping staff (to the point of feeling guilty when I forget to leave a tip), unless their service has been awful. Normally $2 a night, or $5 for a two-night stay, though that can be tweaked upward for good service, or at economy lodgings where the staff is probably underpaid by the employers.
my Hot Springs and Highways pages, with links to my roads sites:
http://www.alaskaroads.com/home.html

jeffandnicole

It really varies for me.  When I do tip, I'll leave up to $5.  And I'll tip nightly when I do tip, as the housekeeping staff can change nightly.  I know some people will wait until the end of their stay to tip...but if they happen to catch a maid that hasn't done their room until that day, she will get a very nice tip while the person who worked on the room the rest of the stay gets nothing.

Max Rockatansky

It really depends on the hotel, I usually do if I stay at something top tier like when I was at the La Concha in May...but those are rare stays.  Usually I'm in for a good $5 dollars sometimes more in those instances, lower level chain hotels generally don't seem to have those envelopes nor level of effort to warrant a tip.

oscar

Quote from: jeffandnicole on September 28, 2017, 09:50:35 AM
And I'll tip nightly when I do tip, as the housekeeping staff can change nightly.

My understanding is that tips are pooled, to address that situation. Pooling makes it harder to penalize poor-performing staffers, though their lower contributions to the tip pool might make them unpopular with the rest of the staff.
my Hot Springs and Highways pages, with links to my roads sites:
http://www.alaskaroads.com/home.html

briantroutman

I average upwards of 50 nights a year in hotels (all Marriotts of one type or another), and I generally leave at least $3 per day for every day I have service. I also try to leave rooms in as close to their original condition as possible to make the housekeepers' job easier.

Some hotels leave fairly subtle hints that you're supposed to tip–an otherwise blank envelope with the housekeeper's name handwritten on it...or a little card that says "If there's anything I can do to make your stay more enjoyable..." .

A number of Marriott properties have a rather blatantly identified tip envelope, but what's truly repugnant about it is a feeble attempt at corporate whitewashing along the lines of: "Marriott is proud to partner with the Maria Shriver organization to support women's rights..."

Or in other words: Hi- We pay our (female) workers slave wages. Make up the difference. xoxo, Marriott.

Even though I tip wherever it seems to be appropriate, I absolutely loathe the tipping culture. Workers should be paid an equitable wage. Period. I don't think it should be the customer's duty to sniff out which employees are underpaid and throw them a few dollars. I've also seen tip jars at hole-in-the-wall takeaway food joints where the order-taker/cashier/cook is the same person: the owner. Should I be tipping the person who walks away with the profits at the end of the day?

Quote from: oscar on September 28, 2017, 10:39:48 AM
My understanding is that tips are pooled...

Sometimes they are, sometimes they aren't. In some cases, the front-line person (i.e. hotel housekeeper, restaurant server) has to give a portion of their tips to designated back-line people (such as laundry staff in a hotel or food prep staff or bartenders in a restaurant). Or a pool of housekeepers' tips might be divided–among those on a particular floor, a particular shift, etc.

But in other cases (and I think more commonly), he or she who palms the fin walks away with all of it–undeclared, untaxed, and undivided.

Jardine

I don't mind tipping.  I don't like thinking about tipping.   :poke:



Brian556

I honestly had never heard of anybody tipping hotel maids before.

hbelkins

I've seen the envelopes at both high-end conference hotels (I never stay at any place fancy unless it's on someone else's dime) and at places like Red Roof.

I only tip if I am there for multiple nights, and then usually a flat $5 or so.

Tips should be a reward for good service, not an anticipated part of an employee's wage or salary. And as gifts, they certainly should not be subject to income tax.


Government would be tolerable if not for politicians and bureaucrats.

Scott5114

If tips weren't subject to income tax, it would be comically easy to avoid income tax: just pay the employee $7.25 an hour, and drop a hundred or two into the tip jar.
uncontrollable freak sardine salad chef

Revive 755

I almost always tip unless it is one of the fortunately rare times an overzealous cleaning staff member starts on the room before I have put the tip out.  Usually around $3 to $4, but I will dock the amount if I arrive to a room that is not as clean as it should be, and occasionally up the amount if staying multiple nights and/or make more of a mess of the room.  There was one time I was staying multiple nights, came back with muddy clothes one night, and left the bathtub extremely dirty, so I left a $10 tip.

The Nature Boy

I always tip.

