NEWS: Tis the Season

My sister recently took on a second job as a hotel housekeeper to pay the bills cause she's got a baby on the way. After less than a month on the job, she pulled a pec muscle while vacuuming (it sounds lame but when you're pushing around huge containers of oh, everything, it's a pretty common thing). Between morning sickness and her inability to do pretty much anything at her job, as mentioned by others, it put her in a really shitty position. She either had to go to work and be miserable and risk re-injury, or lose her job. Fun.

So, question: If I'm letting the maid clean my room and I'm tipping her per day, where do I leave the tip? Because if I just leave money lying on the dresser, she's not going to take it. Is she? Should I write a note that says "tip"?

(I had no idea one was supposed to do this)

How are shitty working conditions the result of racism? If people of every race are working the same shitty jobs and being taken advantage of, how is it a race issue?

I hardly ignore racism, and see it a whole lot more often than I would like. I live in a small town that's kinda backwards. I see sexism all the time, and I would probally see racism if there were people to be racist to around. There's a line cook from Jamacia that got pulled over and arrested for DWB and damn near lost his job because of company policy on being arrested, he was doing nothing wrong (as far as I know) other than driving his car legally late at night...racism is hardly gone and I know that, I just fail to see how the white executive housekeeper treating her white employees like dirt is racism. It's not like the white folk that work these jobs get special treatment, they get shit on as bad as the Puerto Rican cleaning the room next door. If all housekeepers were minorities, and all housekeeping managers were not, then I could see it as a race issue.

There's usually an envelope with your housekeeper's name on it. Just slip a few bucks in there and call it a day. A little note that says "thank you" is usually appreciated.

Alternativley, you can bring whatever you would like to tip to the front desk and ask that it make its way to your housekeeper.

I have noticed that many hotels have comment cards and a small envelope for leaving a tip for the maid.

I won't be staying in a hotel in the near future, but this article has prompted me to leave a tip for the cleaning crew at the office where I work. After all, 'tis the season. It won't be as much as they deserve, but at least it will show that someone recognizes their efforts.

Isn't tipping just a way to let hotels continue to pay their housekeepers a substandard wage? I'd rather find hotels that pay a higher hourly wage even if they cost a little more, since at least that won't mean that workers will have to depend on people knowing they should tip and doing it to make a living wage.

The housekeepers at the hotel I work at all get paid at least $8.50/hr. Tipping is expected anyway. The restaurant servers on the other hand, all make $2.93/hour because of the stupid federal laws that say that they only need to be paid 1/2 of the current minimum wage.

I worked at hotels for several years. Luckily the ones I ended up working for were smaller and family run, so they took more concern with thier employees. The wage was an hourly wage close to what the front desk workers made, but tips were certainly appreciated. it's already been noted that there is often an envelope in the room for this. if not you can get a stationary envelope from the front desk to use.

the only time I ever saw anything approaching quotas was during times of full occupancy when it was "we have x amount of checkouts and y number of housekeepers, so we need everyone to handle their share". Of course on days like that we'd bring in more housekeepers. same as we did with the desk staff. again, my hotel was a bit away from the franchise norm and was a smaller (60 room) property.

as far as it being a race issue, I think the issue is more the societal blocks that force minorities and immigrants to take these sorts of jobs. not so much specific racism on the part of hotel owners as employers. As far as I can tell, they don't care what color you are as long as they can work you to death.

I always tip the housekeepers, however, and as much as it seems to belong in a sitcom, a surprising experience I had during my last trip to TX was that both the cleaning lady and the maintenance dude -both of whom are from near where I live here in Mexico- said they were more grateful that I actually asked how their day was and treated them as real people than the tips they got.

So yeah, tip whenever you can, but if you don't feel like it or can't spare two dollars I think one might at least treat these people with respect if you run into them.

I have to say, I really hope this doesn't catch on. Tipping might make you feel like you're balancing an injustice, but it will eventually backfire. Hotel managers will consider tips as expected compensation and an excuse to offer less and less consideration to their workers. Because, after all, if those lazy maids really cared about their take home pay, all they'd have to do is work harder, right? And hey, no reason to pay them as much if they're getting tips on top of our generous salary.

Ultimately this would be the most degrading outcome. Employers already don't value the cleaning staff, so any excuse they can find to cut their pay will be taken.

Really, people need to get past the idea of "if I leave a tip and try to pick up my towels, everything will be better". It won't. The only things that will reliably improve the situation are either regulating the hotel industry or the workers getting better organized.

Reagan is dead. Government can and should regulate the shit out of businesses that hurt and exploit their employees.

The hotel I just quit from paid the housekeepers $3.00 per room. Our restaurant servers also got shafted.

100% agree, I just don't know that not tipping maids (if it is indeed a stream of revenue that they count on) is the way to ensure that the government gets its act in gear.

The reason why hotel employers can get away with paying housekeepers and restaurant servers less than minimum wage (which isn't necessarily a living wage, anways) is because employment law expects these jobs to receive gratuity from the customer. However since a standard gratuity is not automatically added to the bill for restaurants and hotels in the US, the way it is in Europe, these employees often do not receive any gratuity at all. They therefore often end up earning no where near the amount that they would if they were to receive at least minimum wage.

Sure, tip if it makes you feel better - I just don't think it should be put forth as The Solution. Bitch_Phd's article makes some excellent points, but then focuses on tipping and folding your own towels as the answer to the widespread abuse of workers. It seems to me that rather than throwing a few crumbs and pocket change to "the help", that our corporate feudal overlords should be getting a bit of heat.

I work in a hotel, I'm there alot, especially during the holiday season. I don't do the housekeeping but I do do all the laundry. Minimum wage here is $7.50/hour and that's what we make. No, I can't live off of that which is why I'm now working two full-time jobs and clocking in nearly (if not more) than eighty hours a week.

Please tip housekeeping, people. They work hard and the pay sucks.

Yeah, that was a chapter in it. Good book.