Travel Update reports that Marriott wants you to tip housekeeping.
[A]s many as 1,000 hotels in the Marriott system – Ritz-Carlton, Marriott, Residence Inn, JW Marriott – are going to leave a special tip-reminder envelope for guests to encourage them to leave money for the housekeeper.
..Envelopes that contain the name of the person (usually a woman) will be left in some 160,000 hotel rooms in the USA and Canada, according to the AP’s story. The campaign is called “The Envelope Please.”
Now, tipping at hotels is one way to get an upgrade. (Here’s how to ask for – and get – upgrades.)
Tipping hotel housekeeping won’t get you much, maybe a cleaner room or extra toileteries. It’s about giving something to the people cleaning your room, rather than giving something to yourself.
In general I hate tipping. I’d rather pay a room rate that allowed hotels to pay their staff at a level where they weren’t dependent on tips. In many parts of the US they actually do, although not in all cases, and being implored to tip isn’t differentiated based on the pay given to housekeepers which isn’t disclosed.
Even though I don’t like tipping, I’m an American and I travel a good bit in the U.S., so I tip — primarily to people doing tough jobs for what I presume are modest wages. Housekeeping certainly qualifies. If someone helps me with my luggage that qualifies, too, although I don’t love being pestered for help with my one rollaboard.
Still, I’m not sure I like the nudge. No doubt putting a specific woman’s name on an envelope in the room is going to work, guests who don’t use it are going to feel like jerks. I suppose that’s the point.
The campaign teams up with Maria Shriver who “believes plenty of guests don’t know the custom of tipping the housekeeper.”
An interesting experiment would be to compare average amounts left in the envelope with tips if those envelopes contained suggested amounts. If guests “don’t know the custom” is it really a custom? And if they don’t know to tip, do they know how much to tip? Tip each day or at the end of the stay?
Perhaps more tips for housekeeping is good, on a micro level (the individual housekeepers) it probably is but systemically I’m not so sure.
- If customers systematically tip more, raising the wages of housekeeping, what will that do to actual wages hotels pay? I’m not sure those will actually rise on net over time. Hotels may be able to pay workers less precisely because guests will make up the difference.
- I also wonder how Marriott will handle the tips — I’d guess that they will be pooled rather than being given to the individual named on the envelope… who may or may not wind up being the person who actually cleans your room.
Do you tip housekeeping? Do you favor Marriott telling you that you should?
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I ran into this a few weeks ago at a Hyatt Place in Kansas…my assumption was that it was chain-wide.
Marriott needs to pay their staff enough.
Higher tips at Marriott might very well be an excuse to the administration to cut wages as they will be able to attract more housekeepers with the lure of untaxed tips but lower salaries and benefits.
Agree, this is somewhat obnoxious by Marriott. Having a card letting them know who cleaned the room is enough. I always tip housecleaners and feel in the end this will hurt rather than benefit them, through Marriott reasoning that with increased tips they can pay them less per hour.
i don’t like the tipping push either. it’s too much. i wish it was like Japan here – no tips, just do your job right and get paid fairly.
The thing I’ve never understood about tipping housekeeping is normally a tip acknowledges the service received. So if my room is clean, I leave a tip & tomorrow’s housekeeper gets it? That may not even be the person who did a great job or left me extra towels/toiletries. How does that make sense? So it’s not a thank you for good service if I leave the tip before the person does anything, now it’s an incentive (e.g. The housekeeper gets to decide how good a job to do based upon the tip) and that just seems off to me.
I wholeheartedly agree that many hotel housekeepers are underpaid for the backbreaking labor they perform, I’m just not convinced that tips best address that issue.
I usually tip a few dollars everyday stay but my room don’t get any cleaner or sheets changed.
“The campaign teams up with Maria Shriver who “believes plenty of guests don’t know the custom of tipping the housekeeper.””
She learned about slipping the tip to the housekeeper from Arnold.
I wouldn’t say tipping housekeepers is “customary” if less than half of travelers know it is a custom.
Also, are they reporting these tips? If they aren’t reporting tips, I wouldn’t tip them.
