Tipping

[kirkharrod]

At least $5 oer night. It is always to your advantage to keep the person who will be going through your room while you are not there, happy.

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

I didn't tip hotel housekeepers until several years ago. I was at a conference (I think in Arizona or Tennessee) and it was announced in one of our sessions that in that state the housekeepers were not paid minimum wage, so a small gratuity would be appreciated.

It never crossed my mind that there might be weird loopholes in the labor laws. Since then I have always left a small tip. When I go to conference I am the only one in the room, but I usually leave $2.

When we go to Pop in January we will have 3 people in our room so we will probably leave a bit more.

 

[shellybaxter]

Originally posted by jackskellingtonsgirl
I didn't tip hotel housekeepers until several years ago. I was at a conference (I think in Arizona or Tennessee) and it was announced in one of our sessions that in that state the housekeepers were not paid minimum wage, so a small gratuity would be appreciated.

While I don't mind tipping and ususally tip pretty well actually, I'm getting a little bit angry at all of the employees consumers or being expected to tip as part of their salary. Does anyone else feel this way? It's not fair to the employee, obviously if people don't even know like jackskellingtonsgirl, and it's not fair to the consumer. I like to tip for good service and to say thank you, not to pay a persons salary. I thought I already did that when I selected that establishment at which to spend my money.


Shelly

 

[MAGICinMYHEART]

Originally posted by LouLouDew
I have a question about tipping. We just got back from the Poly and attended the Aloha dinner with my dh and 2 ds. I ordered a drink not included in the dinner and received a bill at the end. Tucked inside the bill folder was a bill for the drink and a card that said that gratuity was not included in the bill and would be very welcome (or words to that effect). So I paid with a credit card and filled in a tip for the drink and the entire dinner. I also noted on the slip that the tip was for the dinner too.

Our waitress, who had been very nice and attentive all evening long, then acted as if I had given her a small treasure! She came over, thanked us profusely, and cleaned out the glass my drink came in and wrapped it up for me to bring home as a souvenier, etc.

Has anyone heard that gratuity is not included in the Aloha dinner? Has anyone seen this 'tipping card' before? Did it just refer to the drink? Did I overtip? I didn't see other diners leave tips on tables.

The tip card was for the drink you ordered only, (not included on the menu) the Aloha Dinner price Adults $49.01 and Children 3-11 $24.81; price includes tax and gratuity. You tipped her for the dinner which had already been included. Like tipping the bartender for the entire meal, but only recieved one drink from him.

But you made her day and spread some PIXIE DUST.

 

[Grumpy's Gal]

someone said there's usually a day bed to make up at the deluxes -- don't forget, the Alligator Bayou at Port Orleans has an extra trundle bed.

 

[Becky2005]

Originally posted by jackskellingtonsgirl
I didn't tip hotel housekeepers until several years ago. I was at a conference (I think in Arizona or Tennessee) and it was announced in one of our sessions that in that state the housekeepers were not paid minimum wage, so a small gratuity would be appreciated.

Yep....I had no idea you were supposed to tip housekeepers in hotels...of course, my parents never stayed at a hotel more than 1 night on vacation. It wasn't until I went on a vacation with my boyfriend & his family that at the end of the stay his mom left a tip. I had no clue.

Although reading all these threads, I've decided I'm going to go broke tipping everyone and I'm sure stiff someone unintentionally who is supposed to be tipped because I'll have no idea. Luckily my DH has more travel experience...(my family is more Motel 6 type), we have never used bell services in our life (since we never stayed at anyplace that had it! ), when we were on vacation several years ago, we ended up a nice hotel where they had them, DH knew to tip the guy, it wouldn't have occurred to me to tip...(I was clueless anyway)

 

[Minnie&Nana]

Hey, Becky in Chicago! My hometown

When I was growing up(many moons ago) my dad was in the Navy and we traveled often. My parents always left a tip for housekeeping at the end of the stay..usually a night or two (we stayed in Best Westerns).

When I first took my children to WDW we stayed at the CR and I left a tip on my last morning, just as my parents had done. I did it for over 20 yrs, until I found out that housekeeping can change during a stay and do not pool tips! It was only then I began to leave a tip each day..and many times it was still there when we returned to the room. When Disney began to leave a card with the mousekeeper's name, we left a daily tip sitting in front of the card with a Thank You note. That worked.

