Tipping

[Walt34]

We don't travel much, usually once or twice a year so it's not even a line item in the budget. While I share some of the expressed feelings about tipping there is also nothing to be gained by me penalizing some low-wage worker who is, at least, working. So we tip the hotel maid $5/day. That will probably go up a few bucks the next time we stay in a hotel since both my pension and SS are COLA'd.

 

[aaronc879]

I don't stay in hotels often and when I do they are generally the Motel 6, Super 8 type. I don't have the money for a large tip but I do leave a dollar normally and $2-3 if I leave a pizza box or other extra work for them. If I stay for multiple nights I tip each night. Not only does that give a better chance of better service but also because you don't know if you will get a different person every time. Not right to stiff one person and give another a big tip for the same service.

 

[EastWest Gal]

We tip every day we get cleaning service. On a 2-3 night stay we don’t mess up the room enough to bother with having them clean. I don’t just tip at the end of a stay, because it’s possibly different people each day.

 

[Sojourner]

Yes I tip the maid, that is one job that I would never want to do, and is never well paid. And I think the vast majority of other guests are not tipping them.

+1


I don't even like cleaning my own house, so I can't imagine the misery of having to do it all day long in dirty hotel rooms. I always leave a minimum of $3/day and feel quite certain it's well deserved. Makes me happy that these poor folks with thankless, grueling jobs might get some measure of joy from my small gesture of appreciation.

 

[foxfirev5]

Yes, we tip for multi night stays, usually $5 per day, pay each day, as often get a different housekeeper each day.
I leave the $ on the bathroom counter with a note of thanks, every day. I have found we often get extra service, individual soaps/shampoos refilled more often, extra water bottles left, extra everything, without needing to ask the front desk.
Now, with Covid protocols, and no daily cleaning, I haven't decided if I will still tip. I figure the initial clean is part of the cost for the night.

Are they still using the Covid excuse? I've not seen that in the last 6 months or so. The higher tier hotels got away from that ASAP. Furthermore it was a real hardship for housekeeping trying to scrape by with minimal tips/

 

[fh2000]

In US, I often leave few dollars before we leave. I of course have no idea who actually got that money.

Before pandemic, when we travelled in China, we only stay in 5-star hotels. There is a process that the hotels normally do. We will turn in our door key/cards to the counter. They will send someone to our room to check. We will wait in the lobby. When everything is checked out; no damages, no stolen items, our guide then said it is now the time to leave the tip. The reason for that is, if we leave the tip early like we do in US, it will be collected not by the maid, but by the person checking the room for damages/stolen items. Strange, I know.

 

[MarieIG]

We did not stay at hotels during the pandemic; but yes, we tip the maid. There would be a tip for every day of service, either left in the room or if we saw her, handed to the maid. I preferred not to wait until the end of the stay in case someone who worked in the room was overlooked.

 

[Trailwalker]

I should make it a new year's resolution to tip hotel cleaners who have done a good job. The truth is that I never think about them in the same way that I think about restaurant servers or taxi drivers, but I should.

 

[Aerides]

Are they still using the Covid excuse? I've not seen that in the last 6 months or so. The higher tier hotels got away from that ASAP. Furthermore it was a real hardship for housekeeping trying to scrape by with minimal tips/

It's also a lot more per-room work for the maid when it hasn't been attended to in days. Think: clogged showers, much worse toilets, stains that could have easily been removed on day 1, now day 7... much more likely to need a deeper clean than a room that had a 20 minute once-over every day.

I try to avoid hotels that encourage guests to skip service, those that offer $5 credits or whatever. All that ends up doing is cancelling the maid shifts, messing with their schedules, and leaving them with bigger messes at the end (and little extra time, if any, when turning the rooms over.

 

[SecondAttempt]

OP here. My intent is not to stiff anyone. And I am generally not a conspiracy theorist. But my understanding is that until a few years ago hotel housekeepers were not considered tipped employees. Then just a few years ago the big chains started encouraging tipping the housekeepers. Of course I do not KNOW what their intent was, but I think it is more likely that they were trying to convert housekeepers to tipped employees to avoid minimum wage laws. Perhaps they were just looking out for their employees and trying to get them a little extra cash. I realize most big corporations are generous that way. (sarcasm)

So my rationale for not tipping maids has been to discourage the big chains from getting away with it. But if I'm the only one not tipping then I should probably rethink this.

The tip I saw was $80. Perhaps the person stayed 16 days but I suspect they were just leaving way moree than the few dollars a day people here have mentioned. I'm not trying to shame anyone because I just don't know.

I also try to be tidy and minimize their work and not leave any gross messes for them to deal with.

I guess I will have to think this through more.

 

[Jerry1]

. . . But my understanding is that until a few years ago hotel housekeepers were not considered tipped employees.

You just became aware of it. I'd been tipping in hotels back into the 90's when I started making good money. I'm sure it was a thing way before that.

 

[youbet]

If I stay for multiple nights I tip each night. Not only does that give a better chance of better service but also because you don't know if you will get a different person every time. Not right to stiff one person and give another a big tip for the same service.