I love travelling to the US, and I do it as often as I can. However, the one thing which annoyes me the most is the tipping culture. Like you, I don’t like being pestered for help with my rollaboard. I would love if hotels would pay fair wages to their employees — and I would gladly pay more accordingly — if I did not have to bother with tips (to whom? when? how much?). For a non-American, this can sometimes be challenging (do not underestimate the difficulty if you haven’t grown up in the tipping culture).
Therefore, Marriott goes into the wrong direction for me. The “envelope” is going to be yet another source of worry for me. If I don’t put anything, I’m going to feel bad. Then, how much should I put? I don’t want special attention or extra toileteries. I just want a clean room.
When I check-in into a hotel, I want to relax, and not feel stressed having to deal with tipping.
I loathe this. I don’t tip housekeepers at all. I pay for the room… it should be included. I tip (generously) at restaurants because I’m paying for what can be a pretty wide spectrum of service quality. But hotel rooms are either cleaned or not. I’m not rewarding a level of quality. If it comes down to it, I’m going to just start putting the do not disturb up and leaving it until I check out.
The best is the SPG program to make a green choice. Not only do the housekeepers not enter your your during your stay, but you get 500 additional points per night for selecting this option at select hotels. No worry about tipping the maids here, except for maybe the last night
“I’m not sure those will actually rise on net over time”
People working low to minimum wage jobs haven’t had their wages increase with inflation for the past 15-20 years anyway. That’s why there is such a massive income disparity in our country compared to more progressive countries.
I hate tipping culture as well, obligatory tipping seems to be coming more prevalent well.
4 questions:
The person who cleaned your room today, may very well not be the person who cleans your room tomorrow. Putting a name on the envelope suggests tips are not being pooled. So does the person who cleaned your room today, who may be off tomorrow, leave an envelope with the name of the person who will clean it tomorrow? Or is the person who cleans it tomorrow supposed to give it to the person who left the envelope today?
More and more areas are enacting “living wage” laws. Do we tip housekeepers at SEATAC, who are making $15 an hour at the same rate as those making minimum wage? And how do we know what the prevailing wage is at a particular hotel?
How long before the IRS starts doing to housekeepers what they do with waiters and waitresses, and taxing a presumed amount of tips?
Finally, the question everyone seems to have, will Marriott lower wages since they are getting tips, thus merely shifting part of their costs to us without lowering our room costs. Sounds better for the hotel’s bottom line than for anyone else.
This week is International Housekeeping Week. I stayed at a Doubletree last weekend & they had the tip envelopes – I assume it has to do with recognizing housekeepers.
For what it’s worth, in markets where there are strong union hotels (NYC, DC, SFO, Chicago, etc), housekeepers actually get paid fairly well for the work they do & they have the ability to “buy” rooms if they want the additional salary.
Any chance of me tipping just flew out the window. It also will reduce the likelihood of me staying at Marriott hotels in the future.
While many housekeepers are underpaid, those in the unions found in most big cities are quite well paid ($18-20hr) so why would I tip them and why is the burden of deciding who should be tipped or not?
If Marriott really cared about their housekeepers they would give them a raise, not have them rely on tips to supplement their income.
I stayed at the Ritz Carlton San Francisco two wks ago. They charged $38 for the full buffet at breakfast, but if you wanted an omelette they charged you a $5 “upcharge” (eggs prepared any other way is no additional charge) and if you ordered a latte you paid a $6 upcharge. The $5 upcharge for the omlette was the ONLY time I’ve ever had this happen at ANY hotel worldwide. The $6 upcharge for a latte I’ve had happen to me only once worldwide (the sucky Hilton Sydney). Also, the Ritz SFO charges extra for internet. Even the Four Seasons SFO offers free basic internet now. The Ritz Carlton San Francisco should get a prize for nickeling and diming people to death. Hell no I didn’t leave a tip to the maid.
Nice to see a multimillionaire and multinational team up to lecture us rubes on how to supplement the inadequate salaries of the multinational’s employees. What PR firm thought this was a good idea?
