My son's Game Boy was stolen from our room during our DL stay....

[Mugglemama]

Now if it was $200 sitting on a dresser then maybe you would have something to complain about.

funny that you seem to feel you have the authority to decide what people have the right to complain about....especially since you do a lot of complaining on these boards yourself.

the point is, people shouldn't have to worry that housekeeping is going to steal their belongings, but from what people here have posted, it obviously happens. it certainly wasn't the OP's fault that her child's toy was stolen....lol, i'm reasonably sure that housekeeping didn't think THAT was a tip.

 

[CrazyDuck]

it was in a drawer. and i don't think it's all that common for people to leave $20 tips when they only spent $60 on the room, lol.

You should try it... Maybe they won't leave you the MRSA towels!

You didn't say it was in a drawer... That is unexcusable!

 

[Mugglemama]

You should try it... Maybe they won't leave you the MRSA towels!

You didn't say it was in a drawer... That is unexcusable!

MRSA kills people. it's really not something to laugh about. we lost a 24 year old family member to complications associated with it last month. please stop quoting me just for the opportunity to argue about something. it's really annoying and quite inappropriate. grow up.

 

[ado121]

And second, it is pretty crassly to confront housekeeping over $20. It's not a lot of money and pretty typical for a tip. .

wow. $20 for a housekeeping tip?????????? yikes. i must be uber cheap cuz i would never ever leave that amount.

 

[LOVEDISNEYLAND]

We always put locks on all our suit cases because we've had pins stolen from our room. I'm almost 99.9% sure because we left them out and then when we came back, it was gone. So we decided that house keeping was not going to come in our room the rest of our stay and that we would go and get fresh towels. I told them the truth and they we're okay with that. regardless if they weren't they really didn't have much of a choice.

 

[michelleh1]

We always put locks on all our suit cases because we've had pins stolen from our room. I'm almost 99.9% sure because we left them out and then when we came back, it was gone. So we decided that house keeping was not going to come in our room the rest of our stay and that we would go and get fresh towels. I told them the truth and they we're okay with that. regardless if they weren't they really didn't have much of a choice.

what exactly does housekeeping do when you are there for a week? are they only making the beds and bringing fresh towels? or are they changing sheets too? we never travel, so I have no clue. thanks!

 

[CrazyDuck]

wow. $20 for a housekeeping tip?????????? yikes. i must be uber cheap cuz i would never ever leave that amount.

Well ya don't tip $20 every day, that's just crazy! What we do is the first day we get there we'll tip em $20 then just $4 or $5 every day thereafter. Sometimes they'll do something special in the room like chocolate dipped mickey shaped rice crispies, or leave a bowl full of chocolate coins. At the end of the trip if they didn't steal anything and the towels were clean then I drop another $20 on the way out. At least, I hope, they'll feel appreciated.... I dunno... Maybe that's why we never had anything stolen from us?

 

[MineMail]

I'm so sorry about your losses. I've never had something taken from a hotel room, but we tend to be very careful and take/lock up valuables.

I often forget to tip the maid, so I'm in the habit of tipping up front for the entire stay. Exceptional service nets them a few singles on other days, but I just leave a $10 or a $20. The last time I stayed at a hotel (Hampton Inn) and did this, the maid wrote me a personal thank you note, thanking me profusely. Hope she wasn't expecting a repeat performance.

 

[californiamomof4grls]

I think a lot of times when on vacation you just don't think about protecting our things. We stayed at the Hojo and put all of our things in the safe everyday before we left simply because I am paronoid.Dh thought it was stupid. I will make sure he reads this thread!
I highly recommend looking up the name of the hotel you want to stay at with the word "reviews" in quotes next to it. There were two hotels that we were looking at because they were cheaper and they had theft reviews! I can't remember which two it was and I don't want to hotel bash! ; )
I think because we all are going in and out of DL we have a false since of security. Sadly we have to be proactive to protect our things or have the attitude that if it's lost then it doesn't matter. Which is a hard fact but true. I always buy cheapy shorts for my girls and Target and Walmart and I buy them disney shirts that I get for 5 bucks. I do buy expensive clothes for my girls but never bring them out of fear. But I never thought of someone stealing them I was afraid I would leave them behind!
I can say that the Hojo staff was awesome to us. My daughter (6 at the time) left her "lovey" at the hotel. We realized when we stopped at a gas station just after the grapvine. We called as soon as I realized I hadn't packed it. They didn't find but said they would keep looking and gave us the number of the head housekeeper. She called us two days later! They had found it and if we gave her our address they would mail to us! ANd they did and the two were reunited and the "lovey" has not left our house sence! LOL! BTW I realize that the "lovey" is not worth anything monatary but it was still an awesome gesture by the hotel!! ; )