That issue is what has me not tipping maids anymore. Unlike a server at a restaurant or bar, I seldom have any clue as to who cleans the room or how they might split tips, etc.

There I am walking out of a motel room in the morning. I plop a fiver on the desk for the maid. But is the person who will pick it up the person who prepared the room for me? Is it a manager who walks the vacant rooms checking for any issues? Will the person who picks it up put it into a common pool that is split with others? Etc.? No clue....... So I just stopped leaving anything for routine motel overnight stays.

 

[6miths]

No I don't tip housekeeping. I do leave the room quite tidy though. I don't believe it is a widespread custom here. Perhaps because wages are somewhat higher but I'm not sure.

 

[zinger1457]

When I worked we were allowed to write off the hotel tip on our expense report, don't recall the amount allowed but I usually leave $5/day, I'm sure more than a few workers wrote it off anyway without leaving a tip. Remember the first time I traveled to S Korea, left a tip on the pillow, when I returned later that day the tip was sitting on the nightstand.

 

[Sunset]

When we did a back to back on a cruise ship, we went to our room early. We dropped off our bag.
There was cash sitting on the counter.
After the room was cleaned, the cash was still there.
I told the room steward, that the other person left the cash for him.
I appreciated his honesty of not pocketing a bit of it.

Strangely I regularly tip extra in cash to our room cleaners on cruise ships at the end of the cruise, above what the cruise ships take as daily tips. But I never thought of tipping hotel cleaners. Maybe it's because I rarely see the hotel maids, but see the room steward now and then.

 

[HawkOwl]

When I worked we were allowed to write off the hotel tip on our expense report, don't recall the amount allowed but I usually leave $5/day, I'm sure more than a few workers wrote it off anyway without leaving a tip. Remember the first time I traveled to S Korea, left a tip on the pillow, when I returned later that day the tip was sitting on the nightstand.

Even in the US this can be confusing. Putting myself in the maid’s position, if I clean a room and there is money on the dresser- is that a tip, or was the guest just emptying his pockets? If the guest has already checked out, it is obviously a tip. But if it is a multi day stay, do you pick it up? Will you be fired for theft if you are wrong?

To solve this, I always leave a scribbled note explaining that it is for housekeeping and thanking them for their work.

 

[GoodWishes]

We are in the ~$5 per day club. We usually leave the tip when we check out. Since covid, we decline daily housekeeping even if the hotel offers it unless we are staying more than 4 or 5 nights. We try to be environmentally friendly so we are fine with reusing towels/sheets. We take out the garbage ourselves. We are tidy people so our room stays clean.

Although we much preferred the European and Asian way of no tipping, we feel we have been so fortunate that we try to be generous with lower wage earners. We believe that tipping hard working people is as good as making donations even though we donate quite a bit also.

 

[euro]

$5-10 a night

 

[flyingaway]

I would not tip in any place if I could get away with it. I don't remember if I ever left a tip in a hotel room. I did unintentionally leave my cell phone chargers there.

 

[Involuntary Retiree]

If we're staying for only one night, we don't tip. But, if we're somewhere for longer than one night, we never have our room serviced when we're staying in it. Don't want someone in our space, I guess, so we put the "Do Not Disturb" sign out when we first get there. But, we always tip at the end of our stay, $5 per day, so the maid who services our room at the end of our stay is also the recipient of the tip.


My DH was a road warrior in the pre-covid past, and he would stay for a week at a time at the same hotel for months, sometimes years. The people he tipped always took care of him.

 

[Doribe]

we usually leave ~$5/day

+1

 

[Jerry1]

Even in the US this can be confusing. Putting myself in the maid’s position, if I clean a room and there is money on the dresser- is that a tip, or was the guest just emptying his pockets? If the guest has already checked out, it is obviously a tip. But if it is a multi day stay, do you pick it up? Will you be fired for theft if you are wrong?

I put the money on the tray that had the little bottles of shampoo and conditioner. They take the tip as they replenish the supplies. I can see how just about any other place in the room might be confusing.

We donate the supplies to shelters to help people out. Plus I keep a couple soaps and shampoos in my shaving bag.

 

[Mark1]

I rarely leave a tip, as I never have small bill cash in my wallet. I use my credit card for essentially all purposes, and if I do get smaller bills in my wallet I immediately take them out to minimize the size of my wallet.

This thread did make me update my "vacation checklist" to include "hotel maid tip money", such that I will remember to take smaller bill cash going forward.

 

[FindingForward]

can't believe no one posted this yet

You just became aware of it. I'd been tipping in hotels back into the 90's when I started making good money. I'm sure it was a thing way before that.

Yup. To the OP who thought it was just encouraged recently, it's actually been decades:

 

[Irishgirlyc58]

My mother is 92 and I remember her leaving a tip for housekeeping when I was a teen. I’m 64 so this was probably early 70’s.
I suspect the practice of tipping housekeepers has been around a very long time.