Hotels want guests to give tips to workers, so they can pay lower wages. The CEO of one hotel ownership group actually said the quiet part out loud.
- A worker might accept employment with an expectation of making $20 per hour. It doesn’t matter if that’s $20 from the employer, or $15 from the employer and $5 (on average) from guests. The lack of certainty in tipping might mean they’d need $6 or $7 from guests to consider it break-even.
- If hotels can convince guests to tip more, they’re able to attract workers at lower wages.
Your tipping, therefore, contributes to lower base wages for housekeepers. In most cases what housekeepers are paid is a function on the wage at which hotels can recruit them as staff. The higher the expected tip, the lower the wage needed to recruit workers.
It may seem ironic that hotels have gotten aggressive pushing guests to pay up more for housekeeping at the same time they’re offering less housekeeping (at the same or higher room rate). But it makes more sense when you realize this isn’t actually a thanks for service, or meant to benefit the worker.
Marriott, of course, started to encourage tipping years ago by putting envelopes in guest rooms. Marriott was explicitly telling guests that their hotels underpaid workers and that their compensation needed to be topped off.
Tipping hotel housekeeping hasn’t traditionally been part of standard practice. As recently as June 2019 the CEO of Hilton said that he “typically do[es] not leave a tip” for housekeepers. That was an embarrassing admission, and he walked it back, but it underscores how this is a completely new invention… intended to get guests to pay more for their stay, and help hotels lower their costs.
We’ve seen hotels add tips to your bill automatically so you can go to the front desk and tell them you don’t want to tip, or if that’s embarrassing you just pay more.
One Mile at a Time says he will “try to leave $5 or so per day for some of the hardest working people in a hotel…but the issue is that I sometimes don’t have any cash on me, which can make it hard to tip.”
He rightly reminds that if you’re going to leave a tip, it makes sense to leave it daily and not at the end of your stay.
- It may be someone different cleaning your room each day. A tip at the end of a long stay might be over-reward one person and the expense of everyone else that cleaned your room.
- And even if everyone tipped at the end of the stay it wouldn’t likely even out, since guests disproportionately check out on the same days and housekeepers working those days would benefit at the expense of those who aren’t able to.
We face a collective action problem. Increasingly, tipping is expected. If nobody tipped, hotels would have to pay higher wages. Those would potentially be reflected in room rates (dependent on demand for the fixed asset of rooms), but that’s as it should be. But since there’s a new tipping expectation, your decision to leave a tip or not does affect what housekeepers take own, and they build in an expectation of receiving some tips into their planning. Hotels have put us in an awkward position, but I’m not so sure we should fight back.
It’s at least better than when Hyatt’s Motif hotel in Seattle asked guests to tip the Hong Kong-based investment group that owns the property. And it’s most definitely better than the online travel agency website that solicits tips for themselves after you make a reservation and those don’t even go to a worker – just straight to the company’s bottom line.
At the end of the day it’s the hotels that are skeezy here, not any individual guest who does not tip.
Yeah man all of this is out of whack at this point. Everything is pretty darn expensive at this point and service in general has gone down.
I know housekeers have a lousy job but I cannot be expected to tip them. Hotel owners/management need to be the bad guys here if they’re not paying them.
I understand the logic but where do we draw the line? What about the person actually doing all the laundry to make sure you have clean sheets/towels? Are house keepers expected to tip out? Should there be a collection box in an elevator as a thanks to the maintenance guy for keeping it in ship shape?
Folks shouldn’t be expected to cover the operating costs of a business just because they are generous or happened to have small bills on hand.
A nasty quandary to be sure. One time my wife and I were staying at an AI in Cancun and my wife got talking with a young local woman at the swim up bar. The subject somehow turned to housekeeping and when my wife mentioned that we always leave at least a couple of bucks for the housekeeper the young lady said that that was wonderful and it really made a huge difference. That resonated with us and so we try to do the right thing for the staff, even if it would be better for the hotel to pay better wages.