I’m from the U.S. It isn’t a custom. Some hotels leave envelopes and they usually if not always have someone’s name on them but who is this person so stupid they leave cash sitting around in an envelope in their unattended room? Is encouraging housekeepers to take cash from a room really a good idea? Sounds like a pretty good way to end up with accusations flying, if you ask me.
I’ve also heard that the person with the name on the envelope is not the person who gets the tip. It’s whoever gets to the room first, know what I mean? If I remember the trick correctly, one technique was for the senior housekeeper to take your room on the day you check out. So the person who did your room all along gets stiffed and the more senior/more aggressive person gets all the money.
If you want the person who performed the service to get the tip, you have to give it to them in person. If the housekeeper comes to room and actually performs a service for me, she will get a tip from me at that time in person. No need for an envelope. There is certainly no reason for me to tip someone who stops by for a minute to make the bed (badly), turn off the A/C, and move my stuff around that I didn’t want moved before making a call from my room to get credit from the cleaning that didn’t happen.
Just another reason I welcome Sheraton’s “make a green choice.” I don’t need daily housekeeping and you get bonus points for not partaking in housekeeping.
Marriott has chosen the opposite option, guilt us traveling schlubs into supplementing the measly wages they pay their staff. Got to luv the new USA, of, by and for the corporations.
SPG pays you in points to avoid using housekeeping. Different approach, same result (wants to eliminate it by stressing hardly anyone uses it).
I probably over tip. I keep a bundle of $1, $2 and $5 dollar bills. My take is that the waiters, housekeepers and valet are generally the lowest paid employees and do some of the hardest jobs (especially the housekeepers). I try to give the tips directly to the person doing the job, as I heard sometimes the tips for cleaning the room goes to the supervisors and not the person doing the actual work.
The only time I’ve come across an envelope is at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas recently.
I also dislike the push to tip the housekeeper. For me, the general idea of tipping is to reward an employee that does a particularly good job, specifically when you are having personal interaction with that employee (such as a bellhop or concierge). When I stay at a upper-end hotel, I expect the room to be spotless, and I almost never see the housekeeper at all. This is simply a way for hotels to shift their payroll to their customers. Pay your employees well and charge me fairly for it.
Housekeepers are one category of employee that I have trouble tipping – partly because you don’t see them to feel the personal connection, and partly because I have no idea what job they will have done because you must prepay your tip before seeing the cleanliness of the room, how many towels they’ve left you, etc.
I actually always tip the housekeeper (when staying here in the US; and try to follow the local custom when staying abroad), but I find this practice extremely tacky on the part of Marriott. I would have no issue at select service properties like Courtyards, but it seems rather gauche to put these tip envelopes at JW and Ritz Carlton properties.
Tipping is just out of control. I wish we could ban it entirely.
I’d take the opposite tack. Dislike the tipping culture in the US, hate how the tip amount has escalated from 15% to 20%, and how everyone seems to have their hand out. I live in Singapore and almost never leave a tip in restaurants (well, I actually just sign the slip and leave the tip space blank- never had anyone write in their own tip in 7 years).
But I’ll usually leave a few bucks for the housekeeper, when I stay for more than a night. It’s one of the lowest paid jobs in the hotel and its dirty hard labor. A few dollars makes a big difference to her- not so much for the other people that typically get much more in tips.
I certainly didn’t understand the earlier comment from someone saying because they paid $6 for a latte and $5 for an omelet, they weren’t going to tip the maid. I’d skip the coffee and leave the $5 for the housekeeping.
Interesting note: in the “olden days” guests at a wealthy friend or family estate DID tip the housekeeper and staff. Of course, one had a far more personal relationship with the staff, which was expected to be at the beck and call of guests, at any hour, day or night. So, Maria Shriver is correct, is it an (old) custom.
That said, times have changed. I don’t think this old custom applies to our current hospitality system!
…and this comes from a woman who was a part-time hotel housekeeper during her college years! Nice to receive a tip, but I never expected it. As I was told, my “tips” were leftover items like unopened sodas and discarded bottles of suntan lotion.
Tipping has gotten so out of hand…
Why am I supposed to tip a baggage handler $5 to move my bag 50 ft when I didn’t want it in the first place, and that’s his job?
