Tipping in Hotels

[EOD K9]

Thanks... so it has become it's own little inside joke on this thread. There must be a dozen references to restraint tipping on this thread.

Yep.

 

[Hakunamatata]

Thanks... so it has become it's own little inside joke on this thread. There must be a dozen references to restraint tipping on this thread.

You are welcome. I left it on purpose. My little contribution to the cause.

 

[BuddyThomas]

Another oddball thing about restraint tipping. I have noticed a trend in some places where the server takes your drink and food order, but someone else brings out your meal. They will ask about dessert and someone else brings it to you. But here we are still tipping the person who basically just asked for your order. Anyone's thoughts on that?

EDIT - This is my 1,500th post.

I can't tell if you are joking or not but in case this is serious, let me educate you on the service industry a bit.

The people who are bringing you the food are known in big restaurants as "food runners". They are tipped out by your head waiter at the end of the shift. The bartender, busboy, and sometimes the host also gets tipped out by the waiter you are tipping. Thus, if you tip your head waiter, and you should, that waiter gets only a portion of what you left and he or she then tips percentages to the rest of the support staff.

 

[unkadug]

I'm all for tipping myself as I, too, have worked tipped positions in the past.

 

[eeyoremum]

The people who are bringing you the food are known in big restaurants as "food runners". They are tipped out by your head waiter at the end of the shift. The bartender, busboy, and sometimes the host also gets tipped out by the waiter you are tipping. Thus, if you tip your head waiter, and you should, that waiter gets only a portion of what you left and he or she then tips percentages to the rest of the support staff.

While this happens in some restaurants others do not pool or share tips. Also, I find tips are becoming an expectation for simply doing your job. I won't and haven't tip when I receive poor service. I was raised in the business and have worked in every position in a restaurant so I know how hard the work is but I still expect a certain level of service to receive a tip. If the server is a grump who I have chase down for drinks, desert, bill sorry no tip.

 

[4disneylovers]

I do not think housekeeping at Disney pools tips. I say this because I asked a higher level employee at a Disney resort what was considered a good tip and he mentioned it was best to tip daily because you may not have the same housekeeper for your whole trip. So one housekeeper cleans for 5 days of your stay and a different housekeeper comes in for the last 2 days but ends up with the tip for your whole trip. I don't think he would have made that statement if they pool tips.

 

[slappy magoo]

I'd assume that the people in those countries that have have those customs don't consider it strange nor violent.

I'd assume that of people in those countries as well.

 

[The Mom]

To tip or not is always a heated subject. Please try to keep things civil. Thank you.

 

[dave&di]

We always tip mousekeeping when at WDW, I find we always get a build up of loose change so I generally leave around a $ per person of change! Handy tip!

I'm from England and strangely enough my only hotel trips were in the States, when I had a UK trip a while ago, I wasn't aware we don't tip until my OH told me!

 

[Polydweller]

Housekeeping services at WDW is actually a non-tipped at Disney resorts. They are included in that section of the Teamster contract. Nothing wrong with tipping them it's just not required as they are paid above the Florida minimum. Restaurant workers are paid below minimum with the expectation that tips will end up remunerating them well above minimum. That's pretty standard in the restaurant industry.

 

[HollyAD]

So now I feel bad for always just tipping at the end of my stay. But I figured other people did that too so it would all be fair over time. My in laws had never heard of tipping housekeeping and thought I was crazy for doing it. I found it odd because they afre successful people and can afford to leave nice tips. I think it all depends on how you were taught or what was customary to where you grew up.

 

[Matt_Black]

While I don't know how much is appropriate, on our last trip, my mom who'd get out late (she likes to sleep in) spent a lot of time chatting up the cast members who came by to clean and heard some horror stories. So, leave 'em something.

 

[ArielLover]

We always leave a $5 bill in the sink. Just me and my wife and we are pretty tidy. Never had a bad experience with mousekeeping. Clean rooms, anything we request we get ( we just leave a note), and towel animals. We consider the animals a bonus but the other two things we would expect regardless of the tip. We just think it flows both ways.

 

[slappy magoo]

Then why doesn't the hotel raise the rate of the room & not have me subsidize their income? Do you tip the person at McDonalds for getting your food? Do you tip the guy @ the mall that helped you with your purchase? I tip, because if I didn't - the wrath of God would come down on me. But tipping is a way for big corporate to legitimize their not paying a true wage to employees

There are some restaurants experimenting with a "tipless" system, where either the employees are paid a better wage (along with cooks and kitchen staff who often don't get tipped at all) and everything is absorbed into the prices, OR there is a mandatory service charge that is explicit and non-negotiable, so the wait staff isn't necessarily paid a higher wage per hour, but everyone kind of sinks or swims together with no worry about this waiter's customer being stingy while that waitress' customer just won the lottery and wants to be generous. But no customer can refuse to pay the service charge.

