Of all of the people in the world you’re supposed to tip, a hotel housekeeper is near the top of my list.
Years ago, I worked in a hotel as a desk clerk. I saw what a hard, thankless (occasionally disgusting) job it was. As one housekeeper told me, “Honey, I’m going straight to heaven when I die, because I’ve already had my hell on earth.”
They generally make minimum wage, if the hotel they work in hasn’t switched to the new per-room payment method. I generally leave five to ten bucks, even if I only stayed one night. I remember how the housekeepers would be delighted with just a couple dollars in tips-- I like to think I’ve brightened someone’s day.
The practice is even going so far as to have waitstaff hint very strongly you are supposed to tip them at restaurants where there is already a mandatory 18% gratuity. And Fierra had the unfortunate experience, when she came to America for a trip with me, of having a waiter follow her up to the front of the store, tell her she “didn’t tip enough” (the service was abyssmal), and convince her to tip more.
Outside the restaurant, she told me what happened. I went back in to the restaurant, and…well, if you know me, you can guess what happened. There was some…unpleasantness. And we got a $60 meal for free.
I was picking up a pizza at my local Papa John’s and I paid with my Visa. I was handed a receipt to sign that had the “tip” line on it. I crossed it out and proceeded to sign. The kid at the cash register who handed it to me screamed “God! There goes my tip!” He wasn’t being funny.
I was told recently that it’s now standard to tip 20%, not 15%. I usually will go to 20% at my favorite restaurant and bar where I like to attend regularly. However, in general, for adequate service, I only tip 15%, but I’m scrupulous about it and would hate to think I’m actually being a cheapskate under these “new” standards. Does anyone know if this is true? And who decides and publicizes such things anyway?
Some people don’t know how or how much to tip. And some servers or other tipped workers are too aggressive in asking for tips. An overly aggressive tipseeker will certainly drive customers away. I hope that this particular server got put on Sunday shifts (notorious for poor tips) if not outright fired.
I used to live in Las Vegas, and tipping the dealer is VERY common there. Some dealers were quite aggressive in asking for tips, to the point where I’d usually get up and leave the table without “toking” (tipping) at all. I happen to know that the dealers generally got pretty well paid in most places, I was friends with a lot of dealers, if you live and work in LV you WILL run into game dealers. Most of them got pretty good tips ON AVERAGE on top of their wages. They knew that some nights they might bring home almost no tips, and other nights they’d be practically swimming in money. And they had to deal with the public, and not just the average public, but tourists who frequently had had too much to drink and not nearly enough sleep. But most of them enjoyed dealing, enjoyed the rhythm and excitement of the games, and enjoyed interacting with their players, to the extent that they were allowed to (different casinos had different rules about how much a dealer could interact with players).
I never know how much to tip hotel maids, I don’t stay at hotels often enough to know. But I generally tip a buck or two each day, more if I’ve made a complete mess, and that seems to make them happy.
I’m notorious for overtipping, I almost never tip less than 20%, and often tip much more than that. Particularly bartenders who “forget” to charge me for the majority of my drinks will get a 50% - 100% tip (of the reduced total).
I almost never, however, tip the starbucks fruitcake or the guy who made my burrito at Flash Taco (man I miss that place). If I’m at a buffet, and the waitress brings me a coke and I never see her again, she gets the flat rate of $1.
If I get extremely poor service from a waitress, I’ll tip 5% and put a big :mad: frowny face next to it to show that I’m not a cheapskate, merely unhappy.
If I’m staying at a hotel for multiple nights, I tip $1-2 each night. If I’m just crashing for a night, I don’t tip at all. I’m also very neat when I leave: I make sure my trash is in the trash can, dirty towels are in a pile, etc.
Another thing too was Fierra being from the UK, where tipping is not as common nor to the magnitude that it is here. IIRC she actually gave 10% for what was essentially no service, and then they convinced her to do 20%. The end result turned out to be -120%.
What Lissa said. Housekeeping is a thankless job, and most of the housekeepers out there are good at what they do.
Also, as someone who travels alone a lot, I always take care of my doorman. I generally ask the doorman how long and how much a cab ride will be. They know this stuff, it’s their job. I feel better and feel less like I can be taken advantage of. I am in a city I don’t know, they know the cabbies, it’s worth a buck or two to me.
I don’t know the whole story on the situation that was described in this thread, but I do know how it feels to provide excellent service and have the table leave zero to close to it. You know that recent Soprano’s episode where Christopher tips the guy $16 on a $1,400 bill (or whatever the exact total was)? Well, that happened to me many, many times at a certain restaurant I worked at in Boston. It was a place that was very popular with rich privileged students. Dinner for four for $500 or more dollars wasn’t uncommon. And this was a casual restaurant, not anything fancy - that’s a lot of food and liquor to make the bill add up to $500. You better believe I followed people out to ask if something was wrong when they left $5.00 on a $200 bill. Especially when this was a pattern with the students of this particular school, well-known for its large foreign-student population and even more well-known for those students being arrogant and rude to service people. These weren’t tourists who were unaware or people who perhaps couldn’t afford to tip (why are they eating out then, but that’s for another thread). They just felt they could get away with it. If nobody ever called them on it, they’d continue to do it over and over. So yes, I did ask them if they were aware of the American practice of tipping, and that if the reason they didn’t tip was actually because I had provided poor service, I told them I’d be very appreciate if they could explain the situation to my manager so I’d know what I was doing wrong. I wasn’t rude about it, but I also wasn’t going to let snotty self-important oafs who thought they were better than a dumb waitress get away with stiffing me.
