Three weeks ago I wrote about something I’d never seen before at a hotel: Marriott’s LaSalle Hotel in Bryan, Texas (by Texas A&M) asks guests to tip the front desk agent checking them in.
I shouldn’t be surprised, but this is a practice that appears to be spreading. A reader shares their experience this week at the Hyatt Centric Faneuil Hall Boston where he stayed with his family for Christmas. And they, too, ask guests to tip the person at the desk who checks them in, handing over a QR code to do it.
Having even read the story about the Marriott LaSalle Hotel, he says he was “smugly happy we don’t stay at Marriotts very often anymore” and is a happy five-year Hyatt Globalist. And in some ways this was even worse than at that Marriott – because the front desk employee he was supposed to tip told him all about the restaurant’s elite breakfast benefit even though the restaurant turned out to be closed for Christmas. “Needless to say,” he offers, “we otherwise ignored the tip request.”
Credit: Hyatt Centric Faneuil Hall Boston
Hotels say that encouraging tipping saves them from paying higher wages. All that matters is that the employee gets more money, and that helps with retention. It doesn’t matter who does the paying.
Tipping the front desk is only really Las Vegas thing – aside from this Marriott hotel – and there it is an explicit bribe in exchange for an upgrade.
What was once dubbed ‘the $20 trick’ it’s now more of a $100 trick, you slide the cash over with your credit card and ask whether upgrades are available (ideally mentioning the room type you want) and if they can do it they pocket the money.
It’s basically the desk clerk taking your money instead of the hotel owner doing it – or, rather, selling the hotel owner’s inventory to you at a discount where they keep the money for themselves. Here, though, it’s something more insidious: free money from stupid people? The guest is expected to fork over money to the front desk clerk for what, exactly?
What’s more, the hotel didn’t even honor elite breakfast. Of course hotels asking you to tip the check-in clerk are going to find numerous ways to cut costs.
They had self-service muffins left out (for everyone), though there were only a couple left before 9:30am and were gone shortly after. We got Dunkin’ nearby and ate it in the lobby so I saw they never replenished them. They also had coffee and tea (if you asked), but not even water for the kids. It certainly wasn’t a “hot breakfast” as defined by the terms of service.
Of course Hyatt seems to put up with this, especially from Centric properties. When I stayed at the Hyatt Centric Waikiki this summer they still hadn’t re-opened their restaurant from its pandemic closure so they do not honor elite breakfast at all.
Proof that the grass isn’t greener on the Hyatt side of the aisle. At least Marriott has specific compensation benefits when a hotel refuses to provide a guaranteed benefit, like breakfast. Hyatt has no such compensation requirement.
That Hyatt Centric in Boston is owned by Magna Hospitality Group of Rhode Island. It is unclear if they operate it or if Hyatt operates it.
Centric is Hyatt’s brand for owners who don’t care but can give them room counts in big markets (see: ex-Thompson in Playa Del Carmen, ex-Andaz in NYC)
In return, Hyatt has basically no brand standards or enforcement for Centrics
The valet desk at the Hilton Resort in Georgia has a sign asking for online tips even though the hotel charges $40 daily for mandatory valet service (the guest parking is a mile away).
Gary why does this bug you so much. Just ignore it – no problem. Quit creating issues that don’t exist!!
The Hyatt House in San Juan, Puerto Rico has a QR Code at the front desk, and one in the room. The one in the room was for housekeeping. I don’t remember what the front desk said; I just remember thinking “I’m supposed to tip you for swiping my credit card?”. And the service at check-in was sub-par.
The tipping culture is crazy. I took my grandkids bowling yesterday. $96 total for four, and they requested a tip. For what? When a service is provided, I’m happy to tip and I tip well. But it’s gotten ridiculous.
Meanwhile, I have been in Paris for a week and not a single restaurant presented me with a cheque that had a tip line nor did a credit card reader ask for a tips
Tipping culture is out of control here in the US. Mostly due to it not being taxed. Uber now automatically selects a tip for you and if you accidentally click without removing it your stuck. Just pay your workers!
If there is a fancy breakfast at a hotel then I am interested. But status based upgrades and free meals are tragic.
