I’ve been staying at a hotel with a large-ish group for work, and am sort of the coordinator of the deal. We’ve been imposing heavily enough on the very good concierge staff with dinner reservations, car sevice, theater plans, and affiliated requests. Our overall stay is about three weeks.
Am I supposed to tip these guys? I’d imagine so. If so, how much, when, and how to distribute it among the 3-4 various people who have been on duty at different times?
You are supposed to tip them, but lots of people don’t, and good concierges keep a smile on their face no matter how often they’re stiffed.
How much is up to you and your conscience, it’s hard to come up with a figure for concierges because of the odd mix of things they do.
I’d just pick an amount, put it in an envelope, and slide it to the concierge on duty with a request that he divide it up amongst the group. I’d do this every time it seemed like a good idea, since they remember this kind of stuff, and the good service can get even better.
The customary tip is 5-10 bucks per hard to get reservation or ticket.
If I were you, I’d bundle this all into a flat $20-30 per day package and ensure that it is split between the staff.
They’ll be thrilled with it, I assure you, considering how many times they’ve done a similar service for groups and received nothing in return.
The others are right. If the concierge calls a cab for you or orders you a pizza, you might give him $2. If he gets you tickets to the Superbowl at the last minute, you might tip him $1000. That is just the way that they work and the tip increases as the service and amount of difficulty increase.
Are you supposed to tip if they just recommend a place to eat (without making reservations) or tell you where the nearest Kinko’s is?
I never have known what to do in those situations.
I probably wouldn’t tip just for that, but, hey, if you’re feeling like a sport, why not? If I’d been making a bunch of those kind of requests, yeah, I’d probably come up with something.
Basically, my experience with luxury hotels is that you can never go wrong tipping anybody, and that doing so results in good hotel kharma.