Tipping Mousekeeping

[BigRedDad]

You may not agree with the business decision, but it is not the fault of the employee trying to do their job for a decent salary either.

It is not the fault of the patron who is already paying for the service in the room rate. If this is an optional service, let me sign up to NOT have them access my room. I would much rather have that than to think I am responsible for subsidizing their income. At $150+ for a Value room and Mousekeeping spending 15 minutes in my room, I think there is more than enough in that $150 to compensate them. It is not MY responsibility to be the employer for Mousekeepers. They have a choice to work there or not. I am tired of being nickel and dimed everywhere.

 

[CaptainAmerica]

It is not the fault of the patron who is already paying for the service in the room rate. If this is an optional service, let me sign up to NOT have them access my room. I would much rather have that than to think I am responsible for subsidizing their income. At $150+ for a Value room and Mousekeeping spending 15 minutes in my room, I think there is more than enough in that $150 to compensate them. It is not MY responsibility to be the employer for Mousekeepers. They have a choice to work there or not. I am tired of being nickel and dimed everywhere.

You sound like a delightful guy.

 

[BigRedDad]

I am very delightful. I just don't see where me paying even more money for something I have already paid for.

Let me ask you this...do you go up to EVERY CM you see and hand them $25? None of them are making significant money. Yes, you have already paid your entrance fee. You should go to every single one of them and hand them $25. Lets do a quick calculation just at the entrance turnstiles at MK: 20 turnstiles, each with a CM, another about 20 CMS behind them. Before you walk under the railroad, you are out $1,000.

Remember, these are your words that you should tip everyone that you believe is underpaid. So, either put up or shut up about it.

Now, be honest, do you tip ALL of the CMs equally?

 

[KrzyKtty]

I am very delightful. I just don't see where me paying even more money for something I have already paid for.

Let me ask you this...do you go up to EVERY CM you see and hand them $25? None of them are making significant money. Yes, you have already paid your entrance fee. You should go to every single one of them and hand them $25. Lets do a quick calculation just at the entrance turnstiles at MK: 20 turnstiles, each with a CM, another about 20 CMS behind them. Before you walk under the railroad, you are out $1,000.

Remember, these are your words that you should tip everyone that you believe is underpaid. So, either put up or shut up about it.

Now, be honest, do you tip ALL of the CMs equally?

The difference between those CM and others is that as a tipped employee, their employer is not obligated to pay them even minimum wage because of tips. All the other CMs have to make at least minimum wage. Disney has already been caught numerous times for not making up the difference and therefore paying their staff below minimum wage.

 

[BigRedDad]

Mousekeeping is not a tipped employee either. If they were, it would be notification in the reservation that you are responsible for XX% tip to Mousekeeping. How many people would be willing to have another 15-20% tacked on to their nightly room charges to tip?

No where in any documentation does it state that Mousekeeping is paid below minimum wage. No where does it state that I am obligated to tip Mousekeeping.

I am not paid to advertise WDW, but when I wear a shirt, I am a walking billboard. I am not making minimum wage advertising. Who is tipping me for advertising?

 

[KrzyKtty]

Granted, I have no clue if mousekeeping gets below minimum due to tipping or not. I know in my state, many hotels pay their maids like restaurant servers.

 

[CaptainAmerica]

I am very delightful. I just don't see where me paying even more money for something I have already paid for.

Let me ask you this...do you go up to EVERY CM you see and hand them $25? None of them are making significant money. Yes, you have already paid your entrance fee. You should go to every single one of them and hand them $25. Lets do a quick calculation just at the entrance turnstiles at MK: 20 turnstiles, each with a CM, another about 20 CMS behind them. Before you walk under the railroad, you are out $1,000.

Remember, these are your words that you should tip everyone that you believe is underpaid. So, either put up or shut up about it.

Now, be honest, do you tip ALL of the CMs equally?

I actually disagree with @KrzyKtty's reasoning. I don't think it has anything to do with minimum wage or being classified as a "tipped employee" or anything like that. To me, it's about the personal nature of the work. They're cleaning my "home" for a week. I like to say "thank you" for that. And, frankly, I'm on vacation spending disposable income. They're earning their livelihood. They can use $3 more than I can.

And the retort "...yeah but you don't tip EVERY cast member" is a non-sequitur. It's like saying I shouldn't donate to my University because I don't donate to EVERY University, or I shouldn't donate to lymphoma research because I don't donate to EVERY cancer research.

 

[KrzyKtty]

I do it for all those reasons as well. It is just human decency to show your appreciation to me. I don't see how the 40 for the week will break my bank, but it will matter a lot more to them when combined with all of the other rooms.

However, I can't take the salary out of the equation as well because it is hard work for such ty pay you know? So I don't mind tipping to supplement their crappy salary on top of saying thank you.

And to answer the other question, any person in any job, even standard CM's, if I feel they went above and beyond helping my family with something, they get tipped.

 

[KrzyKtty]

I wish there was a way to tip as a way to appreciate good service **AFTER** the event, instead of before. That's the problem I have with leaving a tip in advance of housekeeping service - Disney hotel, cruise ship, or any other sleeping establishment. I want to be able to reward a person for a good job, not just give them money because they have chosen to work this type of job.

Maybe you could talk to the front desk, or concierge?

 

[rob0519]

I wish there was a way to tip as a way to appreciate good service **AFTER** the event, instead of before. That's the problem I have with leaving a tip in advance of housekeeping service - Disney hotel, cruise ship, or any other sleeping establishment. I want to be able to reward a person for a good job, not just give them money because they have chosen to work this type of job.

By tipping daily, you are giving a tip after the service. I don't tip the after the first night as it's my thought a tip was left the morning before by the guests that checked out. When I get back to the room, it's always been satisfactory, so I leave $5 per room (we always have two) every morning, including checkout. That way if something was not to my satisfaction I can withhold the tip.

I have no problem tipping housekeepers and wait staff. My personal pet peeve however, is the percentage of the bill being used for what I'm expected to tip the waiter/waitress. The wait staff at Napoli's does nothing more than the waitress at our normal Italian restaurant back home. They take our order, bring our food, hopefully refill our drinks, yet because the price of Napoli's is more than double the local restaurant I'm expected to more than double my tip for the same amount of service.

 

[KrzyKtty]

By tipping daily, you are giving a tip after the service. I don't tip the after the first night as it's my thought a tip was left the morning before by the guests that checked out. When I get back to the room, it's always been satisfactory, so I leave $5 per room (we always have two) every morning, including checkout. That way if something was not to my satisfaction I can withhold the tip.

I have no problem tipping housekeepers and wait staff. My personal pet peeve however, is the percentage of the bill being used for what I'm expected to tip the waiter/waitress. The wait staff at Napoli's does nothing more than the waitress at our normal Italian restaurant back home. They take our order, bring our food, hopefully refill our drinks, yet because the price of Napoli's is more than double the local restaurant I'm expected to more than double my tip for the same amount of service.

In theory the higher price tag is supposed to come with a higher level of service, but sadly that does not happen frequently. There are quite a few 5 star restaurants around here though that do. A few higher class restaurants here have Lemon/lime servers, wipe down the table after every course, and change out flat-wear and glass-wear as well. I don't mind then because the service includes a whole lot more.

 

[rob0519]

In theory the higher price tag is supposed to come with a higher level of service, but sadly that does not happen frequently. There are quite a few 5 star restaurants around here though that do. A few higher class restaurants here have Lemon/lime servers, wipe down the table after every course, and change out flat-wear and glass-wear as well. I don't mind then because the service includes a whole lot more.

Agreed, but Napoli's and a lot of other table service restaurants are not at Victoria and Albert's level of service.

 

[Rosey203]

Tipping daily will lead to cute animal towels!

I think this has stopped in recent years. We started going in 2014 and tip every day but have never had a towel animal.

 

[Tom P.]

I do the opposite. I leave them cute towel animals and hope for them to leave me money. So far, I've had less than perfect results.

 

[s&k'smom]

As someone who has worked in a hotel the standard is 1 per person per day. I will be the first to admit I'm very biased I know what housekeepers see and it's not pretty. Like waiters, bellmen, etc it's a service industry and more often than not minimum wage.

 

[drwadadli]

I have not seen animal towels at Disney in over 10 years.

Wow.....Really???? Every time we have stayed on-site since 2001, we have had animal towels and it hasn't mattered if it was value, moderate or deluxe resorts.

 

[ninjaprincess]

We always tip at the end of the week.

At our last stay at Sports (Sept 2016) mousekeeping hid my daughters stuffed animals one day & left a note about how they were playing hide & seek while we were out. It was cute

As mentioned before that's not really fair to mouse keepers because one person gets the tip when you have likely had several different mouse keepers throughout your stay.

 

[drwadadli]

But, if you tip in the morning, there is a good possibility that the person who gets the tip is not the one who cleaned your room the night before...

This is so true, therefore; how do you make sure the money you are leaving for the right person???

If you tip on a daily basis, chances are you are still not leaving it for the person that cleaned your room the day before. If you tip at the end of the trip, there is absolute possibly that the money is NOT given to everyone that was involved with cleaning your room for the entire trip.

So....how do you make sure the tip goes to the right person whether you tip daily or at the end of the trip????????????

 

[ninjaprincess]

I think this has stopped in recent years. We started going in 2014 and tip every day but have never had a towel animal.

It has stopped because too many people were keeping the towel animals, and thus taking Disney's towels

 

[disney4life2008]

It is not the fault of the patron who is already paying for the service in the room rate. If this is an optional service, let me sign up to NOT have them access my room. I would much rather have that than to think I am responsible for subsidizing their income. At $150+ for a Value room and Mousekeeping spending 15 minutes in my room, I think there is more than enough in that $150 to compensate them. It is not MY responsibility to be the employer for Mousekeepers. They have a choice to work there or not. I am tired of being nickel and dimed everywhere.

I am with you 100 percent. I hate leaving tips and known for being cheap on that end. In terms of hotels/Disney I never tip. I figure the price of the room includes a tip because i never hear anything about leaving a tip at check in. My mom used to tip mouse keeping in the 90s but they were superb back then. The ones today barely speak (no pun intended).

I have a mindset that I can clean my own room. Same with restaurants, I refuse to leave more than $4 for someone who only brought took my order. I will say, Ohana servers usually get $10 or more from me as they are amazing.