Most service workers are paid below minimum wage. An extra $5 won't kill my budget but it could really help supplement a person's wages. I grew up in a poor household and my mom cleaned hotel rooms when I was a kid so I am incredibly sympathetic.

SP Cook

I never tip for a single night stay.  If I stay multiple nights in the same place, I might leave $15 at the end of the stay.

The Nature Boy

Quote from: Scott5114 on September 28, 2017, 06:15:13 PM
If tips weren't subject to income tax, it would be comically easy to avoid income tax: just pay the employee $7.25 an hour, and drop a hundred or two into the tip jar.

I had a boss once who always paid for his food on his credit/debit card but left the waiter/waitresses a cash tip. I think that he was trying to help them avoid the income tax but I'm not sure if it actually worked.

formulanone

#14
I usually don't tip cleaning staff at hotels, because I don't usually have my room cleaned between Monday night and Friday morning. To me, having the room ready is literally part of the job and customer expectation. I usually don't have a room cleaned because of the tendency of cleaning staff to leave room doors wide open...it's not the cleaning staff I don't trust, but the comings-and-goings of everyone passing through the hallways.

I do make exceptions:

1) Staying longer, in which I desire some sort of mid-week service. $2 per cleaning.

2) If they find something I'd lost (one time I'd lost an SD card, and they found it and placed it on the nightstand), so I gave them $5.

3) If I had a bad cold that week, regardless of any lack of service. Seems fair, since they might get unwell. Depends on what's in my wallet.

oscar

Quote from: The Nature Boy on September 29, 2017, 10:00:59 AM
Quote from: Scott5114 on September 28, 2017, 06:15:13 PM
If tips weren't subject to income tax, it would be comically easy to avoid income tax: just pay the employee $7.25 an hour, and drop a hundred or two into the tip jar.

I had a boss once who always paid for his food on his credit/debit card but left the waiter/waitresses a cash tip. I think that he was trying to help them avoid the income tax but I'm not sure if it actually worked.

Two possible problems with that:

-- the IRS doing occasional checks for underreporting of tip income

-- employers might need to track tips -- and have an interest in reporting high amounts -- to qualify for paying sub-minimum wages that assume tips will bring employees over the minimum wage

This can be an issue also with home improvement and other contractors. One local story is about a contractor who subtly hinted that he wanted to be paid in cash so he wouldn't have to report it all to the IRS. Unfortunately, one of his clients was at the time the IRS commissioner. She paid the contractor with a check.
my Hot Springs and Highways pages, with links to my roads sites:
http://www.alaskaroads.com/home.html

jeffandnicole

Quote from: oscar on September 29, 2017, 11:25:36 AM
Quote from: The Nature Boy on September 29, 2017, 10:00:59 AM
Quote from: Scott5114 on September 28, 2017, 06:15:13 PM
If tips weren't subject to income tax, it would be comically easy to avoid income tax: just pay the employee $7.25 an hour, and drop a hundred or two into the tip jar.

I had a boss once who always paid for his food on his credit/debit card but left the waiter/waitresses a cash tip. I think that he was trying to help them avoid the income tax but I'm not sure if it actually worked.

Two possible problems with that:

-- the IRS doing occasional checks for underreporting of tip income

-- employers might need to track tips -- and have an interest in reporting high amounts -- to qualify for paying sub-minimum wages that assume tips will bring employees over the minimum wage

This can be an issue also with home improvement and other contractors. One local story is about a contractor who subtly hinted that he wanted to be paid in cash so he wouldn't have to report it all to the IRS. Unfortunately, one of his clients was at the time the IRS commissioner. She paid the contractor with a check.

If I tip a server, I could care less what the server reports - it's not my problem at that point.  I can't control what they do.

I personally think it was more of a personal matter with the boss.

If the boss puts down a cash tip (say, 15%), then he can later write on the receipt a larger tip (say, 20%) when he goes to submit the expense report.


briantroutman

#17
Quote from: formulanone on September 29, 2017, 10:11:43 AM
I usually don't tip cleaning staff at hotels... To me, having the room ready is literally part of the job and customer expectation.

I agree that walking into a clean room is the customer's expectation–and a very reasonable one at that. But if going beyond the job description and exceeding the customer's expectations constituted the minimum threshold for leaving a gratuity, who would get tipped? In a little over a decade of adult life–interacting with service workers–I can't recall more than a few who've done anything special or gone beyond the most basic description of their duties.

