Tipping concierge ?

[JoiseyMom]

I may get flamed for this...

I find it a little unsettling that crew members feel compelled to tell concierge guests they do not get salary, and rely SOLELY on tips (seems in poor taste, and can be viewed as pandering).

I also find it unsettling that Disney would charge $10k++ for a concierge cruise and not give the concierge staff at least a small salary.

I believe they DO receive a base salary from Disney.

It came up in conversation, started by my DH and it just came up.

They used to receive a salary and no tips, but then passengers kept asking about how much tips so DCL made the decision to make it a tipped position. There is no base.

And I agree, for what DCL charges they should be a paid position and tips a bonus for those that feel they went above and beyond.

 

[Dug720]

Well this was told to us by concierge. They are a tipped only position now, even at their level.

IMHO they are either idiots or have no real need to work then. Who in their right mind takes a job with no guarantee of pay?

 

[EvaSue]

I totally agree that concierge guests pay for that service already and tips should be an extra and not the salary. I would never tip anywhere near what many are reporting. That's WHY I paid extra in the first place... For the concierge service. We are very low maintenance and are unlikely to use the service much as we have already set up everything we want shoreside, and we were more interested in the extra space than anything else once on board. I think it's a big bummer if that's true about tips being the only source of income.

 

[Bonniec]

IMHO they are either idiots or have no real need to work then. Who in their right mind takes a job with no guarantee of pay?

I'm pretty sure the servers are 100% tips.

Sent from my iPad using DISBoards

 

[DISNEY FANTASY]

On our Fantasy cruise last year i saw various tips been given at the end of the two cruises.

The highest I saw.

One man tipped each of the three concierge hosts a personal tip;-
Host A and B $300 each and the host dealing with him at that time $400, so $1,000 for a seven night cruise.

He also added to the stateroom host but I didn't hear how much.

The lowest I saw.

A man who used there services quite often complained in front of us that Tips were being debited to his account each day, and that he hadn't been told about tipping being extra and wanted all tips taken off.

So he didn't pay anything to server, asst server, head server and stateroom host.

On the Wonder, last month I do not know as there isn't any concierge lounge.

Now from what I have heard and seen people use the other tips for server and stateroom host as a measure and base if they used services a lot or little against that.

If on the Wonder there are two hosts and there are 22 suites they have 11 each.

If they work 4 months on and two months off they work circa 34 weeks a year.

If people give $100 per stateroom on a seven night cruise then:-

Tip 100
Cabins 11
1100
weeks 34
Income $37400

If people tip $140 say in line with stateroom servers.

Tip 140
Cabins 11
1540
weeks 34
Income $52360

 

[Dug720]

I'm pretty sure the servers are 100% tips. Sent from my iPad using DISBoards

Even if that is true, with the tips automatically added on and I would guess most people not knowing they can be removed, they have a pretty good estimate of what they are taking home. The odds of everyone in their section having the tips removed I would think is pretty remote unless they have a section that is one entire group of totally rude people.

With there being neither guidance for or mention of tips to the concierge staff, the possibility exists that they *could* get nothing. It just seems very odd that a position would be solely paid by tips would have not even the suggestion that they should be given.

 

[SuperDry]

Even if that is true, with the tips automatically added on and I would guess most people not knowing they can be removed, they have a pretty good estimate of what they are taking home. The odds of everyone in their section having the tips removed I would think is pretty remote unless they have a section that is one entire group of totally rude people.

I would guess that the auto-tip positions make more than just the auto-tip amounts: that is, I would guess that the amount of money they get from people leaving an extra tip in addition to the auto-tip amount far exceeds those that go to Guest Relations and have tips reduced or eliminated.

 

[kaseyC]

IMHO they are either idiots or have no real need to work then. Who in their right mind takes a job with no guarantee of pay?

True. We have sailed concierge back when it was a non tipped position and since it has been a tipped position. Personally, I have a very difficult time believing that the Concierge team works on tips only. Those positions are highly sought after and considered a major promotion. I can't see PJ leaving the position of Palo Manager, which I'm sure was salaried to take a tipped only position. That's a big risk when you are used to a certain income. If anything, they probably earn a lower base salary than they did when it was a non tipped position with tips making up the difference.

 

[SuperDry]

IMHO they are either idiots or have no real need to work then. Who in their right mind takes a job with no guarantee of pay?