 

[californiamomof4grls]

Well ya don't tip $20 every day, that's just crazy! What we do is the first day we get there we'll tip em $20 then just $4 or $5 every day thereafter. Sometimes they'll do something special in the room like chocolate dipped mickey shaped rice crispies, or leave a bowl full of chocolate coins. At the end of the trip if they didn't steal anything and the towels were clean then I drop another $20 on the way out. At least, I hope, they'll feel appreciated.... I dunno... Maybe that's why we never had anything stolen from us?

It's a I'll scratch your back if you scratch mine situation! Smart! I have to admit this being my 3 rd time ever going this yearthat I didn't know you were suppose to tip until I started reading this thread! I feel like an ***!

 

[jlmarr]

Yes, we tip daily too, in part because you might have different a different maid on your last day so it wouldn't be fair to the maid that did the bulk of the work, but also we get better service if there's daily incentive. Not $20 though, something in the $5-$10 range. And you can tell it is appreciated without ever seeing the housekeeper.

 

[sonnyjane]

Well ya don't tip $20 every day, that's just crazy! What we do is the first day we get there we'll tip em $20 then just $4 or $5 every day thereafter. Sometimes they'll do something special in the room like chocolate dipped mickey shaped rice crispies, or leave a bowl full of chocolate coins. At the end of the trip if they didn't steal anything and the towels were clean then I drop another $20 on the way out. At least, I hope, they'll feel appreciated.... I dunno... Maybe that's why we never had anything stolen from us?

I'm so sorry about your losses. I've never had something taken from a hotel room, but we tend to be very careful and take/lock up valuables.

I often forget to tip the maid, so I'm in the habit of tipping up front for the entire stay. Exceptional service nets them a few singles on other days, but I just leave a $10 or a $20. The last time I stayed at a hotel (Hampton Inn) and did this, the maid wrote me a personal thank you note, thanking me profusely. Hope she wasn't expecting a repeat performance.

Is it safe to assume, then, that you usually have the same housekeeper throughout the week? I usually tip $2-$3 a night (more if I'm staying in a suite, because, well, I feel like a cheapo if I stay in an expensive room and only tip $2 haha). The tough part is making sure I have change, so it'd be easier to just tip a $20 up front or something. I'd just hate to get there and leave a $20, then find out that they switched housekeepers and I stiffed them the rest of the week!

 

[Flitterific]

Is it safe to assume, then, that you usually have the same housekeeper throughout the week? I usually tip $2-$3 a night (more if I'm staying in a suite, because, well, I feel like a cheapo if I stay in an expensive room and only tip $2 haha). The tough part is making sure I have change, so it'd be easier to just tip a $20 up front or something. I'd just hate to get there and leave a $20, then find out that they switched housekeepers and I stiffed them the rest of the week!

I know people who work at hotels and they usually try to assign the same housekeeping staff to the same floors/rooms. However, do keep in mind that not they probably don't work 7 days straight so you might have a different housekeeper on the day of your check-in/check-out so I personally think it's best to tip on a daily basis so you don't stiff anyone

On another note...if you do use the safeboxes at the hotel rooms, please remember to make sure that it is locked when you leave. I went on a cruise to China last year and my mom left the safebox wide open! Thank god the housekeeper didn't take anything because we had over $1000 in there plus all our passports, airplane tickets, etc. Of course, we called the front desk and told them about the situation and made sure to give the housekeeper a nice tip for being so honest. But boy was that a scary situation.

 

[Dinder1]

Not only do you need to remember to lock the safes, but take the stuff out before you leave! On our last trip, my son found a DS in the room safe. I thought it was his (same color), but it wasn't, so we took it to the front desk.

