Recently I was on vacation at a 2-3 star hotel.I would leave in the morning to enjoy the day’s activities and in the evening return to my room.Everyday,I would return to a freshly made up room.
I stayed 3 days.At the end of my stay,I left a 5 dollar tip.That seems kind of skimpy,considering the kind of job the hotel maid has.
I guess my questions are what would be a proper tip for someone who does the cleaning of a hotel room? And would the size of the tip depend on the quality of the hotel?
I have only been in this situation once and I tipped 5$ per day at the end of my stay. Thinking I read it was the right thing on a web site 
Can you be sure the maid service was provided by the same person each day?
It’s usually at least the same team of cleaners, and if you just left a fiver out when you left your room each day I’m sure the cleaner would be hesitant to leave it. (Unless you put a note on it or something.)
Good on you all for remembering that rooms don’t clean themselves and that most hotels pay their cleaners by the room, not the hour.
When I go out each day, I leave a few dollars sitting on top of the pad of paper that’s in every room I’ve ever stayed in. On the paper, I write Thanks! or Merci ! or Gracias ! or whatever. Occasionally it’s still sitting there when I come back and I just leave it there and add to it the next day.
Oh no, another tip thread (probably should go in IMHO), beware, it will spin out of control 
My baseline tip is $2 a day, I leave it on the pillow and they always take it. If I get a larger room, rollaway bed, etc., I’ll tip a buck or two more. Five a day sounds high to me for standard service.
I may leave a tip in a 4 or 5-star hotel, you know, one where my bag isn’t opened and rooted through on a daily basis. :rolleyes: The level of the tip there is typically $5US.
Wow. Every day I learn of a new thing I didn’t know I was supposed to tip for.
I do $2 for the first day and $1 for each subsequent day (though left on the last day only- so, four days = $5). I don’t see $5 for 3 days as skimpy at all, and while I’ve no doubt the maid would be very appreciative of a $5/day tip, I think it’s a bit overly generous unless there’s special consideration (e.g. you make a really big mess or she gives you turn down service with happy ending or something similar).
Keep in mind that most people probably don’t tip anything, especially if they’re “one night only” guests.
I think this is better suited to IMHO than GQ.
Let’s try to avoid turning it into a debate about tipping in general.
Colibri
General Questions Moderator
Tipping the maid sounds like a euphemism.
What was management’s response when you told them about the rummaging?
I tip $2.00 a day and I leave it every morning, in case the same person isn’t making the room up. I use a piece of the hotel’s note paper folded with the money in it and label it “Housekeeping”, so there is no ambiguity.
Especially given the OP’s name. :eek:
That would be “tupping” the maid.
I apologise for this!
But surely cleaners earn less then wait staff and and are therefore are more deserving of a tip!
I am so glad I live somewhere where tip means “you did a good job”. I think my head may explode if I had to decide who ‘should’ be tipped.
Which is exactly how I read it while scrolling the topic list.
Wow, that’s what I used to tip 25 years ago.
My wife and I stayed at a 3 star place for part of our honeymoon in Hawaii last year. We left a couple of bucks each day for the maid. Our room had a little kitchenette, and while it wasn’t our expectaction, the maid washed up our couple of breakfast dishes each day. With one exception.
Funny story, One morning we found ourselves out of small bills, so we left about 4 bucks in change in the same place, on a little side table, we had been leaving the couple of dollars each day. (It was 4 bucks as sort of an apology for leaving the tip in quarters.) Got back to the room that night - the coins were still there, and our breakfast dishes hadn’t been washed that day.
We had quite a laugh that apparantely coins weren’t good enough to tip with. We left a couple of bucks again the remaining time we were there and all was once again well with the world, with dishes washed again
Ditto on methodology, but trying to figure out how to write ‘housekeeping’ across the globe? Thank god for phrasebooks.
For $5, the only bit of happiness you can reasonably expect is a kiss on the forehead