Do you tip maids in hotels?

[Northern Piper]

When I travel in the US, I sometimes hear that I should tip the maids who do the hotel room. I don't recall ever hearing that in Canada. What's your practise, and which country are you in?

[Cunctator]

No, I don't tip the maids. I wouldn't tip any of the hotel staff. But I'm in Australia and we tend not to tip.

[Sleeps With Butterflies]

Yep, I do. For an average hotel I go $2 a night. Nicer than average? $3-5. I tip each day instead of the end of my trip since it may be a different person from day to day.

[Sampiro]

I usually do $2 for the first day, $1 for each subsequent day, and a max of $5.

[CairoCarol]

Depends on what country I'm in - not in Singapore, and not in the 5-star hotels in Jakarta (maybe I should). In smaller, cozier facilities in Indonesia, I do what a lot of people do - give the proprietor a lump sum of money when I leave, to be distributed as s/he sees fair among the various workers.

In the US, I do it if I remember, and I feel guilty when I don't. Not sure how much I would leave as I haven't been in the US in a while, but $2/day sounds right.

[Khadaji]

I usually do not. Perhaps I should, but I do not.

[Audrey Levins]

As an adult I've never spent more than one night at a hotel or motel, and I've never left a tip because I've never even seen housekeeping....

But from what I understand, if you are staying at a hotel wherein people tidy your room while you're gone, because you're spending several nights, and they leave you fresh towels for the following day, etc., you should leave them a few bucks.

This is only what I've gathered; I haven't been in this situation because I never get to take real vacations. Dammit.

[Omniscient]

I'm pretty generous a tipper but this in one instance where I just don't. Partly because I hope to never see or have contact with the maid and tipping people who you don't interact with just doesn't seem to make that much sense. Having them in and cleaning my room isn't something I particularly want, I usually leave the do not disturb sign up all weekend and request towels as needed. I keep my stuff in there, I don't want some minimum wage employee mucking about. Lastly, since I tend to sleep in on vacations there's been a lot of occasions where a maid has woken me up with their damn persistent knock and just barged into my room unannounced. I have a adversarial relationship with them generally speaking.

No tips. Daily maid services in a hotel is the equivalent of the squeegee guys running up and trying to wipe down my car window at an intersection and then expecting a tip. Service not wanted or requested. Clean up when I check out. Tipping a maid is like tipping a bus boy.

[sandra_nz]

Originally Posted by Omniscient

Lastly, since I tend to sleep in on vacations there's been a lot of occasions where a maid has woken me up with their damn persistent knock and just barged into my room unannounced. I have a adversarial relationship with them generally speaking.

Do you not use the 'do not disturb' sign? Or have you stayed at hotels where they've ignored it?

[lobotomyboy63]

I've never heard of tipping the maid, although it does bring an image to mind....

But seriously, if it's done in the US does it apply primarily to fancier hotels? Sort of like you wouldn't dream of tipping at McDonald's but in fancier places you of course would. I only stay at places like Motel 6, which are basic and chosen for that reason.

[Omniscient]

sandra_nz

Originally Posted by Omniscient

... I usually leave the do not disturb sign up all weekend and request towels as needed. ...

Damned if I know what they are thinking. Frankly it's the lack of thinking thats the cause I'm sure.

[threnodyangelfire]

It depends where I am.

If I'm in a hotel say, in inner city Sydney that has cost a bomb to just stay in, then no I don't tip. I assume it's included in the hotel bill and that staff are getting paid to market. (which in australia, as I understand it, is ok)

Somewhere like Bali, where I'm not assured that on the whole the money filters down to the staff, I tip a few bucks here and there.

[burundi]

I do. $2 a night. One time when some friends and I really trashed a room, we left a $40 tip. I've heard from folks who used to work as hotel maids that you should leave your tip under your pillow. If you just leave it on the nightstand, sleazy managers will sometimes take it before the maids get in to clean.

Originally Posted by lobotomyboy63

But seriously, if it's done in the US does it apply primarily to fancier hotels? Sort of like you wouldn't dream of tipping at McDonald's but in fancier places you of course would. I only stay at places like Motel 6, which are basic and chosen for that reason.

I tip the same at basic motels, as long as they're clean. I figure the maids there probably get paid less and can use the money more.

[Walkabout]

I don't. They're already being paid to clean the room, and I feel that that is part of what I'm already paying for.