Why should I tip a cab driver when he says nothing to me the whole ride then looks put out when he needs to pop the trunk so I can get my bag out?
Why do I have to tip the barber when he spends 10 minutes cutting my hair with the automatic clipper?
And why should I tip a valet parker $5 on top of what I paid him to drive my car around the corner, which I would much rather do myself?
Now this… There needs to be a change in American culture. Companies should pay a living wage and tips should be OPTIONAL.
And one more thing… what kind of insane illogical argument has resulted in minimum restaurant tips going from 15% to 20%??? I’ve seen so many waiters online saying that this is needed because of inflation. I guess now it’s clear why they’re waiters instead of mathematicians…
Just email Marriott after each stay and b!tch about the envelope. Ask them if they are paying their staff enough.
B!tching to Gary won’t do any good.
George: You wrote, “I certainly didn’t understand the earlier comment from someone saying because they paid $6 for a latte and $5 for an omelet, they weren’t going to tip the maid.” I paid a $460 room rate at the Ritz Carlton San Francisco. Ritz Carlton can certainly afford to pay their maids enough. May be Arne Sorenson and Bill Marriott should take a pay cut and pay their maids more. I sure as hell am not leaving the maids a tip.
I think most Americans will agree with me that the last thing our country needs is more people we feel obligated to tip.
I can understand the hotel industry’s desire to create a tipping culture for hotel maids — just like I can understand their silly “Project Planet” campaign to get us to reuse our towels. These moves save them money.
But I don’t think it will work. Rarely do hotel guests know who their maids are, and people aren’t inclined to tip people they’ve never met.
And we’re certainly not in a position to know who gets the tip and if that person truly deserves the money. Most of us know that the gov’t has adopted separate wage rules for waitstaff due to historical realities, and that such staff are dependent on tips for nearly all their compensation. No such rules apply to maids. We have absolutely no idea what their salaries are and, frankly, it’s none of our business.
Hotels should just pay their employees the wages they need to attract the caliber of employees they need, and then pass the necessary costs on to their guests in the form of appropriate room rates.
If Marriott administered a pooling of tips I would think it would be hard for it not count it as income and be taxed.
“Tip envelopes” serve only one purpose – they identify what cash being left in the room is for housekeeping versus being left on the table for other reasons. This purpose is not so critical as to justify the lack of couth.
Indeed, I was at a Best Western (a nicer one, and indeed, the nicest hotel in the small city I was visiting). I left a tip in the envelope, as housekeeping had been on the ball so as to permit me an 8:30 am check in the day prior. The housekeeping the next day was absolutely perfuntory. They made the beds; no attention at all to the bathroom, and they even failed to take the money from the envelope!! Needless to say, I took the money back, and when I discussed it with management, they winced upon hearing that housekeeping lacked the diligence to take a tip.
The news article I saw on this quoted a marriott housekeeper who said only 10 to 15 percent of guests tip. That means it is certainly not customary to tip. I stayed at a marriott last night and received such an envelop. I did not put anything in it and feel no guilt at all. Shame on Marriott.
Most of the time I never see anyone from housekeeping, so to me tipping someone I never see who is just doing their job is out of the question, especially when paying $100+ per night. However if a house keeper goes out of the way to help me or deliver something special, or respond to a request I made, then of course I tip them. All the comments about SPG green I agree, often time I don’t need service and appreciate the extra points.
@toomanybooks first place my thoughts went when I saw Maria Shriver!! Doesn’t the woman get the incredible humor here?
Its really not about Marriott raising the price to pay housekeeping more, its about Marriott taking less profit so that hotels pay housekeeping more or instituting a minimum Marriott wage regionally across the globe to ensure that maids are paid living wages. Why can’t Marriott regulate labor standards just like they do everything else n the chain?
I agree with kimmie a that no longer is tipping at a hotel a custom in the United States and definitely not for stays less than several days. Therefore, I consider it a mild affront by a hotel to leave a request for such a tip, unless it clearly states that such a tip is not required by the housekeeping would appreciate it. As long as a jurisdiction does not have a living wage law (like evidently Seattle does, in moving it up to $15 per hour, hotels should independently require the payment of such living wages.
