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

[DisneyMommyMichelle]

Tips are not necessary, but they are allowed. I am a former hotel cast member (Y&B front desk!!!) and the housekeeping staff was allowed to take tips. They work 8-10 hrs a day cleaning up after people. I think it is only courteous to tip. We leave 3 dollars a day and sometimes when we have requests, we leave a bit more. My mother travels a lot on business and leaves 2 a night and my father tips at the end of his stay depending on how it went (unless of course with the exception of having special requests).

 

[tashast]

I honestly hadn't tipped at a hotel until I met my FI. He is originally from NYC, so I agree it may be a location thing. He said we have to tip for a job well done, don't you like to be recognized once and awhile? So from them on, we tip at hotels. He usually takes care of it and tips at the end of our stay. If we have a special request, we usually tip the person who brings the request to the door (can be a different person than our housekeeping person). I guess I figure, even it they make ok money, it is nice to leave something just to say that I appreciate everything you did. I have also left notes in the past thanking the hotel staff.
Tash

 

[Dalton5]

BTW, where's my tip? I'm a SAHM, but I think I'm going to put a tip jar on the kitchen table


I love this...I, too, am a SAHM, I haven't started putting the tip jar on the kitchen table, but I have told my family that whatever I find at the bottom of the washing machine is MINE!!

But as far a tipping hotel housekeepers...My husband and I always leave something at the end of our stay. How much depends on the level of service we had. We are very neat when we stay at hotels (and at home) so not much is ever required to clean our room but nevertheless we leave a tip.

IMO, tipping has gotten out of hand in our society, where do you draw the line.

 

[lmhall2000]

I admit it, I may have tendencies to go with the masses...and on our last trip to Disney I tipped daily with cute little mousekeeping envelopes. But, I will not be doing that from now on. I did not tip before that last visit and I will not tip from here on out.

I consider my nightly room rate to cover my obligation to the housekeeping crew. My multiple trips to Disney help keep them employed. It's a personal preference and I prefer not to tip. Tipping of housekeeping is not expected but is accepted. I have noo issue with anyone who chooses to tip and no complaint against those who don't. I think everyone should decide for themselves what they are going to do and stick to it. And not push forth that one way or the other is better. Now, if you'd asked if I tip at a meal to a server....then I would definitely have an aversion to those who said, Nope I don't tip a waiter, that is considered a "tipped" position and their paychecks reflect that.

Just go with what you feel comfortable with.

Tara

 

[dparksfan]

My dh's grandmother thinks that you shouldn't tip wait staff at a restaurant, that the restaurant should pay them better. We try and sneak a tip after she walks away. So just because people have an opinion doesn't mean it's how it should be. The travel industry has a norm of $1 per person per day for housekeeping. If people don't want to buy into it then I guess that's their business, but it hurts the people who work in those jobs. Cleaning hotel rooms has to be disgusting. I just got back from Disneyland last week. Left the tips in envelopes, didn't get anything special in return (no towel animals), but I felt it was justified. We easily tip the bellman or valet when you pull your car up. What gets me is everytime I go to a hotel, I request a crib and then when I arrive in my room I have to call, which then someone personally brings it and then I feel obligated to tip for something that should have already been there. I guess that's how it goes.

 

[goofy4tink]

As I have said before, I have always left a tip, daily, for housekeeping in WDW. However, now that I think of it, there was one time, last month when I didn't want to. We were getting ready to go to the parks, about 9:30ish. There was a knock on the door and when I opened it, there stood our housekeeper. She said, and I quote, "When will you be leaving? I need to get in to clean." I said.."We'll be leaving in about 30 minutes, we're just finishing breakfast." Her eyes went so far back in her sockets that I didn't think they would work again!! She was a little attitudinal. And when we came back to the room around 3:00 to swim, it still hadn't been done. And this was only for Trash and Towel service at BCV!!! I didn't want to leave anything at all for her, but dh did, when we left later that afternoon.

 

[TinyLolitaBunny]

I dont think theres anything wrong with accepting tips even when it is your job to give them the experience or serivces you do. Its jsut an extra thank you for doing a great job. Also I dont think its "expected" as in they dont tell you to tip mousekeeping but most of us do because its the nice thing to do.

 

[penchris]

I always tip restaurant servers at least 15% and often 20%, but it depends with housekeeping. Usually I prefer not to have anyone enter my room on a daily basis and just ask for a towel exchange. We tend to pick up after ourselves just fine. In that case, I will only tip if something above and beyond comes up (like the time DH got food poisoning and the room was a mess when we left). If I have a long stay, I tip on the days housekeeping comes in and fully does the room. Otherwise I leave a token guesture tip on the last day.

Tipping on a cruise is entirely different. The room attendant makes almost nothing and tipping is their wage. They are not even protected by US minimum wage or labor laws because 99.9% of cruise ships are not US (to avoid our stricter maritime law). In addition, the service you receive on a cruise is hand-and-foot pampering that is far beyond mere housekeeping. This is probably because the person knows they would starve otherwise.....

