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Sunday, September 27. 2020

Tipping housekeeping staff


Now that people are getting out and about more than in recent months - at least in their home countries - it's a good time to review travel tipping.


Readers know that I believe in generous but not excessive tipping whether at Dunkin Donuts or at the Ritz-Carlton. 


Why? Not only to show appreciation but to help out people in poorly-paid jobs. Food workers, hotel housekeepers, etc depend on tips to make ends meet. 


Here are some suggestions:  This Is How Much You Should Tip Hotel Housekeeping Amid the Coronavirus Pandemic


I think their suggestions are on the low side. 

Posted by The Barrister in Travelogues and Travel Ideas at 13:26 | Comments (10) | Trackbacks (0)

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Suspect those cheap tippers are all college grads with little real work experience. Never leave less than 10 for overnight stay and often 15 or 20 if services have been needed. Those are hard jobs with poor pay.
#1 900 Saab on 2020-09-27 14:31 (Reply)
Since March I have become an insanely high tipper, even for bad service. I am neither wealthy nor "prosperous," but I have some money and others don't. They go out and work in common-breathing areas while I have the freedom to keep myself safe with little effort. We used to think of noblesse oblige as a something for people who were the descendants of the wealthy to practice. Not anymore. It's you, Jasper.

40% of the jobs lost to the shutdown were the lowest-paying, public contact jobs, and those have come back more slowly than the other other work-from-home ones have. If you are one of those conservatives who get worked up about the economic impact of the lockdown (I mostly fit that category, with reservations), then you need to look back down the chain with pity rather than up the chain with resentment. It is human nature to do the latter, yes, and it it may be a small sin spiritually. It is common to mankind. But it is a huge sin practically. Open your wallet until it hurts, dude. Those waiters, hairdressers, grocery clerks, and local entertainers have kids. Pony up.
#2 Assistant Village Idiot on 2020-09-27 17:31 (Reply)
Me too.

We two, at least, are some of the luckiest people alive ever.

Luck needs to be shared to grow.

25% is a bare minimum you cheap bastards. If you have it, give it.
#2.1 Fred Z on 2020-09-27 23:46 (Reply)
I sure agree
#2.2 Bird Dog on 2020-09-28 08:15 (Reply)
Would it be better if I stayed in a hotel and did NOT tip the staff or just not stay there at all?

In other words is the staff better off not getting tipped by the paying customers and having work or is it better for them not to have any work at all?

For the record my wife throws money at service people like it will be worthless tomorrow, and then bitches and whines when she doesn't have any.
#3 feeblemind on 2020-09-27 18:10 (Reply)
I don't know, would you want to clean toilets for out of state travelers, strip beds, clean sheets, it's all really intimate and potentially germy work. I think tipping and paying well are just common sense.
#4 LP on 2020-09-27 19:10 (Reply)
I would tip firemen, police and other emergency workers if it were possible. I resent tipping waiters, bartenders but do it reluctantly. I think tipping as a substitute for pay was and is a mistake.
#5 Anon on 2020-09-27 19:35 (Reply)
We’re getting ready for a short vacation next week to enjoy the fall colors. In researching hotels, all of them now have revised cleaning policies. There is no longer cleaning of rooms everyday during your stay, to reduce the possibility of viral transmission between staff and guests. The rooms are thoroughly cleaned between guests. Gone also are the breakfast buffets at hotels offering “free” breakfast. Instead guests can pick up a To Go bag of breakfast items to eat away from the lounge area, which is closed. That being said, we have always tipped housekeepers generously each day. We will be disinfecting our room ourselves upon arrival, as we have always done. Hotel rooms are usually wiped down with a common cloth that is used from room to room. Bedspreads are not usually washed between guests and remote controls are never cleaned. Perhaps this will now change due to COVID, but I wouldn’t count on it.
#6 Annie Rose on 2020-09-28 10:01 (Reply)
My parents were Communists and they taught my sister and me never to tip or give to beggars on the street. “It only delays the revolution.”

Of course, when I gave up leftism I became a generous tipper and give on the street to musicians, other entertainers and always homeless women or the disabled.

My sister, still a Commie and a Sanders supporter, tips but Not generously. And doesn’t give on the street.
#7 Lhfry on 2020-09-28 12:58 (Reply)
Maybe it's the hotels my budget allows, but since the pandemic, my cheap hotel of choice has discontinued all housekeeping services. Heck they've shut down everything at the hotel, and plastered all kinds of rules signage everywhere. They only clean the room after you check out (and they aren't doing very well at that). If you need anything during your stay you have to schedule it. Under those conditions, I'm not tipping housekeeping. And yes, I have been a hotel maid. But I am becoming increasingly disgruntled as a paying guest.
#8 ComputerLabRat on 2020-09-28 14:13 (Reply)

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