Tipping, tipping everywhere

[britkate]

Coming late to this thread - sorry OP. We are obviously European too and the whole thing baffled us - what was especially baffling is that we had a split stay and things that we offered money for at OKW were refused (very charmingly) and yet were consistantly accepted at POR - maybe it was just coincidence?

We left money for housekeeping everyday - though this is unheard of in the UK (they would think it was some sort of honestly test), anyway we had to ask for a few things and ask them to leave the living room beds down and madeup etc so we tipped as we thought we were being a difficult family.

I would never tip a grocery delivery - they might get a fiver at Christmas like the postman/milkman but not the general weekly shop.

 

[Yippee]

Just got back so I thought I would let you know what we did.
Magical Express on the way to the resort: the bus made two stops before ours so we craned out the window to see what everyone else was doing. no one seemed to be giving tips so we didn't either.
At the hotel we carried our own luggage so no tip there.
I went down immediately to get the Garden Grocer stuff and told them I would carry it myself, no tip there either.
Did not tip housekeeping.
Bell people holding our luggage on our last day - gave them 2 bucks.
Magical Express on the way back: the driver straight out said several times over the speaker that he would appreciate any gratuities. My wallet held exactly two 5-dollar bills and some change, less than 50 cents. Dear partner had absolutely no money. 5 dollars really seemed extreme to me but DP said better that than nothing. There was just one other family getting off the bus at our terminal and as the driver was unloading suitcases we clearly saw a 10-dollar bill in her hand which she proceeded to give the driver. I didn't feel so bad for giving 5 dollars after that but I still think it was excessive!

 

[danyoung]

Really? A Magical Express driver was asking for tips? Very bad form!

 

[loftus]

The best part of being "foreign" is not tipping!

No, no, no it's absolutely the worst thing because most of us worry about getting it wrong!

I still get confused about what and when to tip the bar staff if I have a drink. I'll probably have to drink myself into unconsciousness just to get over the nerves.

 

[Yippee]

don't worry Loftus. As i recall at the bar and restaurants there was a handy little tip guide printed on the check at both bars and restaurants with the suggested amounts of 18% or 20% (i think). I guess they've been burned by foreign guests before!

 

[052012]

We are being picked up at airport by Tiffany's Towncar so we can make a stop at Publix. Some special things we have to have for grandson. I have prepaid for this service for round trip. How much to tip the driver? Thanks
Susan

 

[Bribren]

I tip the housekeepers because i remember carrying cases of wine out to cars in december and hoping to make a buck tip. If i got $12 for a shift i was thrilled. That was when I was going to college. Now im paying 2.50 for a coke at wdw, i can throw a minium wage worker a few bucks here and there. These folks wouldnt choose to vacuum rugs if there were a 25k year jobs available to them. I wouldnt tell anyone to tip, but i like to.

I leave it under the little card with the name on them. Then there is no mistake.

 

[Pod]

Hi
New to forum, but have been to WDW a few times. I'm learning a lot here- So, thanks!

I also had not heard of tipping except when I started visiting WDW forums years ago. Since then I have left tips. WHat I have found is that at many hotels housekeeping will not accept them, especially at the nicer places- just got back from the Fairmont Kea Lani and no matter where I left it, it stayed right there. I felt like I was insulting her, honestly.

Right now, I'm inclined not to tip unless we make a big mess, which can occasionally happen on accident. Then, I think it really is necessary.

Also, I read somewhere to never leave the tip on the nightstand!

And, in the more expensive cities in Europe, a small tip (10%) is starting to become standard at restaurants. We did this in London last summer.

 

[Pod]

I tip the housekeepers because i remember carrying cases of wine out to cars in december and hoping to make a buck tip. If i got $12 for a shift i was thrilled. That was when I was going to college. Now im paying 2.50 for a coke at wdw, i can throw a minium wage worker a few bucks here and there. These folks wouldnt choose to vacuum rugs if there were a 25k year jobs available to them. I wouldnt tell anyone to tip, but i like to.

I leave it under the little card with the name on them. Then there is no mistake.

I always tip at the car wash, because that is one job I would never, ever want to do.
The best tip I ever gave was asking a very harried McDonald's cashier to keep the change, after a customer had been particularly nasty to her- on Christmas Eve, no less. It was enough so that she could go buy a nice cocktail later.

 

[mousehelper]

Really? A Magical Express driver was asking for tips? Very bad form!

