May make me seem like an *@# but...

[Camping Griswalds]

How I handle all of that, "tipping" at the hair salon is just by tipping the person whom cuts my hair. I feel she can "tip out" like I used to do as a waitress.

 

[Mrs. Squirrel]

I guess it has gotten pretty bad when I pay with my debit card or bank credit card at a fast food place, *through the drive thru window*, and the reciept has a place for TIP! What a tip for cold fries and a messy, put together Big Mac? I just doing get it! Oh well.

It's my understanding that the templates for credit/debit terminals have a standard layout with little ability by the merchant to customize. This is why you would see a tip line in just about every service industry like McDonalds. There is no expectation to tip at a place like this. . .just draw a line through the tip or put zero and carry your total down (in case you would ever come across a dishonest employee).

 

[GrumpyBa*D]

Well you leave a tip for a server at a restaurant don't you? Why shouldn't you leave a tip for the person that cleans your room? I think they work harder then a server at a restaurant does

When we tip the person cleaning a room, it is to say thank you for cleaning up after us.

you tip a server because their hourly rate is much less than minimum wage and they are required to claim a % of their sales as tips for taxes......years ago like 20 wage was only 2.10 and had to claim 10% of sale as i recall granted that was 20+ years ago i'm sure some of that has changed

 

[LoveWDW]

Escape . . . So true! I had a wonderful hairstylist whom I loved. . . then she changed salons. Her new place employment has one person wash your hair, a second do color, a third to come in and check on your color two or three times, and then, finally, the stylist who used to do all of those things for me -- and do all of them very well. The first time I checked out the girl behind the desk handed me four tip envelopes. You're kidding right? Needless to say, while I'm sorry to have lost my stylist, I now go elsewhere.

Oh gosh! 4 tip envelopes! I would have been astonished!

 

[DisneyJen0504]

I don't have problems with tipping in general. I just don't appreciate being expected to tip for services that are normally included in the price of the product or service.

I agree.

 

[gmboy95]

I tip the following at disney;

1) valet (when used)- $2

2) Bell service- 1$ per SUITCASE usually about $6

3) Maid- $20 for a weeks stay

4) Meals- 20%

5) Golf attendent- $5 for cleaning clubs

These are my usual tippees so-to-speak, and i budget accordingly.....I gladly pay the bill for one reason only....disney does not pay its workers what i would consider a living wage, and many of these people rely on this additional income for living expenses.....It is frankly the one thing I spend my money on at disney that i am happy to do so.....the only thing we should be upset about is the price disney charges for its in-park services compared to what it pays its employees.

 

[gmboy95]

by the way.....I have seen a couple a of posts alluding to "they make at least minimum wage"....

The Florida minimum wage is $6.15 per hour x 40 = $246 per week which means about $984 per month.

I tip because my mortgage payment alone is twice that!!!!!

but never fear, if florida used the federal guidlines, minimum wage would be $5.15 an hour

 

[jarestel]

I gladly pay the bill for one reason only....disney does not pay its workers what i would consider a living wage, and many of these people rely on this additional income for living expenses.

Certainly nothing wrong with this if you find it appropriate, but there are many minimum wage jobs and employees in the US ( even some in MA I would imagine ). Curiosity compells me to ask why we feel obligated to ease the burden on Disney employees who don't make a living wage while ignoring the minimum wage workers we see everyday in our "regular" lives who could certainly use the $$$ as much as a WDW housekeeper? Not trying to argue, just curious, as I said.

 

[mycropht]

Certainly nothing wrong with this if you find it appropriate, but there are many minimum wage jobs and employees in the US ( even some in MA I would imagine ). Curiosity compells me to ask why we feel obligated to ease the burden on Disney employees who don't make a living wage while ignoring the minimum wage workers we see everyday in our "regular" lives who could certainly use the $$$ as much as a WDW housekeeper? Not trying to argue, just curious, as I said.

I think that Disney tends to put people in a much more generous mood overall. The mousekeepers in question are sprucing up your shiny pretty hotel room in the middle of a Florida resort. People who earn minimum wage back home are usually stacking cans of soup on top of your loaves of bread or throwing greasy fries into a takeaway bag.

What I find most interesting about this thread, and the many others like it in the course of the Dis is how many people going to Disney on these megabuck vacations started out by having low-paying, hard-work jobs.

