It’s particularly galling to see a tip solicitation in this guest room at the Rapid City, South Dakota Hyatt Place – they’re suggesting a minimum tip of $5, but angling towards $10 or $15, when the property… isn’t doing daily housekeeping!
The tip goes to ‘the staff’ but that really just means it becomes part of their pay, and as honest hoteliers admit, guest tips mean they don’t have to pay as much to attract employees.
How do you solicit housekeeping tips (though this doesn’t actually promise that it goes to anyone in housekeeping…) without providing housekeeping?
Before getting blowback for the candid admission, Hilton’s CEO acknowledged he doesn’t tip housekeeping. Another chain CEO admitted encouraging tipping was a way to avoid raising wages. Tipping for thee but not for me!
Then they started wanting you to tip at the self-service breakfast buffet and even tip the foreign hotel ownership group. But now they want you to tip the front desk clerk who checks you in, too.
I’ve written about a Marriott that wants you to tip the front desk staff at check-in, and not even for an upgrade. They use a QR code, so the employee probably doesn’t even know right away that you’ve paid. The Hyatt Centric Boston was doing this too. So does Marriott’s Fairfield Inn New York Midtown Manhattan.
Staff are expensive, and shifting their cost onto the guest to pay is one way owners manage costs. Another is automating the front desk entirely using kiosks and mobile check-in. Massive tip inflation, and spreading to new scenarios, is a good scam for businesses. But it is time to make it stop.
I would be happy to receive a reminder to give a tip because I always try to leave one, but sometimes I forget or don’t have enough cash to leave one. The idea of being able to leave a tip by credit card is a great idea, and I don’t feel obligated to give the amount stated on the card just because it’s there (although the amount I usually give per day of actual housekeeping is on this card). That’s what the “Custom” option is for. It’s OK to use that option.
Hi Gary,
Would love for you to know that the Marriott Luxury collection in Paros, The Cosme at check out when paying the bill they also ask you to include a suggested tip of 20% for front of house. It was done in such way that you feel bad if you don’t leave anything which is totally wrong. Also at a luxury property where a night retails for over $1,300 they want a 20% tip on that amount and every dollar you may have spent at the hotel? This should be made illegal to do. It is optional but how it’s presented and done (with the person helping mentioning about it) is guilt tripping you into leaving something. Terrible practice.
Hyatt sucks
No less than 50 dollars a day gratuity for housekeepers so owners don’t have to pay them anything
The high end premium breakfast alone is worth that 😉
What a crappy brand though granted better than motel 6 or econolodge
Gary, in the interest of accuracy, please change the clickbait word “demand’ in your headline to one of the words actually used in the story: “suggesting” or even “angling.” However galling that sign may be at a hotel not offering daily housekeeping, the phrase “please feel free to leave a tip” is definitely not a demand.
When will View from the Wing have a link for tips? Does VFTW accept credit cards?
Tip culture in this country is completely out of whack.
I didn’t think demand means what you think it means.
I had the same BS at a Hyatt Regency last week. Sign at the front desk stated the hotel does not provide housekeeping (period, for your entire stay, not just daily), yet there was one of these QR tip placards on the nightstand. Just who are we tipping and what for??
The word “Demand” in the headline here is a bit much, for sure. While I totally agree that tipping culture is out of hand, I have also been stumped on numerous occasions when, wanting to leave a tip, I didn’t have any cash. I have more than once taken week long trips from California to the east coast and back without ever spending cash. In our increasingly cashless society, some of the folks who get hurt are the bell hops or the housekeepers (and others) who are traditionally tipped with cash straight out of one’s pocket. I would actually appreciate a hotel giving me some good non-cash options for leaving a tip, if done respectfully. I think this example is done pretty well, honestly. I also assume Crystal, and property management, know that any tip will be directly proportional to the quality and the quantity of service received. No actual room cleaning, no tip.
I’m staying at that SD Hyatt Place this month. I won’t be tipping housekeeping.
And don’t get me started on the nebulous “resort fee”…….
Video ad on your website, with audio. STFU about hotel tipping, control your ads for the benefit of your readers.
I have always spoken with the housekeeping staff in my hallway to find out who is working my floor. I tip them cash directly ahead of time ensuring outstanding ding service. On occasion I will tip them in person at the end. I DO NOT tip QR codes, front desk, or add to my bill. It ends up cushioning a bottom.line someplace
From the management that can’t even spell “experience”.
No need to get so worked up Gary. Easy to just say no!
I did one of these QR tips at a Hyatt House. It was for a thied party provider so no World of Hyatt points were earned.
@Serge T, I remember staying in a beautiful hotel in the Lake District of the UK (Lodore Falls Hotel) and being at the front desk when a doctor checked out. He had been there with his family. I recall him instructing them to add a substantial percentage to the bill as a service charge, without being asked. Maybe that was the custom in the old days in the UK and Europe.
The concept of tipping someone to do their job is irrational. Having said that, the housekeeper does more work than a bartender receiving a tip for serving ag lass of house wine.
Reminds me of a tipping QR code in Louisville at the bell hop and the minimum was $5.
Somewhat related, highly recommend the DoubleTree (formerly Holiday Inn) out there in Rapid City. (Newly renovated!)
I’ve stopped tipping where zero housekeeping is provided during my stay. Most lower Marriotts now say they’ll do a “refresh” after 5 days. I did recently stay at the Marriott Inner Harbor in Victoria BC and it was a delight to have daily housekeeping again, including actual cleaning. I tipped generously ($25) at the end of our 3 night stay. As for all the owners of Residence Inns, Springhills, etc. – y’all better start staffing up and paying people more, cuz I have no plans to start tipping for services NOT received.
Yet another ‘thank you’ to Gary for naming and shaming specific locations and operators who do bad things.
Yes, tipping ‘culture’ is out of hand in the USA, but, for real, it’s actually the owners who are to blame, because they refuse to pay their workers a living wage, and are subsidizing their profits off guilt-tripping guests into tipping these modern-day indentured servants. It’s sad, and wrong.
Once this 2nd Gilded Age is over, and when the adults are finally back in-charge, we need serious Progressive reforms to stop this nonsense at scale. Minimum wage that is actually at-pace with inflation is a good start, but clearly not enough. Medicare for all (who want it.) Expand the social safety net, not retract it. Sheesh.
To those who continue to propagate the lies of the faux ‘culture war’, please, stop ‘carrying water’ for the ultra-rich and the corrupt, and start standing up and speaking out for better conditions for the working class, because, as George would say… ‘you ain’t in the club.’
Tips are for workers who deserve them. Waiters, door dashers, shoe shiners, bellhops and the like. I have tipped hotel maids before when service above and beyond pre covid standards were given but NEVER when asked to.
Thank you for the reminder to not travel to or in any country that has a tipping culture
The tipping culture in the USA is out of control. It has now gone beyond a recognition for good service and has become nothing more than a part of the check.
I bet this money doesn’t go directly to housekeepers, but directly to the ownership. The staff will probably receive a flat rate each month on top of their crappy wages.
Tipping hotel staff is basically the only time I use cash now, and far too often I don’t have any cash on me. I have to imagine I am not alone, and the overall amount that staff gets in tips is declining over time as everyone moves to virtual payments. I wish Hyatt would just add tipping into their app, like Starbucks.