Hotels want you to tip housekeeping and the real reason is so that they can pay housekeepers less. If part of the wage comes directly from the guest, it’s easier for the hotel to attract and retain staff without increasing pay.

They also want you to tip at the self-service breakfast buffet and even tip the foreign hotel ownership group. In fact, just tip everyone because it’s better for the owner’s bottom line.

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.

This really is spreading. Here’s the Fairfield Inn New York Midtown Manhattan Penn Station:

F*ck “tip culture”, and Marriott for even asking.
byu/MTonmyMind inmarriott

A couple of hotel employees report front desk employee tips of $500 a week to $500 a night.

I worked Full Service as FD Supervisor and made anywhere from $400-$500 a week in tips.

…the property i work at has a lot of repeat corporate clients that build relationships with the front desk and tip 20$-50$ regularly, i’ve seen front desk walk out with 500$ in tips, all the check inns tipped 25$ from a account

The front desk’s job is to ID you, swipe your credit card and hand you a key. And they’re being automated away by kiosks and mobile check-in. I’m not sure what you’re tipping for, unless it’s to give you a room upgrade you didn’t pay for, creating a principal-agent problem between them and the property owner.

They used to call it the $20 trick for an upgrade, although it’s more like $100 at nice hotels. This is especially common in Las Vegas.

At the Bellagio $100 got me a Penthouse Suite with two bedrooms and five bathrooms for a four night stay. There was a front desk supervisor standing behind the agent who took my hundred, so presumably the agent was kicking up. You’re not going to get much at a Fairfield Inn though!

Is it any wonder that hotel booking websites have even gotten into the act of asking you to tip? There’s no person even involved in making the reservation! I’m not even sure these days whether there’s a person involved in coding the website, or it’s just an LLM. Though I suppose there’s no downside to asking customers to paying a higher price even after the transaction – ‘it doesn’t hurt to ask, free money from stupid people’.