There may be a guaranteed minimum pay, even though it's 100% tips with no base pay. As an example, in many states, restaurant servers have a base pay that's very small, such as $2.70/hour, with the expectation that the vast majority of their income is from tips. If for whatever reason their total pay including tips dips below minimum wage, then the restaurant must make up the difference, but in ordinary situations, they pay only $2.70/hour. Just move that $2.70 hour to $0 and you might have what the concierges are faced with.

That is, they may indeed be paid $0 by Disney in what turns out to be all situations in practice, but at the same time have a guaranteed minimum pay so there's no possibility of working for nothing.

Also, there are a great many commission-only positions in the real world where the salespeople are independent contractors and thus truly have no guarantee of any income - they get paid on their own sales production and nothing else. Many people in such situations make a good deal of money, and might resent being called "idiots" or the implication that they don't have to work for a living.

 

[EvaSue]

SuperDry, I think that sounds like a much more likely scenario! I groomed dogs at Petsmart to work my way through nursing school. They had it set up so that they more or less didn't pay us, because we worked off of commission. So we would get whichever was higher, either our base pay, OR our commission, but not both. Commissions were always, always higher, so they never had to pay us out anything. If they have something like that in place, it wouldn't surprise me. To the CM it equals the same thing in their minds: tips only.

 

[Donna3271]

It came up in conversation, started by my DH and it just came up.

They used to receive a salary and no tips, but then passengers kept asking about how much tips so DCL made the decision to make it a tipped position. There is no base.

And I agree, for what DCL charges they should be a paid position and tips a bonus for those that feel they went above and beyond.

Thanks Joisey for clarifying. We did have a server one time that kept COMPLAINING about Disney.... it was really disheartening. Just really unprofessional on her part. We gave her just the recommended tip, no extra.

 

[JoiseyMom]

Thanks Joisey for clarifying. We did have a server one time that kept COMPLAINING about Disney.... it was really disheartening. Just really unprofessional on her part. We gave her just the recommended tip, no extra.

All three concierge ladies were very very professional, helpful and nice. DH spent lots of his time in the lounge and had many many conversations. DH brought it up in some way, it was not a vent from the ladies at all. They all love their jobs even with the pay this way. I mean they have all been there many years and don't plan on leaving anytime soon.

 

[JoiseyMom]

IMHO they are either idiots or have no real need to work then. Who in their right mind takes a job with no guarantee of pay?

Geez...you are nice aren't you .

You do realize that all the tip positions, servers, head servers and room hosts get a very very tiny base salary, that their main income is from tips? So are all these staff idiots??

 

[bumbershoot]

Geez...you are nice aren't you .

You do realize that all the tip positions, servers, head servers and room hosts get a very very tiny base salary, that their main income is from tips? So are all these staff idiots??

If I were from Haiti, had a family at home I wanted to care for, and I went to work for a cruise line where they made passengers tip them, I wouldn't be unintelligent.

If I were from England or Australia and took a position where NO tips were guaranteed at all, abd where no salary were given, that's not the same situation. And I would, and do, question that decision.

Frankly I don't believe it for one second. And I don't trust a cm's words that does get into such a conversation.

 

[saltlifesav]

We were on a 4 nt on the Dream in Sept and were clueless what to tip our concierge team. They were all exceptionally nice and remembered our names. I appreciated that. We ended up giving them each $100. Now I'm wondering if that was low...

 

[Dug720]

If I were from Haiti, had a family at home I wanted to care for, and I went to work for a cruise line where they made passengers tip them, I wouldn't be unintelligent. If I were from England or Australia and took a position where NO tips were guaranteed at all, abd where no salary were given, that's not the same situation. And I would, and do, question that decision. Frankly I don't believe it for one second. And I don't trust a cm's words that does get into such a conversation.

Bingo!

I think the difference may be in different interpretations of "salary".

In Disney- speak, "salaried position" means a fixed amount of pay with an expectation of x number of hours worked. Things such as management, cruise director, etc. Positions not "salaried" are considered hourly and receive a certain amount per hour worked. For tipped positions, yes , that amount is generally smaller with the difference expected to be made up in tips. Other hourly positions have a set rate per hour, but in Disney-speak are not called salaried positions.

I suspect, given that the wording I've seen people give on here is along the lines of "I was told that concierge is not a salaried position", that they fall into the tipped hourly position. Just my suspicion, but it makes more sense than every bit of their income being solely whatever tips they may or may not receive.