Seems to be going about 10:1 against, and this from a group of pretty regular, serious travelers who have given it some real thought.
Is the family of five in a mini-van spending one nite on the way back from the beach any more likely to tip than this group?? (almost certainly not)
… anybody from Marriott listening? They’ve opened a real Pandoras Box and media fiasco — no easy way out now. Serves ’em right.
Shame on Marriott. Pay your employees a fair wage and don’t guilt your customers into excusing yourselves from being cheapa$$es. Like many other followers of this blog, I tip generously (20% or more) to wait staff in restaurants, along with tipping airport shuttle drivers and bellhops. More often than not I tip housekeeping staff at hotels if the room is clean, and I’m there for more than a night. I just don’t like to feel obligated to do so, which is what this program does.
Much like @RoloT stated, I like SPG’s “Make a Green Choice” program that rewards members for taking a pass on making up the room if staying for more than a night. It creates less need for labor and the guest is rewarded (via Starpoints) for making this choice.
I’m tipping my restaurant server 15% to 20% for recommending a good dish and clearing my plate. Tell me, who deserves tips more than the person who makes my bed and cleans my toilet? $5 per room per day isn’t a hardship on anyone who travels. And for it I DO get a cleaner room and my favorite tea restocked and sometimes extra towels and maybe some mood lighting and a turned down bed when I come in. Sometimes even a towel animal.
i hate tipping in the US. Why should customers bribe someone to do their own jobs well? From years of observations living in the US, the services arent necessarily better because of tipping. In east asia, we dont tip and we have good services because people take pride in their jobs. i agree servants shouldn’t be punished because of the system here, so i tip reluctantly. i hope some companies from the hospitality/restaurants/taxi industry could pay their employees well and gradually change the culture and system. Because of that envelope, i will be unlikely to stay at Marriott in the future.
It has never occurred to me to tip housekeeping in the US.
I guess I’m astonished that so many here don’t tip. I’ve been a road warrior now for 25 years and probably tip housekeeping 90% of the time. The ONLY TIME that I don’t feel obligated to tip is when I’m only in for one night. But, if I’m in a room for two or more nights, I’ll always leave a few dollars on the bedspread for the maid. The reality is that job sucks beyond belief and the vast bulk of those doing the work these days are folks who don’t have a wide array of career options. They’re asked to do backbreaking work day in and day out and do so with a beaming smile — all the while bringing in about $7.65 an hour. The bellman gets tipped, the doorman gets tipped, the waitstaff gets tipped and the barman gets tipped — all of those jobs require far less effort than the poor woman schelpping fresh towels, sheets, and the vacuum cleaner to your room each day for 30 minutes.
I think this is very much a ‘personal choice’ matter, but tipping the housekeeping staff at a hotel is one of the few times I’m actually happy to tip.
@sbtinme
You are certainly kind.
But you are in such a minority that you effectively subsidize those who are not, and this includes hotels. Instances of routine housekeeper tipping is now so low that I think we can abandon the thought that it is a custom.
Is the true gripe here that Marriott is uncouthly shaking its guests down so they can avoid “socially responsible” wages as their own baseline?
For me, this is a gender-disparity issue. Most travelers I know will tip the doorman or bellboy for help getting a taxi or carrying luggage. Those male workers are “in your face”. BUT the same travelers will NOT tip housekeeping staff who are “invisible” but do (arguably) much tougher and certainly dirtier work. I ALWAYS tip housekeeping even though I can’t be sure it goes to the actual woman who cleaned my room, since the staff isn’t always the same from day-to day. If you’re going to give a guy a couple of bucks to transport your stuff using an elevator, you can certainly afford to leave a couple of bucks for the woman who has to scrub your toilet…
@John,
I think you can safely not tip at the Ritz Carlton San Francisco, because there’s a minimum wage of $15/hour.
But there’s little correlation between what you pay to a hotel, and what they pay for their cleaning staff. A stay at the Amandari will run $1K a night, but the person who cleans your room is making $5 a day- a couple of bucks makes a huge difference for her.