When I tip at a hotel, I either hide the cash tip under pillow or sheets usually or try to find the house keeper lady and hand her the tip! I once had a conversation with. house keeping lady and her work and she told me her supervisor always steals the cash tip left behind by guests on desks table or on top of pillow and she thanked me for finding her and tipping her directly . Don’t leave tips that is visible to the supervisor who checks hotel rooms .
I pretty much stopped tipping housekeeping once the room rate consistently roped $125. Yep I had good rates for years. Yeh tax pack in areas like Orlando where they see tourists as a quick money source with no vote makes it worse.
That said, when in areas where the tip makes a huge difference to the worker. ME and some areas in Asia, the service is usually exceptional and I try to tip accordingly.
In the US, no. The rates are now so high that the owners need to start paying the staff a living wage and delivering something like value. Remember the ADP (additional dealer profit) line. Hotels are now adding destination, parking, resort and other junk fees.
I have been voting with my wallet. I’ll go out of my way to avoid properties that charge them.
Cheap, not really. Just spent 12K for a flight but if I feel ripped off, I’m gone.
I make sure to also tip the architects who designed the hotel by finding their company and sending $5 on Venmo/PayPal to everyone from that company I find on LinkedIn
If you’re not doing that please just stay home. No one likes a cheapo.
What about tipping the front desk at check-in.
If I want a better room at a hotel where I do not have status, I have found that $20 and some nice words can work wonders. At higher end places, it might be necessary to drop $50
Call me skeptical…but would any tip ($20 or $50) given “at check-in” (per Tom’s suggestion) actually go to housekeeping or is this simply a variation of the Las Vegas “hack” to get a better room?
@ Gary — Not happening over here. Tips are included for hotels and uber, except when something extraordinary is done upon request.
It’s hard working at McDonald’s (and low pay) why don’t you tip there?
I used to leave a few bucks for the housekeeper but when hotels started adding 10 to 15% service charge to the base room rate I stopped leaving anything behind.
Not just no, but hell no. I’m expected to tip for increasingly rotten hotel service? GTFO and pay your people right. Hotel franchise owners are the cheapest SOBs around.
I tip as part of a bribe. Leave $5, maybe $10 if you want something big on the hotel notepad with a smile and “thanks! More Waters/6 nespresso coffee pods/towels/whatever please!” Often you can get around room service charges this way.
Stopped into a frozen yogurt place today. You pick up a cup, fill it with what you want then go to the counter to put the cup on the scales and pay, After you run your card you get asked how much do you want to tip!!!
So zero service and still wanting a tip. The only reason they have any staff at all is to stop people cheating on the weigh scales
You can shove the concept UYA. I pay for the room and the service. And then I’m charged a resort fee which provides NOTHING. (For me).
I’m not tipping. And they’re going to provide the service anyway, or I’m getting comped.
Totally BS
Tipping is an insidious issue that is of no benefit to the housekeepers and of maximum benefit to the Hotel owners and we should always resist it. In any case it is really only Americans that feel the overwhelming need to tip, and this seems to be a guilt reflex because their social safety net is so poor, and work place pay is so poor except where unions are in control
>your decision to leave a tip or not does affect what housekeepers take own, and they build in an expectation of receiving some tips into their planning
No, the housekeeper’s employer makes that decision. I am sick of being involuntarily inserted between decisions that should exclusively be between employees and their employers.
Tipflation has gotten so out of control, I’m limiting tips exclusively to sit down restaurant servers and food delivery / Instacart type drivers. Cheap employers can sink or swim on their own economic decisions and I am no longer subsidizing poor wage decisions. Let the truly free market decide.
Sad to say but I stopped – when it was DAILY housekeeping I did 3-5 dollars a day – now I don’t see housekeeping ONCE in a 4 day stay at many properties. Even then I come to a room with missing items (low on towels, no replacement toilet paper, kleenex box almost empty) – etc.