I tip them $1 per bag if they touch my carryon. Other than that-- no tip. I think that's fairly standard -- $1 pe bag for whoever touches your bag.

I try to remember to tip Housekeeping $1 per person per night. More on the last night.

I tip valet when they pick up my car -- a couple of bucks.

I tip boat captains for special events-- cruises, parasailing, tubing. About 10 - 15% of the cost of the event.

I tip taxi drivers -- 10 - 15%.

And, wait staff/bartenders. 15 - 20%. More to a bartender on the first night I'm there if I know I'll be back in the bar again. Here, more than anywhere, I think a tip really does help facilitate attentiveness on future visits.

 

[Pam]

One time when we stayed at POFQ housekeeping messed up over and over again - no coffee, not enough towels, no Internet cable, no soap, etc. Every morning we left a note asking for the missing items, but they were never left for us, and I would need to call to get them in the evening. It really bugged me that we were tipping mousekeeping, then tipping somebody else to deliver things that should have been in our room to begin with. Near the end of our vacation I discovered the mouse keepers didn't speak English, and thus couldn't read our notes. Do you folks tip those people who deliver things like coffee and soap, when they should have been in your room to begin with?

 

[RoswellVojnys]

I am so pleased to see this thread. I've spent my entire life in the hospitality industry and I'm glad that folks like all of you find it important enough to have a conversation about it.

That said, here how I approach tipping.

For maids, I only tip if I'm staying more than a night. The way I approach it is a maid is paid to clean a room but not necessarily to work around all our stuff. We have a family of 5 and that pretty much fills a room at the Poly. I tip $5 a day unless we have absolutely trashed the room and then I leave more. For me it's not to ensure better service, I expect a high level of service at Disney and if I don't get it I call housekeeping, I tip the Mousekeepers because 1) we have a ton of stuff in the room, and 2) we are staying multiple days at a resort and 3) we occasionally trash the room and its a lot of work to clean it. I really appreciate when they do a nice job. I'm not saying this is right or the gospel in the industry, it's just how we approach it.

For servers, 15% for adequate service, 20% round down for good service, 20% round up for excellent service. If the service is awful, awful, awful it's 10%. They'll know they've messed up, but tipping isn't just about the server, it's about you as well. You get to pick how much you tip and if you stiff it reflects poorly on you not the server. By that I mean they have done a job, maybe poorly, but they have provided a personal service and should be compensated, not necessarily well, but compensated.

For Bellman, I tip a buck a bag to both the guy who unloads your car and the guy who brings it up and round up if its a lot of stuff. If the wait for your stuff is way too long I'll round down.

If regular staffers provide us a nice service I'll tip them a few bucks as well.

I'm not professing to know the right way to do it, just sharing my approach to see if I'm 'normal'

 

[Figaro]

The best part of being "foreign" is not tipping!

True, true.

 

[NorahS]

Interesting thread.

I use standard tipping protocol for servers at table service restaurants, parking valets, bellmen etc. There are guidelines for these sorts of tips throughout the travel industry and they are publicized.

Tipping for DME drivers for handling your luggage is optional, but appreciated. I believe there is a sign to this effect posted at the front of the DME bus. So tips are not required, but if you decide to tip, it should be the same as what you would tip the bellman. If you only have carryon luggage with you and you take it on the bus with you (to store overhead) you wouldn't of course, tip.

It is not required to tip hotel housekeeping - even at Disney. However, a tip is appreciated if you make special requests or if you know your room will require extra cleaning. I used to be a heavy coffee drinker and I would leave $5 by the coffeemaker with a note - "extra coffee, please" and underneath that I would print (courtesy of Google translator, as I don't speak a word of Spanish and many room attendants at Disney speak Spanish): "Más de café por favor" - which would get me a pile of coffee packets and supplies for the coffeemaker. I would buy a small carton of whole milk from hotel gift shop/counter service to keep in the fridge in the room and never ran out of coffee in the room.

 

[britkate]

Asking people to 'keep the change' in a Macdonalds here would see them lose their job. At the end of a shift the tills are cashed-up and if you are over or under at all then you are called to the office and if you are a certain percentage over or under than you will get a formal warning. If you are found to have any change in your pockets when you are working on the till you will also get a formal warning.

So don't offer the staff any money in the UK! Put it in the charity box instead.

 

[mousehelper]

You can't tell them to keep the change in the States, either. Kate. About the same things would happen.

No tipping at Counter Service - Mcdonalds, BK, Wendy's. Only at Table Service. Just like Disney.