It seems like we all worked hard, learned the value of a dollar, put ourselves through school or other similar training and got where we are today. No one handed me my well-paying job on a platter. I've put in lots of long hours building a client base and honing my skills. No one ever gave me an extra $5.00 as a graphic designer to say "thanks, my catalogue looks really nice, and I'll probably sell an extra $100,000 in merchandise due in part to your layout expertise."

I learned from long hours dipping ice cream, ringing up customers at Sam's Club, answering phones in an office and even being a travel agent that the only way to get more money was to improve myself by educating myself and working hard and doing my best. Quite frankly, the extra $6 a day I would have made in tips at any of those jobs would NOT have gone far to 'improve my station' or whatever.

Sometimes I even think that some people's tipping attitude is kind of patronising. It seems like some people are saying "I'm better than you because I have a better job and make more money. Here are the crumbs from my table. Worship me for my generosity!" Not everyone who tips is this way, but there is a certain amount of classist snobbery to some people's tipping attitude.

The upshot of this is that on our last trip I gave Mousekeeping something like $3/day for just me and my spouse, in a room that we kept clean on our own. I did this largely because after reading these boards I understood that it was expected. My $3/day got me

--no towel animals
--no clean sheets
--no refills on soap, shampoo, etc.

Needless to say, expected or not, on our next trip I'm not in such a rush to pay this hidden surcharge.

 

[LoveWDW]

I would like my bed changed every day, and I would like soap etc refilled as needed. So in the case that this is not happening, would it do me any good to call housekeeping?

 

[Acklander]

Certainly nothing wrong with this if you find it appropriate, but there are many minimum wage jobs and employees in the US ( even some in MA I would imagine ). Curiosity compells me to ask why we feel obligated to ease the burden on Disney employees who don't make a living wage while ignoring the minimum wage workers we see everyday in our "regular" lives who could certainly use the $$$ as much as a WDW housekeeper? Not trying to argue, just curious, as I said.

Because these are the people who take care of me and my family while I'm on vacation - that's why. As others have pointed out, it's probably a regional thing, but I've always thought of the housekeeping position at a hotel or motel to be one of the people you tip in life so I budget accordingly. Since I was raised this way, I would feel uncomfortable doing otherwise. If you were raised in an area that doesn't tip out to housekeeping you're always going to be uncomfortable with it and feel it's a waste of money. Some people can get over this feeling, but deep don't I really don't think so.
You know how many Europeans aren't used to tipping in their own country? When then come here on holiday, many will tip at restaurants because they know it's expected of them in this country, but they don't usually overtip like many Americans will. I just don't think they're comfortable with it.

 

[TDC Nala]

--no towel animals
--no clean sheets
--no refills on soap, shampoo, etc.

I don't think any of that is standard at WDW resorts. These are extras. I don't think the resorts changes sheets daily and they've hardly ever left extra soap after the soap was opened. Towel animals are just whenever the housekeeper feels like making them and I don't think they should ever be expected.

WDW does not list housekeeping as a position to be tipped customarily. Those who wish to tip the housekeeper can tip the housekeeper. What that means to me is if you don't tip the restaurant server, you're stiffing them, and they know that the service better be good if they don't want to get stiffed, but if you don't tip the housekeeper that is your choice. The boards show it is a widespread practice to tip the housekeeper at WDW. I don't know if the housekeeper thinks that because a tip was left, extra service is expected.

 

[turbo594]

I tip for exceptional service in most any service industry.

 

[Amy&Dan]

Quite frankly, the extra $6 a day I would have made in tips at any of those jobs would NOT have gone far to 'improve my station' or whatever.

Actually an extra $6 a day if you worked 20 days a month would average out to about $1,440 a year. To a single mother like my sister was, that would help a lot with back to school clothes and other necessities.

I agree with many that tipping is getting out of control. I go into deli, grab a bottle of water out of the case and if I put it on my credit card (never have cash) I feel like a cheapo for not putting a tip on the receipt! But for housekeeping at any hotel, Disney or otherwise I tip because I feel that for service that includes cleaning a bathroom my family of four used, its earned.

 

[edingerc]

So far, it seems as though those who don't tip are in two groups: Those that were in the service industry who weren't tipped themselves and those who feel that tipping is getting out of control.

Whether you tip Mousekeeping or not is completely up to you. The housekeeping you get is included in the price of the resort. But, the same is true for servers in a restaurant, hair stylists and everything aboard a cruise ship.

Does Disney pay their Mousekeeping staff well? Yes, in relation to Motel 6 etc... Is their job hard? You bet it is: the trend for the last decade has been for hotels to sharply cut their regular housekeeping staff. That's why your room often istn't ready until "normal" check in time.

