What's an appropriate tip for room service?

In My Humble Opinion
1

Hi all - long-time lurker, first time poster. I hope this is in the right forum - I think this is a poll since there probably isn’t a single answer.

I travel a lot, and often I order room service. Lots of times the hotel includes a 20% “service charge” or “delivery charge” on the bill with the meal. Does this charge go to the person who delivers the food as a tip? If not, what do you think is an appropriate tip for a hotel person who delivers room service? An additional 10%? Nothing? A nice song and dance?

2

Practices differ significantly from country to country so perhaps you should clarify where you are and where you travel.

3

Good point - throughout the USA, usually staying in regular hotel chains (Hilton/Marriott).

4

Ah ha! Something I actually know about.

Whether the server gets the service charge varies from hotel to hotel. At the one at which I work, the service charge is considered the gratuity, and part of it goes to the server (it’s usually 1/2 to the server, 1/2 to the house). Another hotel I worked at considered the service charge just that: the guy who can’t be bothered to come down to the restaurant should pay for the extra work/materials/waste required to package something to take to his/her room (condiments, for example, have to be individually prepackaged, and must be disposed of if not used). In general, err on the side of caution, and tip the server at least what you would if you were sitting in the restaurant. If you plan on staying a couple of days and will be ordering room service on a regular basis, it’s really worth the couple of extra bucks. There may be only one person delivering room service, and if you’ve been generous, you can guarentee that your order will arrive warm and correct, instead of being the last room that’s delivered to on that trip. And, remember, the servers know who the good tippers are and tell one another - servers jump over one another to take service up to a room to someone with a good rep.

Other hints:

PLEASE, when the room service person knocks on your door, answer it as quickly as you can. Please be wearing more than a towel (unless you’re a VERY attractive woman and really have the hots for the young server who brought your pot of coffee up an hour ago). Have money ready before the server gets there, if you’re paying with cash. The servers are busy, have other orders to deliver, and don’t have time to have you try to find the $$$ in the bottom of your purse. Try to have correct change: hand a bill close enough to the order + tip to tell the server to keep the change, or at least, charge it to the room. Ordering a pot of coffee for $2.95, handing the server a $20, and wanting your change immediately is poor planning on your part. Most servers aren’t allowed to carry change for security reasons. Check your meal immediately - if it’s not what you ordered, the server will take away your tray and bring back what you really wanted, or if something is missing, you can usually get it within a few minutes. If you wait for the server to leave, and call downstairs 20 minutes later, it might take some time for you to get things corrected. Also, in light of this, be aware of the times room service is available. If room service is available to 10pm, you order at 9:45, and you realize at 10:20 that something is wrong, chances are no one will be around to fix the problem.

Above all, PLEASE BE POLITE! Servers usually will have 3-4 orders to deliver on a run, and you may be 3rd or 4th. Also, at a hotel with a busy restaurant, expect at least the same amount of time as you would if you were ordering at a table. If you order something that takes 20 minutes to cook, expect at least a 30 minute wait for it to be delivered. If there’s a backlog in the kitchen, it could take longer - most kitchens will cook in the order that the request arrived. Room service doesn’t get priority. DON’T scream at the server because you didn’t plan ahead, and you have a meeting in 5 minutes, and he didn’t bring the baked chicken with risotto you ordered 20 minutes ago up 15 minutes ago (at least where I work, everything is cooked to order). We will take pre-orders - order dinner at 6pm to be delivered at 8pm - it will be there within 5 minutes either way.

5

Thanks, Olive ! Great reply. Do you work at a large national chain? Do you know if each hotel within a chain sets its own policy, or does that usually come from the home office?

6

A regional corporation that owns several types of hotels/resorts. This is the only property in the company that has room service, and the policies were left over from the previous owners, who were an international conference center chain. However, each property set it’s own policy. I helped out at another property once under the previous owners, and was not happy with how they passed tips along to their servers (I’m a FOH supervisor - restaurants and banquets - I have to calculate tips for servers, and it was much different at that property than my home property).

7

I think much of this is a crock. Tip the delivery person the same as I tip a server in a restaurant? For what? A good waitperson does a hell of a lot more than just bring my order and leave. You sound like you’re looking down your nose because I choose to eat in my room rather than the dining room. You have no idea why someone might make that choice and it’s not your place to judge the customer. Your attitude is the kind that leaves your customers w/ a poor impression. I tip for good service, not as a bribe to get you to give me that service in the future.
I can’t recall anytime I’ve used room service w/o a surcharge. If you don’t get a piece of that, then you can look for another job, but it’s not my problem. I’ll tip a couple of bucks for the delivery, but I’m not going to tip the 20% that I’d give to a server in a dining room.
Some of your suggestions are helpful, but the general tenor of your post neglects the fact that you are there to serve the customer, not the other way around.