I think there is no excuse for the food and beverage industry to not pay minimum wage, and anything less should be outlawed. Yes, I have seen bartenders take home more cash than management on occassion....but I have also seen a company that does 1/2 of it's food and beverage sales through events automatically ad a large gratuity to a client's check, and the servers never saw a dime of it. This might seem illegal, but is easily circumvented by increasing the hourly wage to $8 (or other minor increase) and calling it "banquet pay". The client seldom leaves anything extra, because the gratuity was "included". If a server lets a client in on this, they are usually written up or terminated. This may come off as a biased opinion, but actually I have never worked in F&B....just as a show systems engineer for an entertainment company that did this and it burned me up.

 

[bsusanmb]

Years ago when I had 5 kids, I had to count down to the penny, and there was no way that I ever left a tip for housekeeping. Of course, back then, I couldn't afford to go to WDW. I strongly feel that if you don' t have the money, don't tip the housekeepers.
Now that I am 55, and our kids are grown, DH and I spend every vacation hour we have at WDW. I make a good living as a RN, and I do tip the housekeepers because I can afford to do this.

Don't feel guilty if you have saved and saved to take a trip, and don't have lots of extra cash sitting around to leave a tip.

Just MHO

 

[Bob NC]

The travel industry has a norm of $1 per person per day for housekeeping.

What? What travel industry has this as a norm? Every single survey I've ever seen relating to this has shown that the VAST MAJORITY of folks DO NOT leave tips for housekeepers at hotels.

 

[angelkisses]

I have a TIP jar in the kitchen, so far in 3 months it has gathered 0.43!!!

To everyone who tips at the end of their stay are you not concerned that you may have a different housekeeper on that day?

Everyone, please tip your pizza delivery guy at home. My son works for PJ's as a driver to pay his way through college. Sometimes he may drive 10 miles one way to deliver a pizza not to even get a tip. With the soaring prices of gasoline and wear on his car sometimes its almost like he works for free. PJ's give him .75 for each delivery but that does not begin to cover his costs. To make things worse PJ's just started adding $1 to the customers bill for a deliver surcharge and customers (understandably so) think the driver gets the money which they do not. I don't understand this either. My son's customers now tip less because of this surcharge. (Sorry that's a little off subject and not disney related).

 

[LoveWDW]

Everyone, please tip your pizza delivery guy at home. My son works for PJ's as a driver to pay his way through college. Sometimes he may drive 10 miles one way to deliver a pizza not to even get a tip. With the soaring prices of gasoline and wear on his car sometimes its almost like he works for free. PJ's give him .75 for each delivery but that does not begin to cover his costs. To make things worse PJ's just started adding $1 to the customers bill for a deliver surcharge and customers (understandably so) think the driver gets the money which they do not. I don't understand this either. My son's customers now tip less because of this surcharge. (Sorry that's a little off subject and not disney related).

Yike! Does he get a wage on top of the .75? Could he work for a different company?

 

[mlwear]

I'm assuming PJ's=Papa John's. I wrote about this a few posts earlier. So far ours doesn't put on a delivery surcharge, but I can see why some people would think that the guy delivering would receive it. I always order online now. I would never dream of not tipping, but my $3 tip, I think is adequate. Or so I thought until PJ put the tip calculator on the order form. Last week I ordered a little over $30. Tip calculator (btw, doesn't MAKE you add a certain amount just gives you the figures) said to tip 15% it was of course a little over $4.50. It calculates for 18% and 20%. I wrote only about one previous example, but I have started tipping around the 15% mark mostly out of guilt. I know the delivery guys work hard and have expenses, but it is truly a 3 mile drive to my house and I thought $3 was generous (I didn't know that they only got $.75/delivery though). ONE time my tip was near $5 and the delivery guy thanked me for the nice tip A thank you in a genuine way. I am such a softie that I would probably tip all the pizza guys well if all thanked me like that
Sorry to go OT w/ the pizza tip, but just had to clarify. Angelkisses, please know I would tip your son and certainly wasn't suggesting that anyone shouldn't.
BTW, nothing in my SAHM tip jar yet. I did find $.27 on the coffee table though

 

[Mrs. Squirrel]

What an interesting discussion. It is always nice to hear other folks opinions on controversial subjects. . .I just didn't realize that tipping maid service was one of them!

From my point of view, grew up in the midwest. Did extensive business travel (weekly) for about five years. Maid tipping was not only a standard practice in my industry, but my firm provided all new hires with tipping guidelines which we could exceed for good service, but were not to leave less! Their rational was image of the firm. I never agreed with this when the service was poor, but never knew until the DIS that some folks had never even heard of it.

Also worked as a waitress in high school. Really came to appreciate the value of tips, but also the vast difference between minimum wait service and exceptional wait service.

With that background in mind, I always tip maid service if the minimum standard for cleanliness has been met. Sadly, it has not always been so. If I have to report that my room is dirty or that things have not been refilled, towels replaced, etc. NO TIP!!! I will not reward poor behavior or bad work ethic. Minimum service gets a tip of $2-3/day depending on type of hotel. Exceptional service above the minimum standard is rewarded and I will leave up to $5/day.