I don’t mean to sound insensitive, and I’m sure hotel housekeeping is sometimes an unpleasant, thankless, and underpaid job. But so is being a garbageman, and I don’t tip them.
I don’t trash my hotel rooms, so I don’t feel I put an undue burden on the staff. My problem is with tipping someone who a) I never see and have no relationship with and 2) has little range for demonstrating good or bad performance of the job.
I was a bartender at a service window for a summer, so I generally tip waiters, bartenders, and cabbies at least 20%, but that’s based in part on visible performance.
The pay differential between a sanitation worker and a hotel maid is VAST. I could find a cite if you like, but I know NYC sanitation workers are handsomely compensated, while hotel workers are paid low, if not minimum, wages. Thus the need for tipping your maid, if you want her to make a decent living, give you extra towels, new soaps, etc.
Read Nickel and Dimed. I’ve started tipping hotel housekeeping staff a lot more than before I read it. They’re paid next to nothing (and the trend is to pay them even less).
And, really, $2-3 a night is what percent of your hotel bill? As far as tips go, it’s a bargain.
In restaurants, I tip 15-20%, and usually calculate on the amount after tax has been added. If I have a coupon or something, I’ll calculate 15% on what the amount would have been without the coupon. No reason for the waiter to suffer.
I can verify that the salaries of some sanitation workers are VERY admirable. My mother is the customer service manager for a major sanitation/recycling company here in the DC area and their drivers pull up to work in BMWs and Escalades. But they also have to report to work at 4:00 AM and sling trash in the snow and when it’s 100 degrees and slimy outside.
To me, there is always something fundmentally unfair about tips in general.
As a waitress, you work for a small wage plus tips. You can control the service you give. To some small extent, you can upsell the bill (but in tip arguments, I think that’s over represented). But you can’t control how many tables are filled on your shift that night. And you can’t control jerks who stiff you.
As a customer, I’d rather just pay up front what the meals costs. I hate thinking that I should tip 20% because someone else stiffs the waiter and he has to pay taxes on tips of 8% of sales. I feel like I’m buying a car - someone else got a “better deal” - and I’m being expected to pick up his slack. I hate the thought that a tip I think is great (I personally think 20% is great unless I’ve taken up the table forever, ordered $4.00 of food, or received really amazing “hey, you washed my car!” service) won’t be appreciated, and that a tip I think is adequate (15%) might be considered an insult.
I haven’t been in the habit of tipping housekeeping - at least not conciously (I leave my spare change - often several dollars - when I leave) - but I think I will now.
Its probably worth it to have a tip jar out at Starbucks - where I’ll pay for a five, pocket the bills and throw the change in the jar. People buying a 3.67 cup of coffee can spare the .33. The other thing about a coffee shop is that a good “barista” (hate that word) will know their regular customers and prep accordingly - that’s worth a tip.
This is going to sound snippy and snotty I know but…
I’m not particularly interested in whether the hotel maid makes a decent living… her choices in life are up to her and she can deal with the consequences of CHOOSING to be uneducated and having to do this type work or she can CHOOSE to GET educated and move on…
Seems to me America has been totally brainwashed into feeling guilty about NOT giving someone a tip for them having been nothing more than courteous or just doing their job…
Tipping started out as a bribe To Insure Prompt service.
Now all of a sudden it’s a guilt trip
The local buffets here, Ryans, Golden Corral etc… have the waitresses bring you water or your beverage… you do everything else… I am supposed to tip them for this??
Just consider if they bring water to only 30 patrons ( on the low end)
and everyone leaves them one little ole dollar, that is still
$30.00 per day x 5 days an extra $150.00 per week CASH MONEY…
Chances are they make even more money due to brainwashed people who will tip a percentage of their entire bill…
Sorry I cant get too worked up about these poor little waitresses not making any money,
and I AINT gonna feel the least bit guilty about it,
yes, defintely a snotty snippy post…
As one who works for tips, I can tell you it still is (to insure prompt service).
On a busy night in the bar when 30 people all want me to get them a beer or make them a drink at the same time, you bet your ass the known tipper will be drinking a lot sooner. For that matter, their vodka tonic will be more vodka and less tonic for their money.
I’m a compulsive over-tipper, probably because I work for tips. I frequent 2 bars and 1 coffee shop, and I never wait for anything. Tipping works.
Also, I’m not a bartender because I’m not qualified to do any thing else. I’m a bartender because it pays extremely well. More that 1/2 my income is tips, and as the manager I make $3 bucks an hour more than the other bartenders. So, I’d guess tips account for more like 70% of their incomes. Of those bartenders, 3 of them are college graduates who work for me because it pay’s better than what they could do in their field. (All three are now in grad school, so they can someday get out of the trenches). I should also note that it is in no way an easy job.
As far as tipping the hotel staff, it’s never crossed my mind, but I imagine I’ll start now. I really am compulsive about it.