They tip at TS in UK, don't they?

 

[HMaries]

I guess my problem with tipping housekeeping is that since you could get a different person each time you are leaving a tip on expected service, but you don't know that you are going to get that service? It would to me be like handing my waiter $20 at the beginning of a meal and telling them this is your tip no matter what you do for me. If I leave $5 for housekeeping the housekeeper takes it and doesn't leave enough towels or replace the dirty cups. The next day I leave $1 or nothing because I was disappointed and a different housekeeper could be working who does something that goes above and beyond.


With that said if you want to tip, I don't see a problem with it, but I do not personally plan to start tipping housekeepers anytime soon. I'm all for giving tips when warrented but I don't like to tip based on services not yet performed.

This is what I have been thinking. We tip the housekeepers at Disney but I don't particularly like the fact that I'm tipping someone before I know what kind of service they are providing.

The last time we were at ASMovies I tipped each day, the counters were never wiped off, the soap/shampoo never refilled, and we had spilled some sticky drink on the sink area floor-we cleaned it up as best we could but it was still sticky, and it stayed that way through our whole trip. We didn't even know about towel animals when we were there, and we never got one (not that we need one, everyone talks about getting them when they go and I'm just saying that even with a tip, we didn't.) Basically our beds were made, main table cleared off, and trash taken every other day. That's with tip. I just wasn't very happy about the service on that trip. Hoping this stay at POP is better.

 

[bnoble]

I don't particularly like the fact that I'm tipping someone before I know what kind of service they are providing.

From where I sit, worrying about that only makes sense if you assume that a non-trivial fraction of housekeeping staff simply isn't doing their job. I spend a lot of nights in hotels (not just Disney's) every single year, and can count the number of times I've had an inadequate cleaning on one hand.

That said:

it stayed that way through our whole trip

This is worth a visit to the front desk to speak with a manager. It will take five minutes, and will get things fixed quickly. Not a phone call---those all go to a central switchboard---but a visit.

 

[HMaries]

I don't plan on not tipping next time because of our last visit but I personally would just feel better tipping a person after the job's been done. I was a waitress & a hostess before, I know living on 2.13 an hour then relying on tips sucks but I was expected to perform good service to get good tips (hopefully), this is just an instance where you tip in the hopes of getting good service. There doesn't seem to be a way around it so you're just stuck with the process how it is. Walking over a sticky floor and having to wipe down the counters myself wasn't the end of the world or worth calling about-for me. We dealt with it and just hoped it got better as the trip went on. I'm just saying that tipping didn't get us any better service.

 

[MADnNOLA]

I am so pleased to see this thread. I've spent my entire life in the hospitality industry and I'm glad that folks like all of you find it important enough to have a conversation about it.

That said, here how I approach tipping.

For maids, I only tip if I'm staying more than a night. The way I approach it is a maid is paid to clean a room but not necessarily to work around all our stuff. We have a family of 5 and that pretty much fills a room at the Poly. I tip $5 a day unless we have absolutely trashed the room and then I leave more. For me it's not to ensure better service, I expect a high level of service at Disney and if I don't get it I call housekeeping, I tip the Mousekeepers because 1) we have a ton of stuff in the room, and 2) we are staying multiple days at a resort and 3) we occasionally trash the room and its a lot of work to clean it. I really appreciate when they do a nice job. I'm not saying this is right or the gospel in the industry, it's just how we approach it.

For servers, 15% for adequate service, 20% round down for good service, 20% round up for excellent service. If the service is awful, awful, awful it's 10%. They'll know they've messed up, but tipping isn't just about the server, it's about you as well. You get to pick how much you tip and if you stiff it reflects poorly on you not the server. By that I mean they have done a job, maybe poorly, but they have provided a personal service and should be compensated, not necessarily well, but compensated.

For Bellman, I tip a buck a bag to both the guy who unloads your car and the guy who brings it up and round up if its a lot of stuff. If the wait for your stuff is way too long I'll round down.

If regular staffers provide us a nice service I'll tip them a few bucks as well.

I'm not professing to know the right way to do it, just sharing my approach to see if I'm 'normal'

THIS!

I like the way you approached the subject and explained why, even with bad service, you still tip. I have worked for years in the background of restaurants (accounting) and have witnessed how poorly people will tip a server, many not realizing they are making $2.13 an hour.

I have tipped for good service when it wasn't expected (airline attendant) and they are so grateful and go above and beyond!

Thanks!