Oh I took pictures and let the front desk know. Lets just say the supposed senior manager just didn't care. I was told that they would do better next time. If management tells customers to F off, I highly doubt letting head of housekeeping would get me any further.

 

I get where you're coming from and I generally agree with you. That said, the notion that the average housekeeping salary is really low isn't as cut and dried as you might believe.

The hourly rates of various hotel employees depend a lot on whether the position are union or not. In the city I worked the majority of my hotel career, housekeeping staff were represented by a union. Front Desk staff (where I started out) was non-union. Back then, the starting hourly rate for housekeeping staff was several dollars higher than the starting hourly rate for Front Desk staff.

For the record, I cleaned my fair share of rooms in the decade I worked in hotel operations. It's not an easy job. I'm not saying those employees didn't earn every penny. I'm merely pointing out the fact that blanket statements about wages aren't necessarily accurate.

 

and the room staff get to keep all the leftovers you leave behind, like Rolex watches

 

I generally leave ~$5/day at full service properties for each day I receive housekeeping.

If there is no housekeeping during my stay (whether its the hotel's choice or mine) I'll leave $5 total. I'm not a big fan of tipping to cover costs the company should be covering in the first place. In contrast, when exceptional service is received I'm a big fan of rewarding that.

I'm currently typing this from a Marriott TownePlace Suites (cringe I know) where the room I received was not very well cleaned when I first entered it. Hair on the pillows, crumbs and other messy spots on the floors in the corners, hair literally covering the back of the bathroom door (no idea how this happens but if anyone has an answer I'm all ears). I'm debating whether or not I should leave anything after this stay.

 

I�d say no, as you�re just encouraging this type of substandard service.

Hopefully you complained.

I�ve had over 80 nights booked since March, and haven�t run into any housekeeping issues. Then again, I�m in Asia, and I find most things superior in the service arena.

 

Why the debate?

I'm wrapping up a 6 month stay occupying one of the few suites in the hotel. ZERO service the entire stay. Several times I've listened to the housekeeper talk about the absence of tips during this virus. It's now occurring to me that she could be directly referring to the suite occupied by me. Maybe she is used to receiving 5 or $10/day for this suite. Maybe she is thinking I am costing her approx. $1,000. in lost income. This thread has put a new perspective on this stay.

 

Did she offer to clean the room/suite? Did you request any service? Did she provide any housekeeping services?

David

 

No, no, and no equals ZERO. I would take cleaning materials from her cart and she has opened the locked chute door so the towels could be dumped. I've furnished and laundered my own bedding. Used own soap/shampoo.

 

Only in America.

 

I agree - there's no service she provided to tip on.

David

 

I don't know about all chains, but isn't Hilton generally known for taking decent care of it's employees anyway? I am not saying that doesn't mean not to ever tip, but in a no service situation, I wouldn't either. Housekeeping is getting paid fairly in Hiltons, I believe. Remember the controversy about the (was it the CEO?) not tipping because of how well they were treated? Of course he walked it back because of the outcry and who he was, but Hilton isn't Marriott, if you know what I mean. That said, I stayed at a Hilton like that in May and couldn't believe how little service there was at a "full service" hotel. Some of this is a bit much. But I digress.

 

I get the idea of tipping in service industries as it encourages good service and it can be a win-win and I am certainly tipping more during these times but I could never really understood the logic of tipping the people who clean your rooms. There are exceptions but for the most part it doesn't feel like an industry to me where you can reward good service. I don't ever look at my room after housekeeping has been and think OMG the housekeeping went above and beyond in cleaning this room, I must reward this good service.

That said, tipping people like this during these times to help out when their hours and income may be down, is a noble and decent gesture. But this, imho, is arguably just charity rather than tipping for "service". Not there there is anything wrong with charity.

My sense is that tipping for housekeeping is dying out in the U.S. and it is mostly older people(50+) that do it, but I may be completely wrong. I think the stats from surveys show that only roughly 20% of hotel guests in the U.S. tip for housekeeping so it is definitely not the cultural norm. And outside the U.S. and Canada, of course, it is much rarer.

 

Disagree. Their job got more difficult. For one, I believe their compensation per room (and they are almost always paid per room cleaned) hasn't gone up but the work required has (extra cleaning and disinfecting protocols due to covid). For another, their job has also gotten riskier: Aerosoles carrying covid can linger around for hours. There is at least some additional risk of getting infected for housekeeping staff, and there's a hugey increased risk for wait staff.

 

That may all well be true but it doesn't detract from his argument that at this point what you are leaving them is a donation, rather than a tip.

 

Wasn't the cleaning of the room between guests their main task even pre-covid? In your typical superior room in your typical business hotel, making up the room takes like 10 min on days in which there is no check-out/check-in and 30-50 min on days with a check-out/check-in. Given the average hotel stay outside resorts is like 2 days or so, the bulk of their work is housekeeping of rooms with a check-out/check-in that day. Given the extra cleaning protocols (disinfecting bathroom, surfaces, remote, in-room safe, door knobs, light switches...) the service they're providing is not likely to have gone down in total.