As far as "extras" go, you don't get your soaps refilled because it's not on the menu. If you in fact want the extra soap, let the front desk know and they'll oblige, no prob.

And for the record: Europeans do tip at restaurants. They just don't tip very much. A normal tip is included in the cost of the meal. If they feel that the server went out of their way, then they give a little on the top. It's not much though, since the tip is already built in.

 

[VSL]

A normal tip is not included in the cost of meals in Europe - the waiters get paid at least minimum wage in the EU (as far as I'm aware of). We generally tip over here anyway (yeah, I'm British, but also European - although we Brits don't like to say that!), but there's no hard and fast rules to how much. No 20% thing. We just tip a little extra if the service was good and we have the spare change.

No need to do the 15-20% thing because the waiters don't get taxed on their tips.

I do think that tipping is getting way out of hand across the pond there - why can't they just make a real minimum wage for ALL jobs over there?

Maybe at very upscale places here people get extra tips, but it's generally limited to waiters/waitresses and taxi drivers, etc.. We couldn't afford to do the 20% thing over here anyway - that's a LOT of money for us. The biggest tip I have personally left was £5. Many people will also tip more during the festive season, and the newspaper boy gets tips at this time too!

My boyfriends cousin was a waitress and received a £20 tip from a group of 3-4 American businessmen (it sounds like the 20% thing - it's highly unlikely a Brit would have done that). Also, while waitresses here don't tip back as such, they do sometimes have to pool their tips.

(the above is related to the restaurants I KNOW of, so some may differ!)

 

[Cheryl-Feb06]

What I find most interesting about this thread, and the many others like it in the course of the Dis is how many people going to Disney on these megabuck vacations started out by having low-paying, hard-work jobs.

It seems like we all worked hard, learned the value of a dollar, put ourselves through school or other similar training and got where we are today. No one handed me my well-paying job on a platter. I've put in lots of long hours building a client base and honing my skills. No one ever gave me an extra $5.00 as a graphic designer to say "thanks, my catalogue looks really nice, and I'll probably sell an extra $100,000 in merchandise due in part to your layout expertise."

I learned from long hours dipping ice cream, ringing up customers at Sam's Club, answering phones in an office and even being a travel agent that the only way to get more money was to improve myself by educating myself and working hard and doing my best. Quite frankly, the extra $6 a day I would have made in tips at any of those jobs would NOT have gone far to 'improve my station' or whatever.

Sometimes I even think that some people's tipping attitude is kind of patronising. It seems like some people are saying "I'm better than you because I have a better job and make more money. Here are the crumbs from my table. Worship me for my generosity!" Not everyone who tips is this way, but there is a certain amount of classist snobbery to some people's tipping attitude.

 

[poohluvr]

Wow! I'm shocked by this! It never even occured to me not to tip. These people are cleaning up after us, just seems like the fair thing to do. But then again coming from the NY area we seem to tip everyone. You can't even walk in a bathroom in a restaurant without there being a tip dish there! And no I'm not a snob! LOL There's been alot of mention as to why we don't tip people in other areas of employment. I think as a general rule we tip those who provide a direct personal service to us, and who do it well. For instance, the cab driver gets you to your destination quickly....you tip. The waitstaff is extra attentive.....you tip. Housekeeping is keeping your room nice and tidy.....you tip. I don't think anyone is expected to tip for lousy service.

 

[DisneyMim]

First I did not read all the posts, but thought I would answer. Just like everything in life everyone has their own opinion and this is how it should be. I grew up with parents who always tipped, so now that I am an adult I tip also. It would never occur to me to not tip housekeeping. I just came back from a cruise and in addition to the basic tip that you leave at the end of the cruise we tipped our state room housekeepers after the first night. We had wonderful service. After the cruise we spent a couple of days at a resort before heading back home and we tipped our housekeepers there and also tipped the beach guys who brought us umbrellas and chairs and tucked our towels into them! We always tip for great service and for the most part we usually get great service. In the event that we do not, usually a quick call fixes it. We feel that we are very lucky to be able to vacation as much as we do and the people who make our vacations special deserve a tip. I don't think most of them make much money and really look forward to tips. We are now planning our trip to Disney next month and I have already put aside envelopes for mousekeeping.

 

[jarestel]

Sounds like the majority of posters are comfortable with their own positions on tipping and don't necessarily care if anyone else tips or doesn't tip. A very civil discourse, all things considered.