Tips for Housekeeping?

[Magpie]

We've done a fair bit of travelling, and nearly always stayed in places like Days Inn or Best Western. However, I keep coming across people talking about leaving a tip for housekeeping in budget/moderate hotels. We've only ever left a tip for housekeeping at the really high end hotels.

Is a tip expected in Orlando, when you're staying at a chain hotel like Best Western? How much would you leave?

 

[ducklite]

We leave a tip regardless of whether we are staying in a Hampton Inn or a Four Seasons. Generally speaking we leave $1 per person per night, left daily. The last couple of companies I worked for had a line item on the travel expense reports for housekeeping tips, up to $2 per day. That says to me that it's expected that you tip.

 

[Figment22]

You should tip the housekeeper at whatever hotel you stay at. I tip on a daily basis because you never know if you get the same housekeeper for your entire stay. I tip according to the number of beds in the room. I don't remember where I read this guideline but I always use $1.50 per bed per night. So if you've got two doubles in the room, $3.00 per night. If the service has been very good, obviously I go up from there.

 

[Magpie]

Thanks! I had no idea.

Do we just leave the money on the dresser when we go out?

 

[ducklite]

Thanks! I had no idea.

Do we just leave the money on the dresser when we go out?

I usually leave it on the sink, I think that money on a dresser could be construed as left accidently.

 

[wayneg]

There was a discussion on this a few month ago, majority of posters including myself had never heard of tipping housekeeping until we started using Disboards.
Personally I tip at end of a stay depending on how friendly he/she has been and how well the room has been kept, maybe wrong but thats how I do it.
I come from a country that does not have a tipping culture. It has changed in recent years and more do tip than ever before.
It is difficult for some UK travellers to understand staff are underpaid expecting tips. Here we have a national minimum wage of approx $11.50 not great but a lot more than many get in the hotel/food industry around Orlando.
I have no problem tipping well for food as its about half the price to eat over there than it is here.

 

[Magpie]

There was a discussion on this a few month ago, majority of posters including myself had never heard of tipping housekeeping until we started using Disboards.
Personally I tip at end of a stay depending on how friendly he/she has been and how well the room has been kept, maybe wrong but thats how I do it.
I come from a country that does not have a tipping culture. It has changed in recent years and more do tip than ever before.
It is difficult for some UK travellers to understand staff are underpaid expecting tips. Here we have a national minimum wage of approx $11.50 not great but a lot more than many get in the hotel/food industry around Orlando.
I have no problem tipping well for food as its about half the price to eat over there than it is here.

Thank you, it's reassuring to hear I'm not completely out of the loop! I asked some of my friends, but none of us had ever heard of tipping - with the one exception of my husband when he'd visited a really posh hotel in Montreal. I told him I thought it must be a Southern US cultural thing, and he was fine with putting aside some tip money for the trip.

We really do want to be good guests in the US!

 

[davinakb]

We've done it for years, budget and upscale hotels. If asking for extra towels or pillows, some special request we'll write a note, and leave it with the tip money on a table. More often than not, it seems we get better service, rooms are a little cleaner, neater, whatever. FWIW.

 

[jctwizzer]

I'm running against the tide, but only tip those positions, such as parking valets and wait persons, where they make less than minimum wage and tips are supposed to make up the difference. There may be some housekeeping positions making less than minimum wage but I'm not familiar with them. I feel no compulsion to tip house keepers. JMHO

 

[SereneOne]

They don't make crap and it is a hard job, I tip. I pay a dollar per person and add a dollar. We are four, so I pay 5 dollars a day. I also keep the room reasonably neat--picked up, wiped down, clothes off the floor and beds and towels in a pile, not all over the hotel, etc. Tipping is optional.

 

[ducklite]

Thank you, it's reassuring to hear I'm not completely out of the loop! I asked some of my friends, but none of us had ever heard of tipping - with the one exception of my husband when he'd visited a really posh hotel in Montreal. I told him I thought it must be a Southern US cultural thing, and he was fine with putting aside some tip money for the trip.

We really do want to be good guests in the US!

It's definitely not a "southern US cultural thing," Both of the companies I referenced in my earlier post on this thread were beased out of the NYC/Northern NJ area.

 

[PhotobearSam]

We own a motel in Canada and I have a few hotels that we visit quite often here in Canada while visiting family, we always TIP. There are even a few that leave you an envelope to leave your tip in.
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My cleaning ladies have to clean the most disgusting rooms sometimes, I pay them well but they really appreciate the tips. ($10 an hour here is good and well over the minimum wage) They have a rotten job that I could not do.

We tip at least $2 a night and if we don't get daily cleaning, I leave $10 for our stay at the end. We don't like to get daily cleaning as we are only 2 people and I don't like people touching my stuff.