 

[AlexandNessa]

We meet with the concierge staff upon embarkation to review dinner reservations, confirm our table for two, confirm our cabana (which is probably the most work they've done for us). Maybe we sign up for a tasting. That is the extent of our neediness, if you will. For that, I could fathom a 100$ tip per day, if I were independently wealthy and wanted to share the love. I enjoy each of the concierge team members. But in all our cruises, it has always been our cabin steward who does the most for us and goes really above and beyond. Cabin stewards have a recommended tip of 4$ pppd. So for the two of us, that's 8$ day. We double that since our room is larger and has an extra bathroom. The concierge team is warm and friendly, and we think highly of them. But given the comparison to the room steward who is scrubbing my toilets and sometimes folds a night dress I've tucked under my pillow, doesn't lead me to tip concierge more than my room host. With the recommended rate for room steward being 8$ a day, we figure 10$ a day for the concierge host for x number of days and then round up. For example, 4-night cruise = 4 * 10$ = 40, round up to 50. 7-night cruise = 7* 10$ = 70$, round up to 100$. Whereas our cabin steward would get 16$ * 7 nights would get 112$, round up to 125$. And yes, we tip the bartenders and food people in the lounge, as we go. Coupla bucks here and there, then a twenty at the end of the cruise with a nice note they can share with their supervisors.

My logic may baffle some, but it doesn't matter if it does. Ultimately its everyone's private decision to make and live with. My logic may leave you thinking that I drink from a cup of the crazy. That doesn't matter. What matters is that I've come to my own logical (in my head anyway) process at how to arrive at a, fair tip. Tipping is always a personal decision. Just make a decision you can live with. That's all.

 

[Lisa Lisa]

We meet with the concierge staff upon embarkation to review dinner reservations, confirm our table for two, confirm our cabana (which is probably the most work they've done for us). Maybe we sign up for a tasting. That is the extent of our neediness, if you will. For that, I could fathom a 100$ tip per day, if I were independently wealthy and wanted to share the love. I enjoy each of the concierge team members. But in all our cruises, it had always been our cabin steward who does the most for us and goes really above and beyond. Cabin stewards have a recommended tip of 4$ pppd. So for the two of us, that's 8$ day. We double that since our room is larger and has an extra bathroom. The concierge team is warm and friendly, and we think highly of them. But given the comparison to the room steward who is scrubbing my toilets and sometimes fills a night dress I've tucked under my pillow, doesn't lead me to tip concierge more than my room host. With the recommended rate for room steward being 8$ a day, we figure 10 wealthy $ a day for x number of days and then round up. For example, 4-night cruise = 4 * 10$ = 40, round up to 50. 7-night cruise = 7* 10$ = 70$, round up to 100$. Whereas our cabin steward would get 16$ * 7 nights would get 112$, round up to 125$. And yes, we tip the bartenders and food people in the lounge, as we go. Coupla bucks here and there, then a, twenty at the end of the cruise with a nice nite they can share with their supervisors.

My logic may baffle some, but it doesn't matter if it does. Ultimately its everyone's private decision to make and live with. My logic may be leave you thinking that I drink from a cup of the crazy. That doesn't matter. What matters is that I've come to my own logical (in my head anyway) process at how to arrive at a, fair tip. Tipping is always a personal decision. Just make a decision you can live with. That's all.

I agree that the extent to which you use/benefit from each person's services should factor into the decision of how much to tip. So should your individual comfort level. You also bring up a good point re: the stateroom hosts. Ours was fantastic, and we ended up tipping him $60 for our 4-night cruise (the recommended amount for DH and me was $32). Also, I could be wrong, but I think concierge stateroom hosts are assigned fewer rooms than non-concierge hosts. We factored that into our tip as well.

 

[Dug720]

I agree that the extent to which you use/benefit from each person's services should factor into the decision of how much to tip. So should your individual comfort level. You also bring up a good point re: the stateroom hosts. Ours was fantastic, and we ended up tipping him $60 for our 4-night cruise (the recommended amount for DH and me was $32). Also, I could be wrong, but I think concierge stateroom hosts are assigned fewer rooms than non-concierge hosts. We factored that into our tip as well.

Good point with the stateroom hosts. In July, we had one who was our assigned host, but he seemed to work with another host all the time, and until the tip sheet came to us, we didn't realize that we only had one. We assumed that the second probably had the starboard rooms, but we felt from what we'd seen that he'd done just as much as our assigned host, so we opted to give him in cash what our host was getting from us.

 

[frugalwitch]

For 3 of us on a 3 day Dream cruise we tipped $150. Ashley, Wensdae, and Andy were above and beyond. I believe they each work 14 hours a day on average. In any event, they were angels to my disabled Momma, if I had a larger budget I would have tipped more.