The Official "Bell Services Tipping" Poll

[GEM]

Well, due to the interesting discussion that is always generated whenever the question of tipping bell services comes up, I thought I would post this poll to see how most people feel. Please cast your vote.

 

[skiwee1]

We usually have 3 large suitcases and 2 small ones. We also have a couple of six packs of water and a 12 pack of diet pepsi along with a couple of carryon type bags. I tip the guy that takes it out of the car $10. I tip the guy that takes it to the room $20.

 

[dpic]

Three or so for the guy who unloads. Buck or so a bag for the guy who brings it to the room. The "or so" depends on whether the guy is acting like he's happy to do his job or whether he is doing me a favor and looking for a tip.

 

[Bracho]

Living in Las Vegas, I have learned that tipping is "NOT" a place in China.... so I tip both...

 

[clkelley]

We usually stay at the Values, so our bags are usually in our room when we return from the parks on the first day without us ever seeing luggage service folks. My hubby may tip the folks that take them to storage, but I don't know.

When we leave on our last day, we leave the luggage by the door with a tip on the luggage.

 

[papagooch]

$1 per bag. If they are really atttentive or speedy I'll add $2 to the total.

 

[mars315]

to "clkelley" -

Whoa!!! When you stay at the All Stars your bags are usually "IN" your room when you return? When we stayed at the Polynesian once there was a huge fiasco with our room, and it was not ready. We had stayed at another hotel the previous week, and went over to check in to the Polynesian in the early afternoon. By now it had become LATE afternoon. We had plans for dinner and then Fantasmic, and we had REALLY wanted to get a little settled in to our new room before we had gone to dinner. When it became painfully obvious that that was not going to happen, I asked the CM at the desk, "Can you just have Bell Services deliver our luggage to our room when it becomes available?" She said "No, you'll have to call for it when you get back to your room". I said, "That won't be until close to midnight, and my children will be exhausted. It would be nice to have our luggage "IN" the room at that point." The CM said, "I'm sorry but WE CANNOT DO THAT FOR SECURITY REASONS." I asked her, "Why not?" She again stated that it was for MY protection of my belongings, and that because of security reasons they COULD NOT put luggage in a guest's room unless the guest was there. I said, basically, "Look, we tipped them to put it into storage, and we will give them a NOW to deliver it to our room LATER, because I can see that THAT is what the problem is." Of course I ended up having to call for my luggage at midnight, but I knew that it was not ONLY for security reasons. Both my husband and I left the front desk certain that the policy is so that the guest is there to tip Bell services both when they help you put your luggage on a cart, and when they put it in the room. Prior to that stay, we had always tipped the person taking it out of our car generously because we thought he was going to deliver it to our room. Then when the room was not ready, we of course tipped again when another person took us, and our baggage to our room. After that visit we realized that no matter what, your luggage is "handled" at least twice as a means to increase tips. We always tip, but we now tip the first guy $5, because we know there will be a second person to take your luggage to your room, and we tip that CM generously.

Anyway, my point is that, if they can put a guest's luggage in his room at the All Stars, without the guest in the room, then the policy at the Polynesian is most certainly NOT because of security reasons.

 

[DFiore1]

If you don't want to tip them....Handle your own luggage, they will understand.

 

[Minnie&Nana]

We usually tip $10 each. When the kids were young and travel was more costly for us, it was $2 per bag each - we never had more than 3 bags.

How about starting a poll for mousekeeping tipping? I would ,but have no idea how!!

Thanks for this one.

 

[Disney_1derland]

Well, this was our first trip staying on site (Shades of Green) and I tipped everything but the potted plants Or, at least, it feels that way, doesn't it?

On arrival our driver unloaded our bags and put them on the luggage cart. He, of course, got tipped because he was our driver.

The person who brought them to the room got tipped $1/item ($12) for about 3 minutes of work (not bad huh??? that could work out to quite a sum if everyone tips that way!) But then my aunt who obviously thinks I would dare to stiff the guy chases him down the hall to tip him, so he probably made about $20 total. I think this explains why there was a fight to get to us on checkout day to pick up our luggage (we had three guys all beating down our doors.) Word must've gotten out that there were crazy people on the 5th floor and if you hang around long enough ALL of them will tip you (I think between the Bellboys and the Housekeeper, they had figured this out )

They stored our luggage that last day and we tipped the guy when he picked up the luggage but when it came time to get it out of storage it was the same guy and he gave us attitude about calling for our luggage before our driver had even arrived and so I did not feel the need to tip him again. Truly he wheeled the luggage about 3 feet and then just left it there. I didn't think that really deserved a tip. If it had been a different person completely and/or had we not been given attitude I probably would have tipped him $5 for the 3 feet he wheeled it.