I also hear people saying “other’s don’t do this, so I shouldn’t”. To me, it’s worth doing if it makes a difference, regardless of what other people do. Because so few people tip housekeeping, I think its worth doing. The doorman, the bell hop? Not so much. If they insist on carrying my carry-on bag to my room, I’ll say thank you and ignore the implied request for a tip.
There are so many issues with this I don’t even know where to begin. If and when I tip, it’s because I want to show a little appreciation for someone who has gone above and beyond, not because “I’m an American and that’s the custom” or because “whatever shitty job someone does, only pays minimum wage” – that’s complete and udder non-sense.
Minimum wage jobs in the US were never meant to be “living wage careers” they are meant to introduce the new, inexperienced employee to the “ways of working world”. These positions should be incentive to strive for a better job after a bit of experience.
Marriott is one of the hotel chains mandated by my company and one that I will continue to enjoy my stays with, but I certainly wont feel guilty about not leaving a tip for housekeeping (regardless of Maria Shriver’s made up “custom”), just like I don’t feel bad if my service at a restaurant sucks and I don’t leave a tip for the server.
I’ll simply toss that envelope into the bin like I do with the “please be green and leave this card on the bed if you don’t want us to change your sheets”.
The entitlement mindset these days is absolutely astounding…
Who we tip is weird and nonsensical, but housekeepers have a hard, disgusting job and frankly, I can afford to do it, so I do.
I had a different type of hard, sometimes disgusting job-I was a paramedic for a long time in NYC where we were decently paid and occasionally people tried to give us “coffee money”, which we always refused the first and second time. (ambulance trips are SUPER expensive for self-pay and private insurance due to massive cost shifting but you are never told how expensive for a number of practical reasons.) But to refuse a third time was rude (they had gotten the point that it wasn’t required or expected) and we always appreciated it.
Prior to that, I was a hospital technician in New Jersey in the 1980’s. Part of my job was to help the Funeral Directors move the bodies from the morgue to the funeral home stretcher. I always hoped for at least one before lunch, because they always tipped $5 or $10. Once again, when you don’t make much, tips are really appreciated….
As someone who has worked in housekeeping, there was no greater pleasure than having a do not disturb room. I put on the sign as soon as I check in and only take it off when I check out. I don’t have someone come make my room everyday at home and don’t need someone to do it while I am traveling.
For the comments comparing this situation with food service, servers get a much lower wage that they are expected to supplement with tips (not that I agree with that either). Housekeepers are not subject to this and should not be treated the same way. Businesses need to pay people a living wage, treat them with respect no matter their station in life and then price their product accordingly.
It’s my understanding that Marriott does not own most of the 4000+ Marriott brand hotels, they only manage them for investors and run the loyalty program. I doubt that Marriott Corp has any sway about a franchised hotels wages levels.
Perhaps those mostly local hotel investors are the ones that are in need of the low wage rage. Just sayin’
I don’t tip the maids unless they have gone above and beyond. I understand some may not make a lot of money, but I also don’t tip cashiers at stores (who also don’t make much money). Why should I tip the maids? We tip food servers based on their service and they normally make less than minimum wage and make up the rest in tips. Anyone making minimum wage I do not feel obligated to tip. Everywhere I go there seems to be a tip jar! I don’t believe you have to get a tip for doing your job. Starbucks, ice cream counters…no tip unless I get extra-ordinary treatment.
At least Marriott hasn’t installed these!
http://techcrunch.com/2014/09/15/dipjar-raises-funding-for-a-tip-jar-where-you-pay-with-plastic-not-spare-change/
I’m really shocked at these “no tipping” responses. I hate the envelope idea, but everyone I know tips hotel maids. The only discussion I have ever heard or had is “is $1/day still enough, or is it now $2?” I usually tip $2/day, unless the service has been sub-par. Same logic as the few “pro-tipping” commenters above: it’s an awful, difficult job and I make a lot more doing less physically difficult work. I can afford to make a material change in someone else’s life, and that is a privilege for which I am really grateful.
I see the maids. They do the grimy work to make my room nice and clean for me after I’ve had a long, hard working day. I always tip them. I will never miss the few dollars I leave but those few dollars will mean a lot to the maids.
