Recommended Tips for Hotel Services

[obrien040362]

Just wanted your opinion on your tipping

When you arrive someone unloads your bags and since the room is not ready they are put in storage. Do you tip this person and what amount ? Then your room becomes ready and another person brings up your bags ? What do you tip this person ? I have always heard $1.00 per bag ? This has never made since
to me ? It doesn't take any more effort to roll the cart with 15 bags on it verses 5 bags.

In some hotels (e.g. Rosen) a doorman unloads your bags and a bell hop delivers your bags. Do you tip them both. The doorman tells me the bell hops do not share the tips. It everyman for themselves. This happened to me. My room was ready, the door man unlaoded my car, rolled the cart 20 feet and said the bell hop will take it from here. I only tipped the bell hop ?

How about Valet parking. The resort charges $6.00 per day. Do you tip the attendent when you arive, then pay the $6.00 then tip the different attendent when you leave ?

 

[esulerzy]

obrien040362

I may be wrong here, however, I only tip the the person that brings my bags to the room - not the person that puts them in storage when I first arrive at the resort. Same goes when I leave the resort - I tip the person that takes the bags from the room to storage, not the person that retrieves them from storage as I'm getting on the shuttle to leave. I tip $2 per bag (I usually have only one bag).

I do tip the Mears shuttle driver twice - once when I am dropped off at my resort; and once when I'm dropped off at the airport.

I have not used valet parking so I can't offer an opinion for that scenario.

Anyone else? Am I short-changing the "bags-to-storage" and "bags-from-stroage" person?

Ellen

 

[Kermit]

Most official tipping guides say you only have to tip when the product is delivered. So you tip when you get your bags in your room and when you get your car. (Although you may pay the $6 fee when you drop your car off; I haven't used valet parking since they started charging, and I've seen it both before and after in the "real world.")

You can tip both times, but it would start to get pretty expensive, and no one is going to talk badly about you if you don't. There usually is some system in place so that everyone gets tips. Either the employees share the tips, or they do the part of the job that isn't usually tipped half of the time and the other part the rest of the time.

 

[Mom2Em]

I read a thread somewhere... a thread written by a baggage taker-upper... It is customary to tip the baggage loader/unloader a dollar or two... the baggage retriever/taker-upper a dollar per bag... valet parking a dollar or two when they park the car or retrieve the car... no need to tip room service because most of the resorts put gratuity on the bill... I believe that is the only ones he mentioned.

 

[indigo]

As one of those baggage handler people (here in Las Vegas) I'll tell you that we do appreciate a tip. Two dollars is fine. However, some people do tip a dollar a bag or more.

We're the ones who are working outside in the heat or cold and we're the ones who make sure your bags are properly labeled, stored, etc.. We're also the people to ask for directions, places to eat, hotel amenities, etc.

No offense to the bellmen, but just delivering bags to the room is not that difficult and they are often able to combine multiple rooms on one run. We have to handle each car that comes in in order.

Now, do I give worse service when I'm not tipped? No. I give the same high level of customer service to every group that checks in.

-indigo

 

[Disneydenise]

Thanks indigo, I have always wondered what I should do so I give them each half of whatever my husband hands me because he always self parks the car.

 

[skiwee1]

I tip $5 to the guy that unloads the luggage from my van and puts it on the cart. I pay $20 to the guy that delivers it to my room. I do the opposite on the way out.

 

[Kimkimba]

Skiwee1,

That bellman must love you. $20 seems like a lot to me. I'm more like $3 if it's just me (and one or two bags) and $5 for my family (and we always seem to help). Friendliness helps, too - in D.C. a month ago we had a great guy who made friends with my ds (4). He was extremely nice without being overbearing. My dh went back to him later and gave him extra, and he went out of his way each time he saw us to see how ds was enjoying his trip. The fact that I'm remembering this definitely means he deserved extra. Most times they just deliver the bags. $5 seems adequate (unless we had a ton of bags or something really awkward).

 

[dcedwards]

Typically tip only when the bags are delivered to the room. We tip about $1 per bag...sometimes more. There are usually 5 of us traveling together (one is a kid) and we have about 10 bags so we tip about $11-13.

When parking, I tip the person I leave the car with a dollar or so and then tip again when I pick it up.

I also tip housekeeping. I do it each night we are there. Typically about $2 per person. When it is the three of us (one is a kid) I tip about $5 ... but only if the service is good and the room clean...otherwise...nothing.

At the airport we typically hire a service. They have a airport bell person load our bags on the cart and take out to the curb. We tip this person (about $1 per bag) and then we tip the van driver again when we get to the hotel (about 15% of the one way trip fee).

As far as baggage people...when we do skycab we tip about $1 or more per bag when we check in at the airport. If we only have a couple bags I will tip around $4.

 

[skiwee1]

I don't think $20 is too much when you consider he is going to be carrying at least 7-8 assorted bags and heavy suitcases. It is just my mom, toddler, and myself on these trips so that saves us so much effort! It is really worth every cent. I am thankful there are people that are willing to do that kind of work. It is too much for this old back! LOL! I also tip mousekeeping $5 daily too as they are very deserving of it.

 

[milmore104]

My DH gets out of hand w/ tipping on the way down anyway. He tips everyone who touches our luggage $20, and the mears driver $30. We give the mousekeeper $10 a day (we have a 2 yr DD) and on the way home he drops his tippiing down to $10 a person. Why I don't know? But by the end of the trip I could have stayed at the deluxe resort I wanted too. He also tips every waiter/waitress $20 if there good and less if there not.

 

[swclark]

Indio.. thanks for the "tips". It is always hard to know what to do and whom to tip what. I always tip the one that is "handling and storing" my bags the most. So, you at the curb who is storing my bags will get more than the delivery guy - want to make sure the one labelling the bags and storing them is doing it with care. Also, on the other end.. the one who picks up the bags gets the high end as he is the one taking care of them and putting them into bell services. I do hope they "swap" out the people often so everyone gets a chance at the "good" tips. Just like the skycaps.. they are the one tagging your bags for their destination.. they get a good tip - I want my bags to arrive with me (remember the seinfeld where they didn't tip well )

I have a hard time with the mouseservice and knowing what to do. never sure how much to tip and whether to tip daily or at the end. I tend to do it at the end so I don't have to deal with it everyday... and I can also determine how messy we were over the time we were there.. hard to know as not sure how much more work it is to remove/replace 5 towels versus 2. The amount of daily cleaning is basically the same - still have to wipe everything down no matter how many people use it. So not sure the per person "rate" is necessary, but have never heard of any other way to do it.