Yep – tipping is an insidious practice and apparently a very US thing. Throw it the trash along with resort fees.
It’s a regressive country that doesn’t pay its workers properly. The anti union position of the author of this blog and many commentators is deliciously ironic in the context of such matters.
They don’t come every day so definitely won’t tip for everyday. If at all
Leff is a [redacted -gl].
I’m getting real good at finding the “no tip” option on these digital payment devices, and I feel no guilt in the slightest about smashing that dislike button.
It’s not my fault or problem if an owner makes pie in the sky representations to employees about potential tips that may or may not materialize.
I also feel no desire whatsoever to help people dodge taxes, so all tips are on credit cards if I paid the main bill on a credit card. (Besides, I’m not forgoing the points on the tip, hah.)
My favorite these days is the QR code to pay your bill at a sit down restaurant. I actually find that to be a pain in the butt, so if I use it should I tip less? You want “full” tip, you can provide full service.
Thanks Gary for another great article!
I have been traveling heavily since the late 70’s. Most years it’s 200 to over 250 nights per year. Ambassador with Marriott, Diamond with Hilton, Globalist with Hyatt. Tipping Housekeeping is NOT new and been around since at least when I started traveling in the 70’s. Those tips have always been greatly appreciated and well deserved by the hard working and underpaid housekeepers (they used to be called maids).
I fully agree that hotel owners and management should be paying them a “living wage”. However, that has never happened in the USA and sadly probably never will. There has been numerous “no tipping movements” throughout the decades in a so called effort to put pressure on owners to finally pay a living wage. None of these movements ever got anywhere … other than punishing the poor housekeeper.
I agree that tipping is up to one’s own individual choice. Personally, I choose to both tip and try to keep the room tidy with everything put back where it belongs when I checkout. Humbly just my choice.
Safe Travels Everyone!
By God gary, the more i read about these practices in UScthe more i am convinced its on a steady spiral downwards. As it is the coubtry has no concept of service (aak other countroies what it is if you dont know) but consistently these price gouging practices are the nadir
[redacted -gl] Leff you [redacted -gl].
Maybe Lucky Ben could leave a mask rather than cash? Saving a life is worth a lot more than $5 in my opinion.
Same here once we went to no service for first 3 days I stopped. Been tipping housekeeping for 40 years but no more. Parties over no more tips for nothing.
I request no housekeeping during my stays and then clean up and organize before I checkout. I travel with my job, so I prefer not to dip into my pocket for tips.
Since many US hotels have effectively eliminated housekeeping for stays of 3 days or less (or up to a week in some mid-range) – why would I tip when housekeeping never entered to room during my stay?
So can we apply this logic to the service/server industry? Every other day on social media I see someone make a post, tik tok, or reddit post on a tip that’s not 20% or more.
I tip waitstaff in restaurants in the USA and ride drivers for service. The rest, I just remember back when I wasn’t making very much and remember how many tips I got. The best tip is to get a better paying job.
I am not tipping housekeeping or anyone else for doing their base job. That’s a lot of hubris to tell me to take money away from my family and give it to strangers to subsidize their bad life decisions. If they go above and beyond, I’ll give them a tip, but in my experience housekeeping doesn’t even have an opportunity to do so anymore.
LOL. What hotels are offering daily housekeeping? Even when requested it’s usually not done. You should absolutely NOT tip. It’s a non tipped position and doing so perpetuates employers paying shit wages.
Gary – I can’t help to think it’s you who perpetuate this problem. Tip everyone and their brother and the problem continues to escalate.
Where does it end? Should we tip the garbage man because it’s a messy job?
The only place I tip for room cleaning/service is on a cruise as most of them are exceptional. I always give them extra on top of what the cruise line automatically charges me.
Tipping just feeds stockholders!
