Valet Parking and Bell Hop

[jools]

Hi everyone

Being Brits we have always been unsure of the tipping system for valet parking and have always just parked our own car.

This trip I fancy giving it a go, we will be splitting our stay between AKV & BWV. As DVC members we get valet parking free, but how much should we tip? I assume we tip when dropping off and picking up?

Also when we arrive and bell hop help with the luggage do we tip each leg of our luggages journey. e.g. from car into bell hop and then from bell hop up to our room and vice versa? And how much should we tip?

many thanks

 

[Dean]

Hi everyone

Being Brits we have always been unsure of the tipping system for valet parking and have always just parked our own car.

This trip I fancy giving it a go, we will be splitting our stay between AKV & BWV. As DVC members we get valet parking free, but how much should we tip? I assume we tip when dropping off and picking up?

Also when we arrive and bell hop help with the luggage do we tip each leg of our luggages journey. e.g. from car into bell hop and then from bell hop up to our room and vice versa? And how much should we tip?

many thanks

The standard on tipping for valet is to tip at the pickup of the vehicle. The standard on tipping for the bags is similar, to tip at the bags final destination. If you do a search on tipping, you'll get a number of sites and can review them and figure out where the middle ground is for you. For vehicles, most sites will say either $1-2 Or $2-3 on pickup. For bags, it's similar to airlines at around $1-2 per bag. Many here seem to tip on both ends for each of these services which is their prerogative but is above and beyond. Personally, I follow the standards with the caveat that if they do something special, I tend to do so as well. If it's raining, if they're particularly good and/or fast, etc I'll tip more and tip for others than the standard. BTW, WDW does not consider housekeeping a tipped position though many DVC members tip in that situation as well.

 

[salmoneous]

The standard on tipping for valet is to tip at the pickup of the vehicle. The standard on tipping for the bags is similar, to tip at the bags final destination. If you do a search on tipping, you'll get a number of sites and can review them and figure out where the middle ground is for you. For vehicles, most sites will say either $1-2 Or $2-3 on pickup. For bags, it's similar to airlines at around $1-2 per bag.

I think this is pretty spot on. But I would suggest that bellman tipping is using done with $5's. Even 1-2 bags would still get a minimum of $5 - and a cart load usually gets $10.

Standard tipping in the US upon receipt. So you tip when you get your car and when you get your bags. I've noticed that some Disney bellman are unabashed tip hogs, loudly suggesting as they take the bags out of your car that somebody else will be bringing the bags to your room (i.e. you need to tip me now). Feel free to ignore such shenanigans.

On the other hand, many of the bellmen do provide great service, and really make you feel welcome when pulling in. Feel free to tip extras (especially as dollars are just about free these days for Europeans)

 

[jools]

Thank you very much for this.

Interesting about tipping just at the receiving end. In the past we have fallen for the 'shenanigans' and tipped when they take bags out of the car and again when delivering them to our room. This can get quite expensive particulary when they make a point of counting every single item as a bag i.e over coats, camcorder case and even the childrens Mickey & Minnies!

And I have always tipped housekeeping, however there have been occasions when the maid has not collected her tip. On such occasions I worried that may be she was upset because we had not left enough. And all the time it might have been because she did not expect it.

many thanks

 

[Dean]

Thank you very much for this.

Interesting about tipping just at the receiving end. In the past we have fallen for the 'shenanigans' and tipped when they take bags out of the car and again when delivering them to our room. This can get quite expensive particulary when they make a point of counting every single item as a bag i.e over coats, camcorder case and even the childrens Mickey & Minnies!

And I have always tipped housekeeping, however there have been occasions when the maid has not collected her tip. On such occasions I worried that may be she was upset because we had not left enough. And all the time it might have been because she did not expect it.

many thanks

All such locations have a system to SHARE tips, usually either by pooling them or by rotating who gets to be in the position to be tipped. So the idea that you are not tipping everyone who helped which you may see some say, is really a fallacy. You decide how much to tip so you're the one "counting" the bags if you want to look at it that way. I would agree that if one has a single bag, you should go more per bag like $5. But I wouldn't feel obligated to count every single grocery bag with one or two items and tip for each one. In these situations you'd have to make a judgement but here's one example. Say you had 2 suitcases, a cooler, a pool bag, a camera bag and 8 of those stupid plastic grocery bags with just a few items in each one (for example). Assuming they just did their job but nothing special, I'd likely tip between $10-20 with the the decision being made based on factors about how prompt they were, how far they had to go, esp at BWV, was it on the same floor as the entry, etc.

Frankly, I prefer to be in control and also don't like people messing with my things. For this reason I generally stay out of situations where people are messing with my things beyond my control. Thus when possible I avoid valet parking and bag drop off situations. When I stay in a hotel I usually ask not to have housekeeping. I do this NOT for the $$ issue but for the other reasons. But there are situations where you can't avoid it and I try to be appropriate, reasonable and fair when placed in those situations.

 

[VrBchJ]

I just returned from BWV. We had our bags collected and stored at the bell station while we went to Epcot. When our bags were picked up from the room I tipped $10. When we were ready to leave our bags were brought out from the bell stand and I tipped $10. That bell man left our bags on the curb. The valet delivered the car and put the bags in the car. So I gave him another $10. It got expensive to check out of the Boardwalk!