8

I understand that your perception of what a room server doesn’t do the same as a restaurant server. Let me tell you, there’s as much work, if not more, that the room service person does than your restaurant server does. To start off, the restaurant staff probably doesn’t have to walk more than 100 feet from the hot line to your table. If he or she is busy, you food sits snugly under a heat lamp until it’s brought to your table. If you forget to tell the restaurant server that you wanted, say, ketchup on your filet mignon, he or she can be back to your table in about a minute. The restaurant server only has to worry about taking your order, bringing food to the table, and collecting the 20% tip you leave - all the side work is done by the bus staff.

The person delivering room service has to prepare your tray - polish silver and glassware, fold napkins (at our property, there are different folds for table and room service), and set up your condiments, and bread and butter - all work that’s done by the bus staff in the restaurant, remember. The room service deliverer has to individually wrap anything that doesn’t come pre-packaged. They take extra care to make sure everything you ordered is on the tray before they even leave the kitchen, and then have to figure out how to bring it to your room in the quickest manner so it’s still hot when you get it, even if you’re room is on the other side of the property (the farthest room at our property is about 1/4 mile from the kitchen, and requires 2 elevator rides). If you forgot to mention that to the person who took your order that you wanted that ketchup with your filet, the server has to go back to the kitchen, get your ketchup and bring it back to you . That’s a 1/2 round trip that may take 15 minutes, because YOU forgot, BTW. And, after you’ve finished, who do you think comes around and picks your tray up from outside your door? Even if you leave it on your desk overnight, it will end up on the floor in the hall outside your room, courtesy of the housekeeping staff, waiting for the next room service person to come around to collect it.

And, for all this, the people doing room service is earning the same basic rate as the restaurant server. And, you’re going to tell me that the room service people are NOT giving you service?

9

Oh come on. He’s explaining what the job entails and how his job could be made a little easier. It there any huge harm in that? It seemed like he went to a lot of trouble trying to give an answer to someone that asked a question. Why snap his head off? No one is going to twist your arm to do anything differently if you don’t want to.

10

Well, I’ll give you the last sentence. If you choose a service job, dealing directly w/ the public, and that job envolves their care and comfort, then you’d better be prepared to deal w/ human ideosyncracies.

11

I guess that applies to 99% of the population that works. I’ve seen people that do tech support post about how it’d make their job easier if customers did certain things or explained the problem better. I’ve never seen someone tell them to get a different job. Just because someone works for tips doesn’t mean their suggestions are somehow offensive.

He didn’t appear to have an issues, he was just explaining what room service entails. I thought it was pretty enlightening. I had no idea what they did.

OP-

You-

Unless he owned the hotel which I doubt since he’s delivering room service, he didn’t make the policy, he’s just explaining why the hotel might charge. I just think you came down a little hard on someone that’s trying to answer a question.

12

Why is everyone calling me “he”?

<- is female, and has the boobies to prove it.

However, I’m also probably old enough to be your mother, so it wouldn’t be much of a thrill for you if you were to see them :slight_smile:

I’ve been working in the hospitality industry for many years, mostly front of house, as a server and supervisor/manager. I’ve seen pretty much all the good and bad of things. Hubby also works in Hospitality, as a chef, so he has a whole different set of issues with keeping guests happy - such as trying to please a woman who won’t eat meat, wanted fish, and kept sending all her meals back because the fish tasted “fishy”.

I have often run into people who think that special service, above and beyond the call of duty, is a right and thinks that the people performing said services are beneath them. If there’s a extra something on the check at the end of the meal, then it’s tolerable. If I’m lucky to get 10% on the check, after spending half my time on the floor trying to please a finicky guest, I chalk it up to experience, and try to convince one of my co-workers to take that table the next time the guest comes in. Sometimes it’s just a matter of dynamics - if I’m doing tables, I do better at tables with older guests than some of my co-workers half my age. Sometimes, I get someone NO ONE can please, and I at least know I try my best.

