@bgriffin wrote:

@1cent wrote:

Other people are sharing their guilt reasons for tipping. I have worked a few service jobs. Saw coworkers vary their service based on who they thought was worth it and gave extras for free to their regulars. Sometimes they even demanded tips. I always made more in total just by giving fair and consistent service. I guess that’s why I feel level about it now. No one starves because one person didn’t give them $5. If they’re holding out a hand, they might as well stand on the corner.

I also feel like a lot of people don't really get a grasp of how much they're tipping. I mean yes they know the dollar amount they are tipping but they don't really break that down to a per hour amount when they do it. Consider these examples:

Let's say you go to a restaurant that runs you $200 for a couple and lets say your waiter only has 2 tables (probably 4 but I digress). Your entire experience is exactly 1 hour and you tip 20%. Your tip comes to $40. Sure the waiter has to tip out the bartender and busboy but he's still keeping $30 of that tip. And he has 2 tables. So he's making $60 an hour. And likely has more than 2 tables. And yet people are going to turn their noses up at someone who sticks with the old standard of 15%. Where the waiter is still making $40 an hour which is well above median income in every single market in the US.

Let's say you're a hotel housekeeper where you clean an average of 12 rooms a day in an 8 hour shift. The average is actually 13-15 but let's stick with 12 because math. If everyone tips $5 as was suggested above then that's an extra $60 of untaxed income per day for the housekeeper. Or $7.50 per hour which, after the tax benefit, is worth more per hour than their salary if it was minimum wage. Now can we have a discussion about minimum wage? Absolutely, but that's not germane to the subject. Even in somewhere like Seattle where minimum wage is already $15 an hour you're adding a 50% bump to their salary. Just because you feel bad their employer isn't paying them what they're worth.

Or take our valet example. In an 8 hour shift a hotel valet will likely touch a car 40 times. That's 5 an hour, which seems low but we'll go with it. At the suggested $5 per above that's $200, or $50 per hour, in addition to their pay (which is likely tipped employee levels so we'll call it nonexistent). $50 per hour would be an earning rate of $100,000 per year. But hey we should all tip that much...……..

@SteveSoCal wrote:

...and there's also a difference between 'tipping guidelines' and 'suggested tips', or 'maximum tip reimbursement'.

I am embarrassed to do 50% of the tasks asked of me on hotel assignments. The MSC employees and shoppers are also getting the same pay they were 10 years ago. Less in some circumstances.

Here's the reality; You are not staying in the hotel as an actual guest. The staff there are essentially co-workers. It's great that you want your co-workers to be paid more and are willing to take money out of your own pocket to ensure that. I wish more people at my workplace were like that. However, as much as you may feel like a VIP staying at that hotel, you are there on an assignment.

Either stay there on your own dime and be as generous as you want with your tips, or follow the guidelines. At a minimum, you should ask the MSC if they mind you increasing the tips. I have requested an allowance for increased tips at certain resorts and received it.

BTW, before there were tipping guidelines for the MSC I used to work for, it may not be surprising to know that shoppers went overboard with tips. It was particularly heinous when shoppers would offer a narrative the tipping experience, such as, "I gave the bellman a $20 and didn't even get a smile." There was a basic lack of understanding that the person reading the report was footing the bill for the extravagant tip.

It's easy to be generous with $15 when the other 50% of tips and the entire hotel bill are being covered. I think the real embarrassment in undertipping is the fear that the truth may be more evident with a poor tip: Most of us cannot really afford to stay at that property...

@LindaM wrote:

I think the fear is being out of place & trying to fit in.

@SteveSoCal wrote:

Case in point; A certain hotel assignment used to specifically require the shopper to stiff the bellman on arrival when they collected the luggage and report on the response. I was absolutely put off by the request and mentioned it to another shopper that had recently been to the hotel. They told me that they just tipped the bellman out of guilt and didn't claim the tip for reimbursement. I decided to go through with the test and it was honestly really difficult to do. The bellman stuck out it hand for tip in the end after giving really awesome service (It is a very famous 5-star hotel in NYC) and I just shook his hand, then walked away. My luggage never arrived in the room!

It took hours to hunt the luggage down, BTW. They finally found it with no tags on it placed behind a door in the bell closet. Now, I get it that the bellman was pissed, but there are a variety of reasons why a customer may not tip and does a 5-star property want bags going missing for everyone who doesn't tip the bellman?

Was the client serviced by receiving the information? Definitely. Was it a horrible MS experience. Absolutely!...but that's the job.

@MickeyB wrote:

Just to clarify - cause I think I am the shopper who just tipped out of guilt. I remember discussing this shop with you. But in my defense- my scenario was on the way out.

@MA Smith wrote:

The maids are in the same boat as servers and tips pay the bills.

@callinectes wrote:

I always tip housekeeping well, especially if I am staying multiple nights.

@MickeyB wrote:

The tip the bartender $20 after the first round is bad enough, but the worst is the "slip the front desk agent a $100 bill while asking for an upgrade to a suite" - AWKWARD I've done it once and I never, ever, want to do that again.

@JL-Baltimore wrote:

For shops or non-shops, when you call to place a carryout order and pick it up what do you tip?

@quovatis wrote:

After traveling to New Zealand, their system is so much better. Prices include all gratuity as well as taxes.

@iShop123 wrote:

@quovatis wrote:

After traveling to New Zealand, their system is so much better. Prices include all gratuity as well as taxes.

My problem with this is that a poor server makes the same as an excellent one. What incentive, other than a personal work ethic, does a server have to go the extra mile when s/he is earning the same as someone doing the bare minimum?

@iShop123 wrote:

@quovatis wrote:

After traveling to New Zealand, their system is so much better. Prices include all gratuity as well as taxes.

My problem with this is that a poor server makes the same as an excellent one. What incentive, other than a personal work ethic, does a server have to go the extra mile when s/he is earning the same as someone doing the bare minimum?

@bgriffin wrote:

@iShop123 wrote:

@quovatis wrote:

After traveling to New Zealand, their system is so much better. Prices include all gratuity as well as taxes.

My problem with this is that a poor server makes the same as an excellent one. What incentive, other than a personal work ethic, does a server have to go the extra mile when s/he is earning the same as someone doing the bare minimum?

The better servers would get the better jobs.

Edited to add: There's no reason to think every server would be paid the same rate. Just like there's no reason to think that every salesperson in Macy's is paid the same. Why would you?