Do You Tip Housekeeping When You Travel?
The Emily Post Institute says you should:
Housekeeper: Makes the beds, cleans up any messes and sometimes turns down sheets. Tip: $2 per day in a moderate hotel, $3 to $5 per day in a deluxe hotel. (Tipping daily rather than when you check out ensures that the tip will go to the specific person who cleaned your room.)
Considering that we rarely stayed in hotels as a kid and we were working class people ourselves, I had no idea I needed to tip hotel staff until I was in my 20s. I learned it from a fellow NOW board member when I shared a room with her. She had told me 10% of each night's stay. I always forget about tipping until I'm ready to leave the room. Thus my tips range widely and are based on whatever cash I have on hand. I've left stacks of quarters before.
My friend's awareness of the issue of tipping isn't based in etiquette, but rather unionization of hotel workers:
The more union hotels there are in a city, the more hotel workers are paid. In cities with few union hotels, workers are paid just $7 an hour. In cities with mostly union hotels, that rate more than doubles, to $19 an hour.
I forget exactly how the generous tipping and unionization go hand in hand, but I try to be as generous of a tipper whenever possible in every situation. While I'm not rich, I know that I am very lucky to be where I am financially. I also know that housekeeping is hard work, so I should say thank you however I can.
Do you tip housekeeping? If so, how much?
[Image: Getty Images / MSNBC]
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yes, we have to pay more attention to housekeeping. In my country, Asia, we rarely giving tips to everyone, it's just a custom. And I think, we have to move the custom to a better one.
regards,
abigail,
I don't tip housekeeping, but only because it's never something I've thought about doing. There are doubtless lots of professions that allow tipping, but many people aren't aware of the policies.
One thing to bear in mind with any kind of service is that if the cost seems low to you, then the person who's helping you probably isn't getting paid much.
As a part-time server, one of my biggest aggravations is foreign tourists who pretend they didn't read the page in their guide books about tipping their waiters. They'll rack up a $300 bill and leave $2 or maybe just a few coins for me. As friends from Europe have told me, they reason that the restaurant should be paying my wage like restaurants do where they live.
What they don't seem to realize is that if the restaurant paid my wage, their filet mignon would have cost them $50 instead of $35.
Likewise, if you're getting a great deal on a hotel room, it's probably because the staff is paid dirt, and it would mean a lot to the housekeeper if you chipped in a few dollars.
Now that I'm conscious of it, I'll start doing so.
I work at a very up scale resort in housekeeping...get paid min wage...and the owners of the resort go ahead of me and take all my tips before I get to the room, I have caught them and if I get to a room before them they ask for the tip and say it goes to the resort! So if you are going to tip please give it directly to the person you wish to tip or they may never see it. Very sad but true...where I work the rooms are over $ 200 per night per person....I know I should just quit but jobs are hard to come by where I live
cheers
I work at a very busy Hotel in the Scottish Highlands and it is hard work. Check out 11am, check in 2pm!! Three solid hours preparing rooms for minimum wage. It is so annoying when guests chuck out their pockets and leave 2's, 1's and 5's, It's an insult to my collegues and myself. I like to think I do a great job for guests more so than delivering someone's meal and drinks to them and getting tipped on average £5!!!!! I say "Tip the maid 50p - £1" ...........