Based on general consensus (which is all I have to go on, since our peculiar institution of tipping has no defined rules), a number of people should be tipped merely for doing their duties adequately–including airport shuttle drivers, taxi/Uber/Lyft drivers, delivery drivers, newspaper carriers, hotel breakfast attendants, parking attendants, car wash workers, baristas, barbers...(we could be here all day). And of course, restaurant servers.

Some of these employees, if designated as "tipped workers"  by their employers, can be paid a sub-minimum wage under the assumption that tips will pick up the slack. You're practically obliged to give these "tipped workers"  something, even for subpar service. But you don't know who's officially designated as "tipped"  or not. And those who earn the federal minimum possibly accepted a lower hourly wage on the vague promise that tips would make their pay more livable.

As I said before, it shouldn't your responsibility–or mine–to research local wage laws, know how much each worker gets paid, calculate it against the local cost of living, and so on. Describing the necessary thought process just illustrates how ridiculous the concept of tipping is. But unfortunately, knowing the modest amount I do about wages and working conditions in the service industry, I feel I have no choice but tip at least the minimum...even in a barely clean Fairfield Inn room for one night. That is–until Americans can have a mature, national discussion about equitable compensation practices and dump this archaic practice nationally.

Scott5114

Probably the situation where tipping has the most peculiar effect is in casinos. If you hit a slot machine jackpot, the going rate for a tip is 1—2%, given to the attendant after they pay you out. In blackjack, you place a side bet for the dealer and if you win the dealer pays out both your bet and this side bet, then collects both the side bet and its payout as the tip.

The upshot of this is that tipped casino staff only make money when the player wins. That means that the staff is usually actively rooting for their employer to lose!

(Unless you're being a dick, in which case they are rooting for the casino to take all your money so you'll go away.)
uncontrollable freak sardine salad chef

Alps

Quote from: jeffandnicole on September 29, 2017, 12:43:57 PM
Quote from: oscar on September 29, 2017, 11:25:36 AM
Quote from: The Nature Boy on September 29, 2017, 10:00:59 AM
Quote from: Scott5114 on September 28, 2017, 06:15:13 PM
If tips weren't subject to income tax, it would be comically easy to avoid income tax: just pay the employee $7.25 an hour, and drop a hundred or two into the tip jar.

I had a boss once who always paid for his food on his credit/debit card but left the waiter/waitresses a cash tip. I think that he was trying to help them avoid the income tax but I'm not sure if it actually worked.

Two possible problems with that:

-- the IRS doing occasional checks for underreporting of tip income

-- employers might need to track tips -- and have an interest in reporting high amounts -- to qualify for paying sub-minimum wages that assume tips will bring employees over the minimum wage

This can be an issue also with home improvement and other contractors. One local story is about a contractor who subtly hinted that he wanted to be paid in cash so he wouldn't have to report it all to the IRS. Unfortunately, one of his clients was at the time the IRS commissioner. She paid the contractor with a check.

If I tip a server, I could care less what the server reports - it's not my problem at that point.  I can't control what they do.

I personally think it was more of a personal matter with the boss.

If the boss puts down a cash tip (say, 15%), then he can later write on the receipt a larger tip (say, 20%) when he goes to submit the expense report.


I agree, I don't care at all what they do with the money. If I'm served well, I leave a cash tip. If I'm served poorly and paying with a card, it goes on the card. I had a contractor at the house who wanted to be paid in cash and gave me a discount for it, so fine, I'll pay in cash. Not my problem what he does from there, I've done nothing wrong and we're all adults.

Brian556

Quote from: briantroutman on September 29, 2017, 01:37:17 PM
Quote from: formulanone on September 29, 2017, 10:11:43 AM
I usually don't tip cleaning staff at hotels... To me, having the room ready is literally part of the job and customer expectation.

I agree that walking into a clean room is the customer's expectation—and a very reasonable one at that. But if going beyond the job description and exceeding the customer’s expectations constituted the minimum threshold for leaving a gratuity, who would get tipped? In a little over a decade of adult life—interacting with service workers—I can’t recall more than a few who’ve done anything special or gone beyond the most basic description of their duties.

Based on general consensus (which is all I have to go on, since our peculiar institution of tipping has no defined rules), a number of people should be tipped merely for doing their duties adequately—including airport shuttle drivers, taxi/Uber/Lyft drivers, delivery drivers, newspaper carriers, hotel breakfast attendants, parking attendants, car wash workers, baristas, barbers...(we could be here all day). And of course, restaurant servers.