The owners of the restaurants feel that actually improves customer service and employee morale. No one is worried about having that carrot dangling over their face, hoping they will be compensated for their work, so they can in fact focus on doing a good job, period. And instead of operating under the assumption "Hey, if you don't do your job well, you don't get tipped" they operate under the assumption "hey, if you don't do your job well, it's a reflection on the restaurant and everyone else who works well, and you could get fired. So do your job well."

 

[BuddyThomas]

Any restaurant I worked in as a youth - the primary wait staff ALWAYS got together each night, and distributed a chunk of the "tip money" to what I'll refer to as the support staff (runners, bus folks) - based on how well the support staff did THERE job. Don't worry - when you're tipping your waiter, HE is making sure that the folks that help him/her look good are properly rewarded .

This needs some clarification:

At larger chain restaurants, the waiters do not arbitrarily decide what to tip the food runner, the bartender, the host, etc. It is calculated automatically and electronically, based on the server's sales. At the end of the night, the server signs out and gets a print out telling of the sales and gives the exact amount due to the various support staff members. It can be 10% to 15% or higher to the bartender, 10% or so to the busser, usually 5% to 10% to food runner and host, although these percentages vary from restaurant to restaurant.

What does NOT vary is that the print out at the end of the night tells you what you must tip out and you must do it.

Again, I'm talking about chain restaurants like Planet Hollywood, etc.

What this means is:

If you come in and sit at my table, and order $100 worth of food and for whatever reason, you decide not to tip, guess what? That means that I have just PAID for the honor of waiting on you. I still have to pay out all the percentages to all of the support staff even though you stiffed me.

I tell you this from experience.

I once worked at a theme restaurant in NYC and the place was mobbed with international tourists who, at that time, as a rule, did not tip. We were allowed to add it in to parties of 5 or more, but anything less and it was Stiff City. And it was not due to poor service. That place ran like a well oiled machine, but the culture of international tourists at that time was not educated to tip. I have no idea whether or not that has changed.

There was more than one night that I can remember that, at the end of the night, after I tipped the support staff out, not only did I not make a single dime, I paid money to come to work that night.

For a young writer struggling to pay exorbitant NYC rent, that was a complete nightmare.

Unless your server rips your wig off and dumps a plate of boiling pasta on your bald head, I can't really comprehend why you would not tip something, unless you are looking for an excuse not to. I know a few people like that, and I wish I didn't.

Knowing that the average tip these days is 18% to 20% for standard service, one could arguably start to "mark it down" for each offense, but to stiff? Yikes. Not me. And if you do, make sure you never go back to that restaurant again. Waiters never forget a stiffer, and if you read a book called Waiter Rant (extremely entertaining and also, a website) you will find that they are prone to revenge.

 

[HatboxGhost]

My wife and I will be decorating our envelopes this weekend as we always do pre-vacation. We have a great time doing it. We always put $5.00 in each per day.

 

[Weather_Lady]

...and more to the point of the OP's question: we leave at least $10 every day, for 4 of us, staying in a standard room and not leaving any messes. We tend to leave more on our departure day, since I know that the Mousekeeper who "turns over" the room for the next guests has a longer "to do" list.

 

[SagamoreBeach]

I ALWAYS tip waitstaff in restraints. Their lives are hard enough.

I should have skipped over this one...can't stopped laughing!
-T

 

[SagamoreBeach]

I have my favorite restaurants here at home. We eat out quite a lot and I tip very generously. What do I get in return? Excellent service and attention - consistently! It's worth the extra money when we walk into the lobby of our favorite crowded restaurant and the maitre'd seats us ahead of everyone else. Or when the wait staff bring us our favorite drinks, etc without having to order.
With hotels I tend to leave 5+ dollars a night. We're not messy people and leave the room rather neat.
-T

 

[WDW-LUVR]

I do not think housekeeping at Disney pools tips. I say this because I asked a higher level employee at a Disney resort what was considered a good tip and he mentioned it was best to tip daily because you may not have the same housekeeper for your whole trip. So one housekeeper cleans for 5 days of your stay and a different housekeeper comes in for the last 2 days but ends up with the tip for your whole trip. I don't think he would have made that statement if they pool tips.

I tend to agree with you. Our 3rd day of our trip is always a down day sleep in, home work, hit BB and I always take that day to talk with mousekeeping. And I find more times than not we have 2 girls. 1 during the week and one on the weekend. I always ALWAYS tip mousekeeping, I don't want them using my toothbrush to clue the toilets. Lol
But here is my question, we are staying in the cabins 2 adults 4 kids(8,13,14,17). We are not slobs by no means I'm really annal about our living space, everything has a proper spot and needs to be put there when finished with. But we are on vacation and if I would rather leave the dishes in the sink and our beds unmade, what should I leave mousekeeping.