Now we use the envelopes printed out from the link I found on DIS:http://users.adelphia.net/~heidiw/

Tipping is such a personal thing and we like to tip $5 in each envelope morning and evening. We rarely have had mousekeeping who spoke enough English to converse with but we have run into them now and then and always be sure to say thank you for keeping our room so nice.

Never had cute towel designs, but I think this has to do with the mousekeeper and her sense of fun and talent more than the tip for I've read many on the board who tip generously but receive no special towel designs.

 

[RoLaren]

We tip, often and generously, and it's some of the most fun I have on our trips!

We checked in to CR on the 12th and I left a tip for turndown service and the regular housekeeper the next morning before we left for the park. When we came back, the room was squeaky clean, beautifully turned down and there was a HUGE mickey head made of towels on the bed. So exciting!

The next day, we went to breakfast then dashed back to the room for something we'd forgotten. It was fortuitous because we ran into our WONDERFUL housekeeper. I was so glad we got to meet her.

We chatted with her a lot, and after she thanked us profusely for the tips we'd left already (we leave $5.00 in the morning and the same amount for turndown CM) she said that she'd noticed the envelope for turndown the day before but saw that they hadn't added us to the list. So she took it upon herself to turndown the room while she was cleaning so we wouldn't be disappointed! She also said that she'd had a ton of checkouts to do that morning but she wondered if we'd come back to the room for a break in the early afternoon so she made up our room first thing.

I asked her about tipping, and after some prodding, she told me that of eight check-outs she'd had that day so far, NO ONE had tipped her. Not one. And these guests had stayed for a WEEK!

She said she observed that it was the "working class people" who left the best tips and that they also usually left the rooms less messy, she joked about some rooms she saw that she just wanted to run away LOL. She said people there for conventions almost never left tips Thinking about how many we saw there during our trip, that made me sad and angry considering a lot of them are there on expense accounts!

We tipped her a little extra the following days. She was really extraordinary at her job, my room had special medical requests and every one was met and exceeded. She left towel animals, at least one, sometimes two, EVERY DAY. She did everything she could to make things amazing and she was the best housekeeper we have ever, ever had at WDW.

She made our trip magical and I like to think maybe we made her week a little better with the extra income. She's somebody's grandmother (we talked about our families) I know if it was my grandmother working so hard to clean at a luxury resort, I'd appreciate if people tipped her.

It really does make their lives easier. Also, it's interesting to note that at DL housekeepers are listed as a tipped position. I wish they'd list them as such for WDW too.

I consider it thank you for all the pixie dust they sprinkle on me during my stay and I swear, I've only had ONE towel animal on any of my previous trips even staying at the GF...to have more than eight in six nights was incredible!

 

[Dizz42]

Bravo, RoLaren! What a lovely way to look at it! I too used to leave a tip at the end of a stay. Now, through reading these boards and talking with different housekeepers, I make up my envelopes before going on vacation...plain ones that just say "Thank You" and our name for motels along the way and special "Mousekeeper" ones for WDW. Best advise I ever got...put the money in them months before leaving. One less expense to worry about. As a matter of fact, that is what I did for my niece as a wedding shower gift. They will be honeymooning at WDW and I printed up envelopes with Mickey and Minnie as the bride and groom. They said, "Dear Mousekeeper, the NEW Mr. & Mrs. ***** say Thank You." I put money in for each day, stacked them together and tied them up with a sparkly silver ribbon. I then put them in a box with tissue paper and gift wrapped it. She flipped and it turned out to be the most talked about gift of the shower! Oh, ain't I just so dern clever!

 

[SRUAlmn]

When we stayed at POP in September, we tipped $5 per night for 2 of us. We were going to leave about $3, but it was hard to always have $1 bills available, and I figured what's another $2 to know for SURE that everything has been fully cleaned We stayed 8 nights, so an additional $16 wasn't really a big deal to us, and I'm sure it was nice for them to receive. I made cute envelopes with Disney stickers on them, and a few nights we included Baltimore postcards in the envelope too