[Lunar Saltlick]

I tip a few bucks in most hotels, more if it's a larger place with higher standards, larger rooms, and thus more work for the staff. I leave it each night, for the reasons mentioned above. I'm currently in Canada, but I do this no matter where I'm travelling, unless I'm in a country where I know that it's really not expected.

[shiftless]

Yes. I tip $1-2 a day and I have worked in the industry (not as a maid though). The work sucks, the wages suck and you would be surprised at what the chamber maids put up with. If you are the type of person that uses a bellhop (who get's $1-2 for carrying a single bag) then the maid should get some too. Ditto if you are the type of person who pees on the floor or tracks sand in and thinks it's OK to yell at the staff for sand on the floor.

I tend to base the tip on the price of the room - If I'm spending $150 a night for a room I figure I can spare a couple of bucks for the maid who only makes minimum wage.

[bbs2k]

If I'm staying in a hotel/motel/inn for more than one night I will leave the "Do Not Disturb" marker on the door. I prefer privacy for my belongings rather than a made bed and fresh towels.

I tip if I've left any sort of mess.

[twickster]

I do, but I worked as a motel maid during my college and post-college years. $2/night.

[TokyoBayer]

Living in Japan where they don't do tipping I sometimes foget.

One time I stayed at the Beverly Hills Hilton, and I think I didn't leave a tip. The maid reported that I didn't pay for my bar tab, and they tried charging my card $30.

Dammit, still pisses me off, from 14 years later.

[psycat90]

Yes always.

$3 to $5 per night. I tip per night and I leave the cash with a piece of paper that says 'Thank you!' so they know it is for them and not just cash lying around.

Oh, and that is regardless of any mess I've made, which is usually minimal anyway. I never leave trash about and all of my towels get thrown in the tub, etc.

[Telemark]

Yes, always. $2/night is my usual.

[BetsQ]

I never do. Well, I think we did after a particularly poor decision to let our five year old eat pizza while sitting in bed and watching TV, but other than that, no.

[Balthisar]

Originally Posted by Northern Piper

When I travel in the US, I sometimes hear that I should tip the maids who do the hotel room. I don't recall ever hearing that in Canada. What's your practise, and which country are you in?

Funny, when I lived in a hotel in Canada for a year, I did tip the maid. It was a run of the mill Marriot-branded long term type of place. If I were staying that that type of place and lower for only a night or two, I wouldn't bother. But when living there for such a long time, it just seems appropriate to leave a tip. Mostly we left the "no service" sign hanging on the door except for two to three times per week, so it wasn't a daily tip. My wife chatted with the Spanish-speaking staff from time to time, and reported to me that tipping wasn't unusual, but was far from the norm. So… maybe mostly other Merkins?

Originally Posted by psycat90

$3 to $5 per night. I tip per night and I leave the cash with a piece of paper that says 'Thank you!' so they know it is for them and not just cash lying around.

Same here. Despite that in some hotels, they won't take the money anyway. I figure that if I'm obstinate enough and leave it there when I leave the room for checkout, they'll be forced to take their tip.

[Asimovian]

Usually $2 - $5, unless I'm only staying one night and I've found some sort of uncleanliness upon my arrival to the room. Which happens more than I'd like it to.

[Ol'Gaffer]

I travel a lot for work (mostly small towns in California, Nevada, Arizona, and Oregon) and we are typically on a daily per diem so the hotel/motels we stay at range from local mom-and-pops to Motel 6/Super 8 style. The best we usually stay at would be a Best Western-level hotel.

When I travel it is because I'm out doing fieldwork and when I come in at the end of the day I'm usually pretty filthy. I start at $2 per day (left daily under the tv remote) but if the room isn't decent when I get back then I stop. We will sometimes live in these hotels for months at a time (depending on the project) so it pays to have good relations with the staff.

[RealityChuck]

I usually tip about $1.50-$2.00 a night. I once tipped $20 (back around 1985), but that was because our daughter got sick all over the sheets.

Read Barbara Ehrenreich's Nickel and Dimed and you'll see why you should tip.

[pepperlandgirl]

Every single time. My mom was a maid for pretty much all my childhood, and I know from personal experience that a large tip can have a very big impact on a family, and a small tip can just go a long way in making a very, very shitty job less shitty. Plus, all those small tips add up. I always tip at least $2, unless I've left some huge mess, then it's more. I do it automatically now.