I agree that the tip jars all over the place are annoying! What irks me more are folks who tip terrible service, because they feel social pressure to do so or don't want to look bad. As I said before, I will not reward bad behavior or service. 10% is not the minimum wait tip if you have not been waited on! As an extreeme example, we once had a party of 10 eat at a Denny's in St. Louis. When the waitress brought out our food, she handed a plate to a gal on my left, instead of placing it in on the table in front of her. The plate was so hot that it burned an imprint of itself in my friend's hand! The waitress laughed when my friend cried out in pain. Besides the laughing being completely bizzare, there was never an apology given. A complaint to the manager got us only a half-hearted one. Would you believe that there was one lady in our party who was still going to tip, because she didn't want to look cheap!? As a former waitress, I thought they were lucky they didn't get sued over something so aviodable! No tip from the rest of us!

That having been said, when I have exceptional wait service, I have no problem tiping up to 30%. Exceptional service adds to your experience, whether it is dining or your Disney resort room.

 

[Harmony]

Thanks for the links!

I was reading through some of them and it still astounds me that there are *some* jobs where people want a tip simply for 'doing their job.' 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.

www.tipping.org/tips/TipsPageTipsUS.html

 

[Suzanne74]

www.tipping.org/tips/TipsPageTipsUS.html

okay so by this "tipping page" I am supposed to tip $7-9 a night for mousekeeping and $15 for bellman for arrival and $10 when leaving. So in total for a 10 night stay, I should be forking out approx $115 in tips and then probably another $25 or so for some valet. Total of $140 in tips just at the hotel I am sorry but this seems excessive to me. I will tip the bellman but not $15 for my arrival with 2 or 3 bags. I usually give $2-3 a bag.

Does this "quote" seem a little high to anyone else or am I just cheap to think $140 in tips is really high??

 

[cjb71870]

okay so by this "tipping page" I am supposed to tip $7-9 a night for mousekeeping and $15 for bellman for arrival and $10 when leaving. So in total for a 10 night stay, I should be forking out approx $115 in tips and then probably another $25 or so for some valet. Total of $140 in tips just at the hotel I am sorry but this seems excessive to me. I will tip the bellman but not $15 for my arrival with 2 or 3 bags. I usually give $2-3 a bag.

Does this "quote" seem a little high to anyone else or am I just cheap to think $140 in tips is really high??

Yes, this tipping page is high.

 

[escape]

okay so by this "tipping page" I am supposed to tip $7-9 a night for mousekeeping and $15 for bellman for arrival and $10 when leaving. So in total for a 10 night stay, I should be forking out approx $115 in tips and then probably another $25 or so for some valet. Total of $140 in tips just at the hotel I am sorry but this seems excessive to me. I will tip the bellman but not $15 for my arrival with 2 or 3 bags. I usually give $2-3 a bag.

Does this "quote" seem a little high to anyone else or am I just cheap to think $140 in tips is really high??

I posted these links without looking at the tipping.org link very closely. After reading your response, I went to the site to check out the "Hotel" link for tips. WAY TO MUCH for the average family. I'm sorry I posted that link. The CNN links are better representations....still just guidelines though.

I was reading through some of them and it still astounds me that there are *some* jobs where people want a tip simply for 'doing their job.' 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.

This reminds me of something that I experienced recently that I could not believe. Whenever I travel to Las Vegas (about every other year), I try to treat myself to a massage or facial at one of the spas on the strip. A year ago, I went to the spa at XXX resort because they have a particular facial treatment that I like. This was probably my 4th time to this spa so I was somewhat familiar with their routine of checking customers in and getting them ready for their spa services. This process usually includes someone showing you around the spa, taking you to the person who provides you with spa slippers in your size, and then taking you to the locker area where you will change into the proper spa clothing for your treatment. The process of taking you around the spa to the final drop off point of the lockers takes maybe 5 minutes total (if that long.) At the end of my spa visit, I proceed to pay for the facial treatment. I asked that a tip be added to my total for the lady who provided the facial. The girl at the register then asked how much did I want to tip the girl who showed me around the spa. I had a blank look on my face. I have never been asked that before from this spa or any of the spas I have ever attended. I thought that was usually included in the price of the expensive facial that I purchased. After a few seconds of disbelief, I coughed up a dollar....not really knowing what I should tip. But that's not the end of the story!!!! Then she proceeded to ask how much did I want to tip the girl who handed me the spa slippers. By this time, I thought I was on some type of candid camera show. I started laughing. Maybe I'm naive to all this tipping as I have never, ever thought about tipping someone for handing me a pair of slippers. I was then told about the process of having to desanitize the slippers, getting them on the shelf in proper order, etc.... I couldn't believe what I was hearing and I told them so. I coughed up another dollar (they get you while you're still in shock!) I should have just given a dime. After I settled on these tips, I then started to wonder if she was expecting a tip.

The point to this story is this: These people were just doing their jobs! I worked hard in the service industry at minimum wage in my early days and I never received any type of tip "for doing my job". Well, that's not quite true. I did receive a tip once.....I was basically told when I was hired for a particular job that if I didn't do my job well, I would be fired.

End of story!

Edited to add: 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.

 

[angelkisses]

Escape - You just made some very good points!

 

[heatherfeather24]

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.