Tipping Mousekeepers during vacation

[AliceandAriel]

Since our first time on Disney is coming in Oct, I haven't tipped yet. But in previous stays at WBC, I have tipped for things like rides from one tower to the next, bag carrying, small things.

And of course, we almost always tipped the drive $1-2 each way, more if they offered extra help or were exceptionally friendly.

 

[chicagodisneyfan]

I think it's social class as well. Those who come from more affluent families tend to follow the older etiquette forms, which include tipping service employees at hotels. My grandparents tipped, so my parents tipped, so I tip, and my children will learn from me.

My husband's family was more working class, and they'd never heard of tipping maids at the hotel.

That could be it.

I am always surprised that people have never heard of tipping housekeeping!?!

 

[Aliceacc]

We tip the housekeepers in any motel we stay in.

For WDW trips, I make up envelopes ahead of time, and put $5 in each. Each time I find myself with a $5 bill in the weeks before the trip, it goes into an envelope until I have 7.

It would never occur to me not to tip housekeeping, any more than I would leave a restaurant without tipping the waitress.

 

[MinnieLovesMickey12]

I had an issue with the housekeeper not taking the money or the envelope. The first day we left $10 in the envelope and it was still laying there when we got back to the room. It was one of those cute printable ones with Disney characters on it that said mousekeeping right on it. But she just left it there. I tried to call housekeeping to find out who cleaned our room so I could give it to her but the housekeeping supervisor said all the housekeepers were gone. Just to not worry about it and leave it out in the open the next day possibly with a note.

So from then on I got a sheet of paper and wrote THANK YOU- MOUSEKEEPING on it and folded it over with the bill sticking out and from that day on she took it every day.

If it is all 5 of us I leave $10 a day. If it is just Dh and I, I leave $5 a day.

As for tipping at hotels...I did not come from an affluent family but I had learned from someone else...read about it, saw it on TV, something like that...I don't remember how I learned to tip housekeepers, but I always have.
I tip housekeeping no matter where we are, Disney or not.

If I don't have the cash to leave a tip I hang the do not disturb sign on the door and do not even have anybody come in.

The last trip we were on back in April I kept the DND sign on all week because Dh didn't bring any 5 dollar bills and I didn't have any cash and he didn't want to try and change a bigger bill somewhere to get some 5's so I just said forget it. We just won't have housekeeping this week. And that was fine too. It didn't bother me at all. I kind of preferred not having someone in the room.

But I would never let housekeeping in and NOT TIP.

 

[cobright]

I wouldn't forgo maid service if I simply didn't have the cash on hand, but I would make a personal connection with the housekeeper and let her know we value her work. Then get a tip put together as soon as possible.

As for what is and isn't a 'tipped' position ... I don't need a bellhop to spend 5 minutes carrying my luggage that I've already been managing just fine for hours. But someone spending 30-40 minutes making my room perfect while I'm away high-fiving Mickey day after day after day is worth a little extra to me.

 

[southernminnie]

My DH, and 2 DS always tip. I also write a little note each day thanking them for taking care of us on our vacation away from home. We always tell them which park we are going to. I always try to write something telling them if we are celebrating something as well. I feel like we are sharing a little bit of our life with them. We love to come back to our room and find towels animals!!!! I cannot wait for our trip in September - staying at AOA

 

[Windsor Princesses]

We tip $1 for the room plus an additional $1 for each person staying in the room; so on our trip this august with 4 people we will be tipping $5.

 

[fallen_angel727]

We did tip this time, even though we usually don't, and frankly I don't know if we will again, we left $10 on the first day ($5 per couple) and the same on the 2nd then stopped...even with the tip the garbages weren't emptied, no new towels (we put used ones in the tub to be brought to laundry...usually we don't do this but they were dirty - mud from our feet). and we had to call down to ask for toilet paper twice during our week stay...so frankly I don't think the $20 was worth it at all

 

[MeeskaMomma]

We did tip this time, even though we usually don't, and frankly I don't know if we will again, we left $10 on the first day ($5 per couple) and the same on the 2nd then stopped...even with the tip the garbages weren't emptied, no new towels (we put used ones in the tub to be brought to laundry...usually we don't do this but they were dirty - mud from our feet). and we had to call down to ask for toilet paper twice during our week stay...so frankly I don't think the $20 was worth it at all

Well now I have to ask where you stayed!? I certainly wouldn't have continued to leave a tip.

 

[DisneyHolidayFan]

My DH and I leave $5/day and my son with a family of 5 tips $10/day. I make up envelopes before leaving home and set one out each morning. I am also surprised of not tipping - in our area, it is customary.

 

[Nancyg56]

We did tip this time, even though we usually don't, and frankly I don't know if we will again, we left $10 on the first day ($5 per couple) and the same on the 2nd then stopped...even with the tip the garbages weren't emptied, no new towels (we put used ones in the tub to be brought to laundry...usually we don't do this but they were dirty - mud from our feet). and we had to call down to ask for toilet paper twice during our week stay...so frankly I don't think the $20 was worth it at all

This would not have been okay with me. I would have made a call and not just for TP. I'm sorry you had this experience. For me, one of the best parts of a vacation is that I don't have to replace towels, change sheets, empty trash and check TP levels. I expect to have all of these things taken care of.

 

[tidefan]

We had never heard of tipping housekeeping until reading these boards either...

As to a "tipped position", they will fight it like crazy because if it is considered a tipped position, then minimum wage laws are different and they could be subject to making a little over $2/hour like the waitstaff...