[Walkabout]

I have read Nickel and Dimed and I can see how many people should be paid more, but not how I should tip.

[h.sapiens]

I usually tip about $2/day. I seldom leave a big mess, but I can only imagine what some people do in their hotel rooms and leave for the poor maids to take care of, and I bet they don't tip at all. I figure I can afford it, and it's a mostly crummy, thankless job, so why not?

In fact, the last hotel I stayed at had a pre-printed envelope requesting a gratuity, with a place for the maid to write her name. I thought that was a bit much, but I'm not going to punish the help for a management decision so I still left something.

[nevermore]

I never have. I tip people who make less than minimum wage because I don't consider it optional at that point, but I can't tip everyone for everything, or I'd be just as bad off as the people I was tipping. Honestly, I think this ever-growing trend of tipping everyone for everything just encourages employers to continue paying their employees shit for wages, so I really try not to feed that ideology, but I do anyway sometimes without thinking about it, because it's so automatic to write in a tip when I see a line on my receipt for it.

[Thudlow Boink]

I never have. Actually, I've never known how to. If you just leave money lying around, how do they know whether they're supposed to take it?

Plus, I've never really felt like the maids were serving me; they're just working for the hotel, like the guy who mows the hotel's lawn or cleans the hotel's pool. Like others have said, maid service isn't something I particularly want.

But then, I seldom leave a mess behind. If I did, I would feel inclined to leave a tip for whomever had to clean it up.

[BMalion]

Originally Posted by psycat90

Yes always.

$3 to $5 per night. I tip per night and I leave the cash with a piece of paper that says 'Thank you!' so they know it is for them and not just cash lying around.

Oh, and that is regardless of any mess I've made, which is usually minimal anyway. I never leave trash about and all of my towels get thrown in the tub, etc.

Ditto.

Unless the room is comped, as happens quite often with me (I'm in the travel industry) then I'll leave $10 to $20 per night.

And it pays off I assure you. One time I left my wallet in my room, I was at a conference I could not leave but when I got back to my room, my wallet, credit cards and all my cash were tucked under my pillow.

[Chefguy]

I tip in a variety of ways. I either leave a couple of bucks a night, or leave bus tokens if I have them, or unused subway tickets. Hotel maids work damn hard for very little money. Some hotels have included a percentage for service staff, so it's best to check on that when you check in.

[psycat90]

Originally Posted by BMalion

Ditto.

Unless the room is comped, as happens quite often with me (I'm in the travel industry) then I'll leave $10 to $20 per night.

I was going to mention comped rooms, but figured I'd not since nowadays I only stay in them when I go back to visit family. I also tip more in comped rooms - about $10 - $15 a night.
And it was actually comped rooms where I learned to tip housekeeping 20 years ago. My mother spends roughly a third of every year (total, not all at once) in Atlantic City and she tips everybody. Housekeeping, slot hosts, janitors, cocktail waitresses, maintenance, concierge, etc. etc. etc. Everybody. If you cross her path for some reason and you are working in the hotel/casino, you're going to get a tip.

She rubbed off on me. I won't tip when there is bad service, but on the whole I consider myself a generous tipper. And I agree, in most cases it definitely does pay off.

[Glory]

Never - I don't want maid service in my room anyway. I hate to have strangers mucking about with my stuff. If I'm just staying 2-3 days, I leave the Don't Disturb Sign on the door the entire time - I don't change my towels/sheets at home everyday, no reason to do it in a hotel. I also never have cash on me, so leaving 1-2 bucks a day would be stressful (having to remember to get cash, break it into singles).

I am a firm believer in tipping waitstaff who make less than minimum wage, but I dislike tipping in most other situations (haircuts, taxis, Starbucks baristas) etc.

[Cervaise]

Always. $20 a week, under the pillow, plus a thank-you note.

[Big_Norse]

Originally Posted by psycat90

$3 to $5 per night. I tip per night and I leave the cash with a piece of paper that says 'Thank you!' so they know it is for them and not just cash lying around.

I worked as a chambermaid when I was a teenager and we had some long term residents. I would never touch any money in their rooms, note or not (we had a guy who dumped his change in the ashtray every night and it grew to a huge stack by the time he left) - but if there is money left in the room after checkout we considered it a tip (even the handfuls of pennies some idiot had strewn about the room, which I had to collect on my hands and knees for fear of killing the vacuum). Of course, if someone left their wallet or some unusually large wad of bills they would have been turned in to the management to be returned to the guest.