I usually tip my housekeeper. Why? I used to be one (college job). It is a hard job. On average they spend 20-30 minutes working on each room. Compared to other service jobs, housekeeping is much more hands-on and labor intensive. I never expected a tip when I was a maid but I sure did appreciate them.
Leaving a tip is my way of acknowledging their service and saying thank you. I consider it a tip in advance and if it buys me extra tea or toiletries or amenities, or an extra bottle of water – even better.
OMG I can imagine how happy the little spanish housekeeper is when I leave $5 bucks!
@mbh: I think the whole point of the “no tipping” responses is just that:
Tips should be a nice bonus for someone who already earns a fair wage, but still goes out of his way to provide exceptional service. Like a bonus for a more-than-expected productive employee. It shouldn’t be automatic in any way, and certainly not a way to supplements a systematic unfair wage from a multi-billion $ business. I think most of us will agree on this.
@ dale (comment 39): Couldn’t agree more.
A JicV (post 28). Agree with everything… and last paragraph is hilarious. In Quebec (Canada), suggested tip at restaurant is clearly 15%. The nice thing is… our taxes are exactly that, 15%… so it’s pretty easy for everyone. Waiters have to declare and pay taxes on the first 8%, wether or not they receive tips (even if a few cheepos/unsatisfied clients don’t tip at all, the average will be close to 15% anyways). We have the same “lower minimum wage” for tip-earning jobs. Don’t know for sure about rest of Canada, but I would think the culture is 15% as well. 20% is something I’ve only seen in the US… Makes me wonder… what’s next? 25% anyone?
By tipping you’re lowering future wages.
Wages are low because people tip, not the other way around.
In most of the US the minimum wage (guaranteed pay) is lower for certain occupations because they’re tipped: http://www.dol.gov/whd/state/tipped.htm
Personally, I believe that hefty contributions to certain charities is much more effective on poverty than perpetuating a system that lowers the guaranteed wages of the less fortunate. Of course, it’s not as personally rewarding, but doing the right thing often isn’t.
@46 I agree with your summary:the true gripe here is that Marriott is uncouthly shaking its guests down so they can avoid “socially responsible” wages as their own baseline.
First of all, many have taken on the assumption that Marriott will lower wages now. But there is no proof of that; what we do know is that Maria Shriver has gotten Marriott Hotels to participate in International Housekeepers Week/Month. She probably was just trying to help raise awareness, but in most of you, she has raised bitterness.
Now some of you are perturbed at the bellman, or the hotel restaurant, or the rate the hotel charges, or the custom of tipping itself – and so you punish the housekeeper.
Some of you believe that, as a minimum wage job, it’s by definition only meant to be temporary. But that belief ignores the fact that in this economy many adults are trapped in low to minimum wage jobs permanently. I mean, even if it is at SeaTac, and your housekeeper gets $15/hour, that’s only $600/week if they let him/her work full-time (they may be trying to skirt Obamacare). Or if there’s a union in NYC and they make $800/week – Believe me that’s not enough to live on in NYC.
You are free to choose to tip or not to tip, but please don’t be angry with your housekeeper, or for that matter with Marriott – over this simple campaign to raise awareness for the people who clean your room.
@Scott T Bravo. I agree.
@Scott T–I am certainly not annoyed with housekeepers but am certainly annoyed with Marriott. There are a tremendous number of staff around the hotel who contribute to a pleasant stay for a guest. Most of them get no awareness or appreciation from guests. In your life there are plenty of people who do hard jobs that improve your quality of life who do not earn much at all. The solution is not to have a hundred different envelopes in a guest room and dropped off at your house so you can recognize each of these people. The solution is to pay people a living wage to do a hard job. However, every time the topic of increasing the minimum wage comes up, it exactly corporations like Marriott that fight tooth and nail against it. It is not good for society to have an underclass of people dependent on hand outs to have a decent standard of life.