Could it just be that people who WANT to tip, but have no cash, didn’t have an option before. It’s not saying tips are required, or even expected. I’ve worked in a hotel, and sometimes when someone goes above and beyond people want to show their appreciation. If the agent made magic happen and got you a room on a sold out night then tip, if they just checked you in and didn’t do anything special then don’t. If anything it might encourage higher levels of customer service than before knowing there’s always a possibility of a tip.
An out of control culture in the U.S. I have seen tip jars in almost every business I frequent, and unless it is for a waiter I ignore it. Business owners: pay your employees a living wage. This is just one small reason I spend as little time in that country as possible.
I have just stopped going out as much. When I’m asked to tip at the Starbucks drive through, and it’s $15 for a coffee and a breakfast sandwich, it’s just too much.
I only tip for services above and beyond what they are paid to do, period. If the front desk is way friendlier than normal, open to upgrade negotiations, appear genuinely sorry if can’t, I’d consider it. Conversely, maids are paid to tidy up the room. Unless I left a mess out, or they left something extra, no tips for them. Same as valets, they are paid to put away and get my car back unharmed. Unless they did something above and beyond, which I can’t even think of, they don’t get tips.
The tip QR code was out in the front lobby at the Hampton Inn in Nashville over the holidays, so it’s everywhere.
The tipping culture in the U.S. has officially spiraled out of control, and this latest development—asking guests to tip front desk staff at check-in is proof that it’s becoming downright absurd. What exactly are we tipping for here? Doing the job they’re already paid to do? Should we also tip the maintenance engineer for changing a lightbulb, or the manager for approving a late checkout?
The expectation to tip for basic services, especially in settings where there’s no added effort or personalization, creates awkwardness and erodes the sense of hospitality that hotels are supposed to embody. It also shifts the responsibility of fair compensation away from employers and onto customers, who are already paying increasingly higher rates for hotel stays.
If hotels want to address retention issues, the solution isn’t to guilt guests into subsidizing wages—it’s to pay employees competitive salaries.
I would strongly encourage everyone who encounters a QR code for tipping at check-in to ignore it or politely decline. Make your voice heard by leaving detailed feedback on surveys, reviews, or directly with hotel management about how uncomfortable and inappropriate such tipping expectations are. Send emails to hotel loyalty programs and/or directly to major hotel chains asking them to adopt policies that ban or discourage tipping requests for basic services like check-in.
The hospitality industry should focus on creating exceptional guest experiences rather than adding yet another layer of awkwardness and financial pressure. It’s time to rein this in before tipping requests become a default expectation for simply walking through the lobby doors.
Yeah I stay in this hotel pretty frequently, and this was new to me when I stayed there in October. I didn’t get one from the front desk though, only for housekeeping.
With respect to the lack of breakfast service on Christmas, having observed that restaurant’s ragtag operation over the past couple of years, it wouldn’t surprise me if they weren’t planning to be closed but somebody called in sick and they couldn’t cover it on the holiday. Most of the time there’s just one server and one cook for breakfast.
Why do people continue to accept employment if they aren’t happy with the compensation??
Get a job where the boss pays you what you a decent wage!
The cheap bast*rds who own these properties screw the customers and screw the staff, and so what’s new.
The QR code featured in this article allows you to select and send a custom tip as small as one cent to Michael O, Dene B. in Administrative & General, or Carlisa Denise M, who works at the Hyatt Centric front desk.
These practices should be called out just like this is. This is as insipid as the iPad turn at restaurants where you stand to order your food. Enough already.
TIPPING – A SCAM BY OWNERS.
As Gary repeatedly said, the market for labor will adjust if more and more people tip. Look at what happened with waiters in the US, where $1 an hour is a standard wage in many places.
DON’T TIP (unless it’s a tipped wage worker). EVER. YOU’RE ONLY PAYING THE COMPANY, who turns around and pay workers less.
Begging for tips. Which is what is happening in America, is a third world practice as service staff can barely feed themselves. The quiet pressure from US service workers to tip them is totally off putting.
I don’t tip in the us. Ever.
You’re welcome !
JC: you’re a cheap idiot.
You’re welcome!
I just returned from my travels of several countries in Africa, and not one country made me feel as if a tip was mandatory. And these folks really need the money…
YAWN! The world moves on….
Scanning some random QR code sitting out in the open is a great way to get malicious code introduced into your smartphone.