I've done it, know what kind of scut work it is, therefore I tip. If the room is not clean enough for my liking I tip less (or on one occasion, nothing - with an explanatory note), if they've done something above and beyond, I tip more. (I'm in the US).

[ZipperJJ]

Yeah. Usually like $10-20 no matter how long I stayed.

I tip servers and pizza delivery people. I tip valets. I tip the kids who wipe off your car at the end of a drive-through car wash. Hotel maids have to put up with a lot more shit (literally) than those people do, so I feel they deserve some extra cash, even if I tidy up the room before I go.

[Geek Mecha]

Always. $1-2 a night, left on or under the pillow. Part of it is because my grandmother was a hotel maid, and part of it is because they are cleaning up after me. I'm in the US.

A year ago when I visited home, the maids used the hotel stationery to write me a thank you note for the tips. It made me glad I did it. A note like that isn't something you get from anyone else you tip.

[accidentalyuppie]

I always tip $3 to $5 a night

[Stringer]

I've never tipped a hotel maid. Do they get paid under minimum wage?

I do tip servers, bartenders, food delivery people, and of course any kind of optional convenience service like valets, taxis, etc.

[Cervaise]

Even if they do get minimum wage, that's a pittance for cleaning up people's shit and puke and finding the occasional cadaver.

[iamthewalrus(:3=]

Originally Posted by Cervaise

Even if they do get minimum wage, that's a pittance for cleaning up people's shit and puke and finding the occasional cadaver.

True, but I've never left any of those things in a hotel room.

I tip sometimes. If I'm staying for more than a day or two, or if I make any special request or mess, I'll tip.

[Big_Norse]

Originally Posted by Stringer

I've never tipped a hotel maid. Do they get paid under minimum wage?

I only did it for a few years a long time ago, but in my case I was young enough they didn't have to pay me minimum wage and payed me under the table to get around the legalities of hiring young.

I do know that the hospitality industry, like the restaurant industry, is notorious for using illegal immigrants and paying under the table so they don't have to pay minimum wage.

[ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness]

Usually $2/night, sometimes more if the kids made a mess. I think I left $10 the time my son got a nosebleed and bled all over the sheets, blankets, and pillows.
Question: One time we stayed in a Fairmont (work conference, paid for by work), which tacked on a daily $24 "resort fee", which supposedly included all gratuities. Did any of this fee actually make it into the hands of the maids, valets, bellhops, etc? That was the one time I didn't tip, and I was never sure whether or not the help thought I was a prick.

[Stringer]

Originally Posted by Cervaise

Even if they do get minimum wage, that's a pittance for cleaning up people's shit and puke and finding the occasional cadaver.

If I ever leave something like that in the room, I'd leave a substantial tip.

Slight tangent: If you don't plan on leaving a tip, should you request no maid service at check-in?

[Hedda Rosa]

Yep I tip, usually $2 per night at the end of my stay. It looks like hard work, I wouldn't want to do it and I am deeply deeply grateful to anyone who makes my bed for me.

If you have valuables they can be left in the hotel safe, if you don't want strangers touching your stuff.....

[badkittypriestess]

I have tipped house keeping before, our youngest likes to leave pictures for them. When we go to Mexico we usually leave money for them along with our son's gift.

[fervour]

No. Like others, I don't want anyone messing with my stuff. I always tell the clerk upon check-in that I won't be needing housekeeping's services during my stay. Some places will make note of your request, others won't saying to use the Do Not Disturb sign. At Disney World if you don't initial off indicating that you don't want the services but you leave the Do Not Disturb sign on your door, housekeeping will leave you a FULL compliment of towels, wash clothes, soap, etc. hanging on your door in a plastic bag ---EVERY night--- which is really a waste because I'll re-use a towel.

When I leave I always straighten the room and tear down the beds. I pile all of the sheets and pillow cases at the head of each bed along side a separate pile of pillows, and another of the comforter and cover. I leave the mattress pad in place. Tearing down the beds seems to be standard first step of room prep in most hotels where I've noticed the maids working.

[PastAllReason]

I tip, whether in Canada or the US. I usually leave $2 every morning on the pillow, rather than tipping at the end of the stay. Someone once pointed out that if you tip every morning the tip will go to the people providing the service, and not the one who happens to clean your room at the end of your stay.