Since this was our first time staying on site where they are nice enough to provide bell services I used them and juggling two kids, car seats, luggage etc I feel it was well worth it just to alleviate my stress a bit. I can't imagine me and dh trying to juggle 3 suitcases, two carseats, 3 carryons and 2 kids without adding stress to the situation. It's a price I'm willing to pay.

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

It is my understanding that Pop Century will bring your luggage to your room when your room is available and you do NOT have to be there. It seems like I have read this on posts from CM's who actually deliver the luggage to the rooms!

I personally lock my luggage once it is off the plane, so it is fine with me if they want to bring it to my room without me.

I am assuming the Town Car driver will help us take our luggage out of the car. We will then take our own luggage in, check in, and have them store our bags. If for some reason our room is already available then we will tip the person who helps us take the bags to the room.

When we leave (at 4:45 in the morning ) we will take our own bags down to the Town Car.

 

[Minnie&Nana]

Originally posted by Disney_1derland
Well, this was our first trip staying on site (Shades of Green) and I tipped everything but the potted plants. It's a price I'm willing to pay.

I LOVED this post..still laughing.. and I bet when I am in a store one day shopping for my upcoming trip I'll remember it and LOL again...so what if someone stares at me - they won't know that I am getting ready to go to DW and am chuckling to myself because I just might accidentally tip one of those potted plants - if it looks like it did anything helpful!!

Thanks so much,Disney_1derland, for adding a light touch to a sometimes touchy thread!!!

 

[jimmiej]

I'm glad you posted this. I've always wondered what was appropriate.

 

[clkelley]

The Value Resorts have what is known as Luggage Service, not Bell Service.

If luggage is stored upon arrival, then they will deliver the luggage to your room on their schedule, so even if you don't plan on going to the parks that afternoon, if you go straight to your room, then your luggage will be delivered on a schedule that is convenient for them.

Same thing on checkout day, you must call them the night before and leave your bags by the door, and they will get the bags to the storage area at their convenience.

I actually like it better than the moderates or deluxes, because when we do arrive mid morning, the luggage is waiting for us when we get back to the room at night, and on check out day, we don't have to wait for a bellman to come get our bags, we can just leave them by the door and head on out.

However, it is a pain when we arrive late in the evening, and don't have plans to go out, because then it could be an hour or more before our bags arrive in the room, or luggage service could be closed, then we have to hunt down a cart and do it ourselves.

Carol

 

[Judy from Boise]

We love to travel, and one of the ways we encourage everyone to pack light is the "you handel your own luggage" rule. We First intituted this on a 3 week trip to Australia when my DD was 7. If it is not possible to graciously handel our own luggage we tip a dollar a bag.
I have lugged my own luggage in many a fab 5* resort, but it is no big deal since we each limit ourselves to one wheeled bag.

 

[goofy4tink]

We usually tip about $1 a bag for the person who takes our stuff to the storage area. Since we have been using BWV, we have checked in and had to wait for several hours to get into our room. So, we know they will have to bring it back out. Then the person who delivers the baggage to our room will get $5 most likely. WE did have an issue of a food delivery at BWV last August. The box was there, but they couldn't find it! The bellman told us they would deliver it in the afternoon. Never happened. We called down the next morning and were told it would be in our room by noon. And it was. And we were not in the room when it was delivered.

We do like to handle our own luggage tho. At other resorts that's what we do...keep it with us and drag it to our room.

 

[Bill From PA]

Here we go again! I voted for the 'tip the guy who gets the bags from the car and the one who delivers to the room' option since this is what I did this March when I took a party of 9 to the Dolphin and we NEEDED the help. We had a huge amount of luggage. This Jan. just my wife and I will be going with 2 wheeled bags each in a rental car. I'm going to drop her off with the goods somewhere away from the unloading area, park the car and together we'll drag our stuff through check-in to the room.

The thing that irritates me about this is the 'multiple hands' thing. In a restaurant there's usually only one person to deal with. Here, a simple, but often necessary service passes through two or three people. Why not have the person who meets your car be responsible for the whole job of getting your stuff to your room? That way you could tip there or later in the room and still be rewarding the person who aided you.

Bill From PA