Of course you tip the housekeeping staff who cleaned your room! If you don’t–then don’t tip your hairdresser (some pay the owner of the shop a portion of their fees), coffee shop barista (they make at least minimum wage), newspaper delivery person, etc. The staff that cleans all your mess up in hotel/motel/inn rooms do NOT make serious money. They, like many other low-wage earners depend upon tips. (In Mass. wait staff at restaurants make just $2.63/hour–the rest of their wages depend upon tips!!) Hubby and I used to put out one tip at the end of our stay–OOPS! Didn’t realize that the housekeeper may not be the same person each day for the room we stay in. So, now we leave out a few dollars each day before we leave the room to go explore the city we are in.
At this point in 2014 I think we all need to accept that the tipping “culture” is here to stay in the US. As they say, it is what it is. You may think you’re subsidizing the pay of a service industry worker by tipping when it should be the company’s duty, but… aren’t the French subsidizing 8+ weeks of paid vacation for their workers via their tax burden? 6 of one, half dozen of the other…
But if the tipping culture isn’t going anywhere, perhaps it’s best not to gripe about it constantly. It’s really getting old.
You can tip your housekeeper or not. It’s a nice thing to do and a custom, even if not adhered to by everybody. And if Marriott’s envelopes serve as a reminder and you’re otherwise inclined to tip, great. The tip money generally goes to hard-working women who need it.
First things first: Housekeeping staff generally work hard for low wages. Those hotels that compensate them better than others, provide reasonable benefits packages, and treat them fairly in other ways, deserve commendation.
Second: @Gaurav eloquently describes the problems with this Marriott gimmick — and that’s what it is.
If Marriott really cares about its housekeepers, it has the ability to provide what it considers reasonable compensation to them.
In addition, it could, if it wished to assist customers who are disposed to leave a tip for a housekeeper, leave an envelope on the desk or in the desk drawer for that purpose — without fanfare.
Marriott’s URGING its customers to tip the housekeeping staff essentially is a confession by Marriott that it knows its housekeepers are not sufficiently compensated, and it is depending on guilt-tripping customers to reduce the gap.
Man-up, Marriott!!! If your help is paid too little for your comfort, pay them more!
This is in many ways analogous to what Spirit Airlines does in the sky. Rather than transparently offering a fare that covers the full cost of moving a passenger and a suitcase from one place to another, Spirit nickles and dimes its customers to death. Now Marriott is, in essence, telling its customers: Our room rates don’t cover the full cost of providing lodging to you including reasonable compensation for our staff. So pay the room rate, and ALSO supplement the pay we give to the housekeepers — it’s really an obligation rather than a tip. (What’s next? Two or three more envelopes — for laundry workers, grounds keepers, on-site engineers, front desk staff, etc., etc.?)
I just returned from Singapore. Tipping the housekeepers is not “the custom” there. The hotel takes the responsibility for compensating its housekeepers. Net effect: if a customer provides a tip to a housekeeper, it is TRULY a TIP.
Bottom line: Tipping housekeepers is a nice thing to do. If Marriott wants to make that voluntary gesture easier, great. But this smacks of a huge and profitable corporation trying to shift the burden of adequate compensation of employees to customers. That doesn’t qualify as responsible corporate action. If Marriott believes housekeepers’ compensation is insufficient (and in MANY cases it unquestionably is), it could pay more. If it’s concerned about retaining a level playing field among hospitality providers, it could (and should) support a higher minimum wage.
A regimented tipping regime cannot be a substitute for paying workers a living wage.
Tipping only encourages people to stay in a dead-end entry level job. I avoid tipping whenever possible, and have never tipped housekeeping. The envelope certainly won’t change my practice.
Easy for me, I hang out the DND sign and don’t take it off until I check out. I don’t want anyone doing anything in my room while I’m out. Hanging up towels and straightening the bed takes at least 2.5 minutes every day. If housekeeping leaves a bag of fresh towels, I’ll leave a tip for that extra service.
I’m perturbed at the UberEats delivery driver who texted me : “Learn to tip asshole”
Maybe he should have handed me an envelope with that message inside. Now, that would have been funny.
I would have tipped if he didn’t stop for 15 minutes along the way.
Now I won’t accept food from this guy ever again because I have no idea what he might do to it.
The “asshole” part didn’t offend me since that’s in my email address. It’s the notion if he’s so stupid as to text that, what else might he do?