Small, sole proprietor businesses with family members cooking, cleaning, and putting in whatever it takes, are the Only ones getting my tips.
In comparison to what’s customary in other countries, tipping in the USA is out of control. Housekeepers should be paid a competitive salary and that’s all. This business practice of hotel owners expecting customers to tip housekeepers should be stopped the same way daily resort fees should also be stopped.
Most of the time, I decline room cleaning service anyway unless I’m staying longer than 5 nights or so. It’s mostly because I don’t want my stuff stolen by inviting an unnecessary stranger into my room.
i RECENTLY WENT TO EXCHANGE DOLLARS FOR LOCAL CURRENCY. i FOUND A JAR IN FRONT OF THE WINDOW WHICH STATED “Your unwillingness to tip me offends me!.’ i TRIED TO TAKE MONEY OUT OF THE JAR, BUT MY FINGERS WERE NOT THIN ENOUGH.
Stop tipping. Just stop. All of it, everywhere, all at once. If people can’t live off the wages the company is paying, they’ll go elsewhere. If the job doesn’t get done because employees leave because employers pay shit, the company will lose business. This will displease the shareholders no end. Companies and businesses that don’t learn will ultimately fail. The ones who stop being greedmonsters and pay their employees appropriately will 1) get their employees back and 2) get their customers back. This will please the shareholders immensely.
I don’t know why it’s so hard to work out the IFTTT when it comes to running businesses, must be the new math didn’t teach logic after all.
So not only will the smart employers have employees, they can have the cream of the crop if they set high expectations and hold their employees accountable to meet them. No need to feel pressured into keeping the lackadaisical numbskulls so are just punching the clock… people WANT to work where they’re appreciated and feel their output is valued and that their coworkers are held to the same account they are. Non-performing employees can quickly get the boot, because there will be plenty of others who want a piece of that action and will/can do the work.
Seems like the hotel lobby has taken extra efforts to get travel influencers to encourage customers to tip hotel staff. Is it a coincidence similar tipping related article appeared across most points/miles blog the same week?
US consumers should stop tipping and encourage the employers to pay fair wages. As long as tipping continues, they have no incentive to even think about wages. Look at how mainstream it has become with serving staff.
Folks who travel to Asia and Europe might be able to vouch, how the service at restaurants and hotels are far superior even without tips!
That’s really when some more regulations are good and the government could have something in place to ban it for the good of everyone (other than greedy hotel owners).
I was a housekeeper for over 230 years and it is one of the hardest jobs there is so when I cleaned rooms I actually took pride in my work and I would always do extra little things for people that stayed longer than a day or 2 and when we would k into a room it made us feel really good to see even a dollar bill laying there so just to let you all know it’s one of the toughest jobs out there
30 years not 230 sorry
Tipping hotel housekeepers is not a new idea Gary. I don’t think they actually expect a tip but receiving a tip for good work is a nice gesture. Again, tipping hotel housekeepers is nothing new as Gary thinks it is. This option has always been a part of one’s night stay. If your too poor to tip for good service they won’t lose any sleep over it.
I tip housekeeping at hotels overseas more often than in the US. Well, I don’t stay in that many hotels in the States, plus there’s not a lot of room service anymore. But at a hotel in Asia, your housekeeper is probably making around $700 a month- an extra $5 makes a huge difference…
I’m sorry but I do not agree with this article. I put housekeepers in the same category as servers. Servers clean up your table after you’ve eaten at the restaurant. You pay top price for a steak or even a simple entree at times. That money too is going to the restaurant owner and yet somehow we still tip our server for cleaning up behind us.
The housekeeper does the same. They clean that room behind us. Pick up our trash.
I’ve worked in many fields and it always feels good to receive a little extra to encourage good work quality for then and future work in the hopes of effortlessly cleaning .
Front Desk, Maintenance are doing their job and fulfilling responsibilities that are not “cleaning up after ourselves”. Housekeepers are providing a direct service to you.