My husband worked FOH for a while, and was a master at making even the rudest guest his lifelong friend. His strategy? Kill them with kindness. He’d be at their table every 3-4 minutes asking what he could do, if everything was ok, what else could he get, etc, etc, etc. They got so sick of seeing him, they’d tell him that they’d let him know when they needed him, and left him in peace the rest of the night. Usually, he’d get a great tip simply because he put up with their crap, and always had a smile on his face. He converted a couple of PITA guests as well, turning them into people we’re actually glad to see on a regular basis. Some of them come in and ask if he’s around, and he’ll always make it a point to come out of the kitchen, even for a minute, to say hi.

Yeah, it’s a strange business, and one that works on really slim margins. At one time, they were talking about raising the minimum wage for restaurant workers to the federal minimum wage (right now, in CT, we’re paid something like 23% below federal minimum - the assumption being that tips make up the difference, with credits being given to the restaurant management for hiring servers besides!!!). The restaurant lobby was up in arms, as many establishments would not be able to stay in business with a measly $2/hr increase in server pay. I’m not in the mood right now, but if you’re really interested in the ecomomic model of restaurants, let me know, and I’ll post it someday.

Olive (yes, once again, I’m female)

13

Cite? :smiley:

14

OK, maybe I came acroos a bit to strong. I can see a service worker being frustrated, but I still think it’s a choice. If your that resentful about your chosen job, maybe you should consider another line of work.
I was in the military during VN and I resented the characterizations visited on my profession by the hippie generation, but I was still proud of what I did. After the Navy, I operated a long haul truck for over 20 years, I soon recognized the futility of resenting and cursing bad drivers. I enjoyed the freedom of the road, the scenery, the independence. I recognized that some, otherwise very nice people, seem to exhibit their worst behavior when the get behind the wheel. If you can’t change it, you can accept it, or get away from it. It’s a choice.

15

Heh. In California, servers have to be paid minimum wage (which was recently raised to $7.50/hr, and is going up again come Jan. '08 to $8/hr). I’m a server in California. God bless California.

Although, the insanely high cost of living kind of balances it out.

16

I don’t think I mentioned anywhere that I was resentful of my chosen profession, and the fustration is usually minimal. Most of my guests are pleasant and respectful. As is the norm in any segment of the population, there are always a few people who are well off the scale on their interpersonal skills, and fortunately, they are few and far between.

There are several people/groups where I work that make the most fustrating day pleasant:

  1. A retired ballet dancer in his 80’s - comes in once a week for lunch, like he has for over 35 years. The entire staff fawns all over him - chefs come out from the kitchen to say hello, and any staff who has ever worked in the restaurant and knows him will make it a point to stop over at his table while he’s there to welcome him. He’s not a great tipper, but his presence and personality is a reward that’s transcends monitary rewards.

  2. A well-known charity involving children with life-threatening diseases host a parent’s retreat a couple of times a year at our property. It’s actually a treat for me to give these people service, especially since this is probably the first night out for many of them for many years. I’ve made friends with some of the support staff and parents, and stay in touch with them throughout the year. At their last event of the weekend, they gather the waitstaff together and publically thank us. There’s no amount of money that can replace that feeling.

  3. There’s an Orthodox Jewish group that holds community events at the property. I’ve made friends with Rabbi and his wife, and there’s very little I can’t or won’t do to make their events successful. Lots of work, not a lot of monatary reward, but I always go home smiling. Their letters to my management telling them how great I am doesn’t hurt, either :wink:

I could go on . . . .

Yeah, it’s a job, and the point of a job is to make money. Sometimes, you make a lot, some days, you just get battle pay. I actually make less money as a supervisor as I do as floor staff, which is why I’ll work the floor often. It’s my choice because it’s a lot more fun than sitting in an office crunching numbers (my degree is in accounting, and I usually make more $$$ waiting tables than I would at a 9-5 job in my field).

17

I would tip the same as a restaurant. 20%. Unless they suck.

18

I always scrutinize the fine print, and at the places I have been it seems to always say something like “A $3 service charge and 15% gratuity will be automatically added to your bill”
As soon as I see two separate fees and one called “gratuity” my decision is made: They have predetermined the tip, so I will not add more to it.

Nobody has given me an evil stare after I simply signed the bill with no additional tip.

Of course, on those week-long stays at conferences, I do wonder if I am getting a side order of spit with my burger on the second night.

19

I’d doubt if I’d leave an extra gratuity if 15-20% was stated on the bill either. If it was just the $3 fee, I’d probably ask at the desk or ask the server who got the $3.

20

Olive, I think this is why people thought you were a guy: