Do you tip your hotel maid?

[Deberg_1990]

http://www.foxnews.com/travel/2014/0...ips-for-maids/



HOTELS
Hotel chain's program encourages tips for maids


NEW YORK – Do you leave a tip in your hotel room for the maid? Marriott is launching a program with Maria Shriver to put envelopes in hotel rooms to encourage tipping.

The campaign, called "The Envelope Please," begins this week. Envelopes will be placed in 160,000 rooms in the U.S. and Canada. Some 750 to 1,000 hotels will participate from Marriott brands like Courtyard, Residence Inn, J.W. Marriott, Ritz-Carlton and Renaissance hotels.


The name of the person who cleans the room will be written on the envelope along with a message: "Our caring room attendants enjoyed making your stay warm and comfortable. Please feel free to leave a gratuity to express your appreciation for their efforts."

Shriver, who founded an organization called A Woman's Nation that aims to empower women, says many travelers don't realize tipping hotel room attendants is customary. "There's a huge education of the traveler that needs to occur," she said. "If you tell them, they ask, 'How do I do that?'" She said envelopes make it easy for guests to leave cash for the right person in a secure way.

So how much should you leave? Marriott International CEO Arne Sorenson says $1 to $5 per night, depending on room rate, with more for a high-priced suite.

Michael Lynn, a professor at Cornell University's School of Hotel Administration, says his research shows that "30 percent of people stiff the maid," while 70 percent said they usually leave a tip.

Sorenson noted that housekeepers "are less frequently tipped" than other hotel workers because they do an "invisible task." In contrast, workers who carry bags, hail cabs and park cars tend to get tipped because they "make a personal connection" with guests, he said.

Rosario Rodriguez, who works as a housekeeper at Marriott's Times Square hotel, says many guests don't tip and welcomes the envelope campaign as "a good idea."

Jessica Lynn Strosky of DuBois, Pennsylvania, who earns $7.75 an hour cleaning rooms at a hotel that's not a Marriott, says only 1 in 15 or 20 guests leaves a tip. When they do, it's a dollar or two; she's lucky to get $20 a week in tips. "I've talked to lots of people who say they don't know they are supposed to tip," she said.

Unlike waitresses who earn less than minimum wage because tips are expected to raise their earnings, hotel housekeepers are paid minimum wage, and in expensive markets, substantially more. In Washington D.C., Sorenson said, Marriott housekeepers start in the mid-teens per hour.

Not everyone applauds the envelope concept. "It is not Marriott's responsibility to remind customers to tip; it's their responsibility to pay their workers enough so that tips aren't necessary," said author Barbara Ehrenreich, who tried working as a hotel maid for her 2001 book "Nickel and Dimed," which chronicled her experiences in low-wage jobs.

But Scott Lazerson, 42, who lives in Sundance, Utah, said he "had no idea" tipping was customary until his wife told him on a recent trip to Orlando. He said he "feels stupid" for not knowing all these years, and added: "Yes, the hotel industry needs to do a campaign about it."

[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by cosmo20002

Oh yeah, same here. I don't make my bed at home. I can live with it not being made at when I'm at a hotel.

I do wonder though--do the maids get paid by the hour, per room, per day, or what? If it is per room or hour, then I'm costing them $ and I feel a little bad. If I'm in the room when they come by, I'll usually exchange the towels and have them empty the trash. I figure they can count that as a room they cleaned.

I'm sure they're hourly and have a scheduled shift. I doubt that they get sent home early for finishing the rooms faster, because if that was the case they would just finish the rooms slower. I assume that if I have the Do Not Disturb up and it saves them 15 minutes, they just end up dusting the plants in the lobby or cleaning the bugs out of the ice machine and everybody ends up happy.

[Iowanian]

If my rooms are cleaned well, I tip them.

If the bed is re-made...which I find more often than it should happen in hotels at a price point where it should never happen....if there is food visible on the mini, or a turd tug boat floating in the American Standard Sea, or bedding is in a pile covered in more DNR than the trunk of a Kennedy's limo....I do not.

I do feel sorry for the messes cleaning staff have to deal with, and if they do it well, I think they deserve a tip. I had never considered it until I dated a girl in college who worked in the hotel industry and had been in housekeeping in HS, and she was adamant about leaving tips for them.

[cosmo20002]

Sometimes I'll leave a few $, but really, they should take it out of that ****ing "Resort Fee" bullshit that is now the norm.

[Hootie]

I'm literally one of the most generous tippers working in the industry for so long when I was younger

but I find this ridiculous and I have, and will never tip leaving a hotel room

...what? When I worked in the hotel industry and the housekeeping staff talked about tips I was like, uhm, ok?

It's not my fault the housekeepers are grossly underpaid...hotels make plenty of money not to treat their staff like shit.

I just don't understand this.

[rockymtnchief]

Originally Posted by Rain Man

My wife always leaves a generous tip. I occasionally begrudgingly leave a little, usually if I'm in the room for more than a day.

Of course, I always put the "Do Not Disturb" sign out for my whole trip unless I'm staying for 3+ days or even 4+ days. I don't need or want people coming into my room if I'm there for two nights. You stay on your side of the door and I'll stay on mine.

Ditto.

Occasionally, work takes me on the road Monday through Thursday. I leave the Do Not Disturb sign out every morning or I tell the front desk that my room is fine, don't bother cleaning it.

I'm not a clean freak, but I'm an organize freak. Everything in my room is where it should be before I leave for the day. There's not much need for a maid.

[Iowanian]

I saw this recently and think I'll use it when the room isn't prepared the way it should be

[srvy]

Heck I tip Motel maids. Ya gotta if you want fresh sheets and extra towels.

[Hootie]

I guess I am never in hotels often, and if I am, it's usually 1 night...

and I'm the exact opposite of hard on these rooms...

so no tip

[Bearcat]

Originally Posted by Simply Red

great breakfast buffet though - so consider that bud.

Better be, since you're paying $20 for it.

[Bugeater]

Originally Posted by srvy

Heck I tip Motel maids. Ya gotta if you want fresh sheets and extra towels.

No, no you don't. You just call the front desk and tell them you want the shit.

[cosmo20002]

Originally Posted by rockymtnchief

Ditto.

Occasionally, work takes me on the road Monday through Thursday. I leave the Do Not Disturb sign out every morning or I tell the front desk that my room is fine, don't bother cleaning it.

I'm not a clean freak, but I'm an organize freak. Everything in my room is where it should be before I leave for the day. There's not much need for a maid.

Yeah--I feel like I gotta put shit away just so the maid won't organize it for me.

[Iowanian]

If you're going to stay in a hotel very often, it's a good policy to take care of the staff and get friendly with the front desk clerks. You take care of them, they'll take care of you.....you can go from "no vacancy" to a Suite in the time it takes them to breath if you've been there enough. Hell, sometimes they'll do things like bring a plate of warm cookies to your room if they know you're working in there.

[Rasputin]

I'd rather **** this French maid than read another Deberg 1990 thread.

[Demonpenz]

There are people who don't tip? Guess you like jizz to sleep in.

[HonestChieffan]

They are going to go through your shit so just leave it on top of your clothes in the suitcase and close it. The cash will be in Juarez before you get home. figure I don't charge them for my bedbug inspection and insecticide, no need to tip.