Should We Tip Hotel Housekeepers?

Whenever we stay at a hotel, we constantly have to tip for the services we get. Starting from the moment we arrived, we have to tip the bell man, valet parking person, concierge, and the waiters in the restaurants or lounge. But most hotel guests forget to tip the housekeepers even though they provided services at least once a day.

For those who decide to tip hotel housekeepers, they often do ot know the appropriate way to do it. As an example when we stay at a hotel for 3 nights, should we tip the housekeeping staff every day or just on the last day?

Lizzie Post, an etiquette expert with the Emily Post Institute, said that we should tip the housekeeper staff. According to Post, housekeeper staff is the one who makes our stay comfortable because they clean the room every day. It becomes a reasonable reason to leave tip for them.

Here are some etiquettes in hotel tips for housekeeping:

1. Leave tip every single day so you can make sure that the tip goes to the person who cleaned the room.
2. Put a note on the money stating that the money is for housekeeping.
3. In most hotels, leave $1 or $2 for each person, but in higher end hotels leave $3 to $5.
4. Tipping is not necessary if you only stay overnight in a motel. If you stay more than one night leave $1 or $2.

Reneta McCarthy, a lecturer of Cornell University who began her career in the industry as a housekeeping manager with Marriott said that it is a really lovely thing to leave tip for housekeeping staff. But it is a pity that most people do not leave the tip for the housekeepers.

Juliana Shallcross, the managing editor of HotelChatter.com, said that if we are one of those messy guests who use all towels and ask for extra pillows and blankets we should leave the tip because ‘housekeepers have so much more work to do these days as hotels roll out super plush bedding with six pillows at least and heavier sheets and duvets and everything needs to be washed and cleaned.