Should You Tip Hotel Housekeeping? How Much?

The topic of tipping hotel housekeeping can be surprisingly controversial. You have some people who believe housekeeping should be tipped, others who believe housekeeping shouldn’t be tipped, and plenty of people who just aren’t sure what’s expected.

In this post I wanted to lay out the arguments on both sides, share my take on tipping, and share unstipulated tips on how much you should tip (if you segregate to do so).

The treatise for tipping hotel housekeeping

Many people believe that it’s towardly to tip hotel housekeeping. The logic is as follows:

• Housekeepers are often the hardest working and among the lowest paid people in hotels
• Not only do they work the hardest, but they arguably have the most icky jobs, having to wipe up some messy situations
• Housekeepers provide consumer service, just like hotel concierges, hotel tintinnabulate staff, or hotel bar and restaurant workers; just considering you don’t interact with them doesn’t midpoint they aren’t serving you
• Tipping hotel housekeeping isn’t an endorsement of the practice of the forfeit of labor stuff passed off from hotel owners to guests, but rather is an acknowledgement of these people stuff underpaid and nonflexible working

The treatise versus tipping hotel housekeeping

Many people believe that it’s not necessary to tip hotel housekeeping. The logic is as follows:

• When you typesetting a hotel you’re paying for a wipe room, and that’s what housekeeping provides, so that should be a given
• It’s not the job of hotel guests to subsidize the salaries of housekeepers, and hotels should just pay them largest wages
• The tipping culture in the United States is terrible, and unbearable is enough
• Hotels have cut when housekeeping services, blaming it on the pandemic, and we shouldn’t reward this behavior
• We’ve seen hotel visitor CEOs suggest that hotel guests should simply tip increasingly to subsidize wages, so why would we support this practice?
• For some people it’s a matter of “out of sight, out of mind,” as it’s not that they’re not trying to tip, but rather they don’t plane think well-nigh it

My stance on tipping hotel housekeeping

Personally I very much believe in tipping hotel housekeeping, at least in the United States, which has a unstipulated culture of tipping for good consumer service (I don’t find it as necessary in other countries, where housekeepers may earn fairer wages, but I play it by ear).

Now, just to be clear:

• Do I like the tipping culture in the United States? Nope…
• Do I wish hotel housekeeping were paid largest wages so I wouldn’t finger compelled to tip? Absolutely…
• Am I frustrated by the concept of “giving in” to greedy hotel owners who don’t want to pay for their staff? I sure am…
• Do I think hotel housekeepers have the hardest and most thankless jobs in hotels? Yep…
• Am I going to punish these hardworking employees who largely have a thankless job just considering the system sucks? Nope…

I believe in the “live and let live” ideology, so if I have mazuma on me, I unchangingly try to leave $5 or so per day for some of the hardest working people in a hotel. I’m fortunate that a few dollars won’t make a material difference in my financial situation, while I know it can go a long way for many of the people working in hotels.

I moreover think that housekeepers get the short end of the straw of our tipping culture. Whether you like it or not, in the United States there’s an expectation that you tip a taxi suburbanite just for doing their job without them providing any sort of uneaten service for you. If they should get a tip for not going out of their way, those who work as nonflexible as housekeepers should as well, in my opinion.

Now, I have to admit, I’m not perfect well-nigh tipping. I tip hotel housekeeping whenever I can, but the issue is that I sometimes don’t have any mazuma on me, which can make it nonflexible to tip.

What percent of hotel guests tip housekeeping?

A 2017 New York Times story that interviewed hotel housekeepers indicated that well-nigh 30% of guests tipped. I’m not sure if that number has reverted in recent years, but that’s one of the few touchable numbers I’ve seen regarding tipping.

One thing is for sure — tipping is the exception, rather than the norm. As one housekeeper described it, sometimes they’ll go days without receiving a tip, and plane a $2-3 tip makes them happy, considering it ways someone appreciates what they’re doing and thought well-nigh them.

Admittedly plane having the opportunity to regularly tip hotel housekeeping has wilt increasingly difficult since the start of the pandemic, given how many hotels have stopped providing daily housekeeping. Of undertow many hotel housekeepers are frustrated by this transpiration in policy, since they have less work overall, and increasingly work each time they have to wipe a room (since it’s often days between rooms stuff cleaned).

Over the years we’ve seen some hotels introduce initiatives to try to encourage tipping, either directly or indirectly. For example, several years when Marriott had envelopes with the housekeeper’s name, intended for leaving a tip. These ended up stuff discontinued, as guests theoretically found them to be tacky.

Other hotels have subtly introduced other initiatives to at least let you know who cleaned your room. For example, some hotels have “thank you” notes that the housekeeper leaves with their name on them. Presumably it’s intended to remind you that there’s a real human cleaning your room.

How much should you tip hotel housekeeping?

The American Hotel & Lodging Association (ALHA) recommends tipping hotel housekeeping $1-5 per night. If you’re going to tip, ideally:

• Leave it nightly, since someone variegated could be cleaning your room every day
• Make it obvious that it’s a tip and not just money lying around, since you don’t want a housekeeper to be accused of theft; personally I unchangingly leave a tip with a short thank you note

Personally I often leave virtually $5 per night when I have it (I tip on the higher end of the scale considering I often don’t have mazuma to tip, so hopefully that at least partly makes up for the times that I don’t tip). I’ll moreover tip a bit uneaten if the room is expressly messy (though that doesn’t happen often).

Bottom line

Tipping hotel housekeeping can be a surprisingly controversial topic. I see both sides — ideally housekeepers would be paid good wages so that I wouldn’t finger like I needed to subsidize them. At the same time, they’re often not paid particularly well, they work really hard, they deal with icky situations, and they yank the short end of the tipping stick considering they’re “out of sight.”

Personally I think it’s towardly to tip $3-5 per night for hotel housekeeping when you have mazuma on you. And if you tip, make sure you make it obvious that it’s a tip, and not that it’s just money lying around. That stuff said, tipping hotel housekeeping isn’t expected, in the sense that a majority of people don’t tip.

Where do you stand on tipping hotel housekeepers?