 

[PrincessShanShan]

Another Alabama southerner (ROLL TIDE!!!!) who never heard of tipping housekeeping until I read about it here. I don't tip housekeeping unless I've specifically asked for something---extra towels, blankets, pillows, soap/shampoo, etc.

 

[catnik]

Having worked as a waitress in my high school and college days and understanding that many of the "mousekeepers" are moms with kids, I tip $1/person each day. I can honestly say that we have never, in all our trips, had any issues with housekeeping other than our room being cleaned later in the day when the kids were ready to unwind from the parks. Is our room cleaned better because we tip or because we are lucky? I have no clue. I just know that whatever they are paying the housekeeping staff is probably not enough to support a family and I can spare an extra $4/day (the cost of what, a coke in any park??) to help them out.

 

[Dannek]

The way that I handle it is to leave one dollar per person per day at a family resort.

If I am staying at a business hotel for a business trip, I tip two dollars per day per person.

The reason being that at a family resort (disney) there are many rooms that have children and adults in them. There are far fewer rooms with one person in them than there are rooms with three or four people in them. In business hotels, there is mostly one person in a room, or maybe two if a spouse comes along. In each case, the mouse/housekeeper cleans about sixteen rooms per day.

If a mouse/housekeeper makes an average of two dollars per room per day in tips, that adds up to about eight thousand dollars a year in tips, or about fifty percent of their base salary.

If my stay is only two nights at a family resort or one night at at business hotel and it's just me or me and a girlfriend, I leave five bucks when I leave.

 

[fallen_angel727]

Well now I have to ask where you stayed!? I certainly wouldn't have continued to leave a tip.

We were at POP...we only left a tip fir the first 2 nights, the fist night just because, the 2nd to maybe step things up a bit...but nothing after that. However, the last time we stayed at POP they were wonderful, even put towel animals and our stuffed mascot in funny poses and such (for 2 adults)

This would not have been okay with me. I would have made a call and not just for TP. I'm sorry you had this experience. For me, one of the best parts of a vacation is that I don't have to replace towels, change sheets, empty trash and check TP levels. I expect to have all of these things taken care of.

We're pretty easy going, so as long as nothing was "dirty" we were OK. I did talk to the desk and they said they would "look into it" and I did send an email when I got home. But we had bigger issues on our trip (Only 2 of our reservations included the allergy I requested, the others we had to deal with at every meal) so this wasn't a big deal to us THIS time around

 

[germ539]

We didn't have mousekeeping clean every day we were there (didn't think we needed anyone to remake the beds, etc since we were going to be there a whole week), we had the privacy sign out the whole time but even when the sign is out unless we have called to tell them we don't need mousekeeping that day, they left a bag with the supplies needed for the next day. A couple of days I caught the gal doing the cleaning and just got what we needed. Every other day, I gave her an envelope with $5 in it. It happened to be the same gal all the week we were there (Marie was I think her name). At the end of our stay, I personally gave her another envelope and thanked her for her service.

 

[MolonLabe]

I read an article not long ago about tipping housekeeping in the US and they did a poll and found it split straight down the middle just about 50/50 of those who do and don't. Not sure if it's regional or what.

30% tip according to CNN-
http://www.cnn.com/2011/TRAVEL/06/24/hotel.housekeeping.tipping/index.html

Prior to the Dis I never even considered tipping for general house keeping.

The responses here on Dis are very skewed towards tipping, heck look at how many people wind up spending money to make up fancy envelops for "mousekeeping"... it's bizarre, lol.

I have tipped in the past for things, for example asking for something extra or someone making an extra trip, sure. When my girls were smaller, sometimes some cheerios would get spilled or something and I'd leave a tip because there was something extra to clean up that there shouldn't have been.

I'm in the crowd that there is was too much tipping going on for positions that are historically not a tipped position.

 

[pepe of ohio]

30% tip according to CNN-
http://www.cnn.com/2011/TRAVEL/06/24/hotel.housekeeping.tipping/index.html

Prior to the Dis I never even considered tipping for general house keeping.

The responses here on Dis are very skewed towards tipping, heck look at how many people wind up spending money to make up fancy envelops for "mousekeeping"... it's bizarre, lol.

I have tipped in the past for things, for example asking for something extra or someone making an extra trip, sure. When my girls were smaller, sometimes some cheerios would get spilled or something and I'd leave a tip because there was something extra to clean up that there shouldn't have been.

I'm in the crowd that there is was too much tipping going on for positions that are historically not a tipped position.

I agree also.... In 1977, we started our visits to WDW and their brochettes stated, no tipping necessary but appreciated...

We felt even back then, the price for the room was more than enough to cover the help...still feel the same way, housekeepers are laid a rate ( which the know beforehand) that is decent in the industry... no subsidy necessary and that how we feel...

This board are the ones creating this tipping procedure... If you feel it's necessary, have at it.. But tipping to garner better service, towel animals is not right... They are paid to do a job, do it and move on... All I paid for is a clean room, amenities and towels.... sorry, but it's how I was brought up...

If we drive to WDW and stop in route at a motel, we never left a tip, never crossed my mind...never even seen the housekeeper...!

 

[smiths02]

We didn't tip our first time b/c we didn't know we should...
I discovered Disboards and we did the two other times. So I dont mind it BUT Disney and our cruise are the only places we have tipped housekeeping.

However, I figured that cleaning my room was included in my room fee. According to Disney it is.