Some of these employees, if designated as “tipped workers” by their employers, can be paid a sub-minimum wage under the assumption that tips will pick up the slack. You’re practically obliged to give these “tipped workers” something, even for subpar service. But you don’t know who’s officially designated as “tipped” or not. And those who earn the federal minimum possibly accepted a lower hourly wage on the vague promise that tips would make their pay more livable.

As I said before, it shouldn’t your responsibility—or mine—to research local wage laws, know how much each worker gets paid, calculate it against the local cost of living, and so on. Describing the necessary thought process just illustrates how ridiculous the concept of tipping is. But unfortunately, knowing the modest amount I do about wages and working conditions in the service industry, I feel I have no choice but tip at least the minimum...even in a barely clean Fairfield Inn room for one night. That is—until Americans can have a mature, national discussion about equitable compensation practices and dump this archaic practice nationally.

I agree. Just get rid of tipping and pay everybody a fair wage. Don't even get me started on how corrupt and wrong our system is.

Also, every time I visit a restaurant where a waiter/tress brings the food to you, I always get bad service. They always let my drink run dry. This is incredibly annoying, because I have to stop eating until it is refilled, which often takes 5-10 minutes.
In this situation its annoying that you are expected to tip. I would much rather they have the drink dispenser in the dining room so that I can refill my drink myself. Why should I have to tip for service that I don't need or want?

Scott5114

Quote from: Alps on September 30, 2017, 12:25:40 AM
I had a contractor at the house who wanted to be paid in cash and gave me a discount for it, so fine, I'll pay in cash. Not my problem what he does from there, I've done nothing wrong and we're all adults.

This could very well have been to avoid credit card fees. I try to steer customers to my business toward using a check, since that's free to me (so I make more money).
uncontrollable freak sardine salad chef

jakeroot

Quote from: Brian556 on September 30, 2017, 12:44:39 AM
Also, every time I visit a restaurant where a waiter/tress brings the food to you, I always get bad service. They always let my drink run dry. This is incredibly annoying, because I have to stop eating until it is refilled, which often takes 5-10 minutes.
In this situation its annoying that you are expected to tip. I would much rather they have the drink dispenser in the dining room so that I can refill my drink myself. Why should I have to tip for service that I don't need or want?

I'm lost. You go to a sit-down restaurant, where food and drinks are brought to you, and are refilled by wait staff. But you complain about having to wait for service and that you can't do things are your own. Here's a tip: go to a fast food restaurant, where that's the whole idea.

jakeroot

I work at a Marriott as a valet. I'm rather fortunate that I live in a city with a high minimum wage ($12), in a state without income tax. Combined with my tips, which we do not pool (since there's never more than two valets on staff so it's just a big PITA) (we may or may not report our tips), I make quite good money.

I don't necessarily expect tips, but the stereotypes of who does and does not tip always surprise me. There are people with extremely nice cars who you sort of expect to have a couple extra bucks laying around that they might pass on. But they tip the standard amount ($2-$4) if at all. Then you got the beater Metro driven by someone who clearly doesn't have much, who happily throws you $5 or $10. Perhaps their generosity is the reason they drive a Metro. But it goes a long way.

That all said, I'd rather make $15-$18/hr without tips (I can make $20+ hour on some days with tips). It can be awkward waiting for a tip.

Brian556

Quote from: jakeroot on September 30, 2017, 02:04:41 AM
Quote from: Brian556 on September 30, 2017, 12:44:39 AM
Also, every time I visit a restaurant where a waiter/tress brings the food to you, I always get bad service. They always let my drink run dry. This is incredibly annoying, because I have to stop eating until it is refilled, which often takes 5-10 minutes.
In this situation its annoying that you are expected to tip. I would much rather they have the drink dispenser in the dining room so that I can refill my drink myself. Why should I have to tip for service that I don't need or want?

I'm lost. You go to a sit-down restaurant, where food and drinks are brought to you, and are refilled by wait staff. But you complain about having to wait for service and that you can't do things are your own. Here's a tip: go to a fast food restaurant, where that's the whole idea.

I go to these restaurants only because I want the food that they offer, not because I feel the need to have people do things for me that I could be doing myself.

I do prefer the way things are done at a fast food establishment.



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