OP, any chance you son put the DS in the safe? Housekeeping doesn't check the safe to make sure it's empty after you check out, so if the maid didn't take it, it could still be sitting in there.

 

[doclegler]

Not only do you need to remember to lock the safes, but take the stuff out before you leave! On our last trip, my son found a DS in the room safe. I thought it was his (same color), but it wasn't, so we took it to the front desk.

OP, any chance you son put the DS in the safe? Housekeeping doesn't check the safe to make sure it's empty after you check out, so if the maid didn't take it, it could still be sitting in there.

No, we didn't put them all in the safe, and probably wouldn't have had room to do so anyway with all the electronic/valuable items we had with us. They also charged $1.50/day to USE the safe. Pretty pathetic to pay more money to ensure no one who has a key to our room (ie. staff) will steal our valuables. Its just gotten really sad....

 

[DisCookie]

Yikes i'm going to be buying a lock for suitcases, can't risk losing my MacBook Pro!!

I'd recommend a security cable instead and locking it to a fixed object in the room. Most luggage locks are either the very weak kind (jam a paper clip and fiddle around, it opens) or those TSA "approved" ones, which means someone with the master key can open them.

I just wouldn't want the staff to think that my suitcase has anything insanely valuable in it, to want to take it .

If I'm in one of those rooms where other hotel guest can see into my room, I'll throw some clothes on top of the laptop. Has the added benefit of looking like a messy, probably no valuables type room.

what exactly does housekeeping do when you are there for a week? are they only making the beds and bringing fresh towels? or are they changing sheets too? we never travel, so I have no clue. thanks!

They take out the trash too, though I'm not sure if they change the sheets At my last stay, the hotel had a card on the bed that you were suppose to put on the bed or not put on the bed, depending if you wanted your sheets changed or not.

What I do, is leave a note on the first day that I'm going to be staying a week and just leave extra towels with a tip. I don't really need my bed made and don't exactly generate that much trash. Then at the end of the stay, I leave a little larger tip.

 

[drag n' fly]

Well ya don't tip $20 every day, that's just crazy! What we do is the first day we get there we'll tip em $20 then just $4 or $5 every day thereafter. Sometimes they'll do something special in the room like chocolate dipped mickey shaped rice crispies, or leave a bowl full of chocolate coins. At the end of the trip if they didn't steal anything and the towels were clean then I drop another $20 on the way out. At least, I hope, they'll feel appreciated.... I dunno... Maybe that's why we never had anything stolen from us?

Are you implying that because you throw money around and keep housekeepings snack supply topped up that housekeeping does not steal from you and provides you MRSA free towels?
I only thought this type of arrogance and shallowness existed on other forums because it certainly does not belong on the DL forum.
Seriously WOW

 

[MaumeeMom]

Are you sure that it was really stolen and not just misplaced? I think so many times people jump to the conclusion that someone else had to have done something to them instead of facing the fact that we may have screwed up.

People leave things in/on the beds and they get swept up with the dirty sheets when it is time to change them, things fall off the desk and onto the floor next to the trash and are disposed of and stuff left on the vanity could be tossed in with the towels.

I couldn't find my watch one morning and, after searching the room, found it in the trash can. A stack of our junk had "avalanched" and pushed it off the edge of the desk and into the can! I'm just glad that I needed it and looked for it. If it had gotten thrown away, I may have also thought that it had been taken but it was my own fault.

 

[tholczer]

I'd be curious to find out if the people who had things stolen left tips. Not saying they deserved to be stolen from. Just curious. Human nature being what it is.

Tracy

 

[drag n' fly]

I'd be curious to find out if the people who had things stolen left tips. Not saying they deserved to be stolen from. Just curious. Human nature being what it is.

Tracy

We always tip one dollar per person in the room per day (we are a family of five). We always get towel animals and or a clean room etc! We also bring treats that you can only find in Canada and little souveniers also. Despite all that they stole a bunch of stuff from a suitcase.
It never once occured to me that someone would jack a bunch of stuff from my suitcase because I didn't leave a tip. What about the millions of people who stay in a hotel and never leave a tip and have nothing taken? It boils down to people wanting something so bad they are willing to do the wrong thing to get it. There are millions of people who live like that. I bought TSA locks years ago....lesson learned and well...what goes around comes around.