Housekeeping taking money left on the desk

[IamNY]

Question for my fellow MERBites:

Have you ever left change ($2 and $1) or cash on the desk in your hotel room and have the cleaning person take it assuming it was for their tip?

This happended to me once before, but that time I had switched rooms so the cleaning people assumed I checked out and it was left for them.

It was a little different this time around. When I exit a hotel I always leave a tip. But on this occasion I had just arrived for a 5 day stay and I had about $15 in change on my desk from my previous trip. The change was gone when I arrived back at my hotel room after day 2. I still have 3 days to stay.

I brought this up to the person at the front desk and I did it in a very easy going way because I didn't want flip out over a mistake or miscommunication. I asked if housekeeping assumes money left on your desk is theirs for a tip and I got a mixed answer. I was told that sometimes it is and sometimes it's not and was offered the option to speak with the housekeeping supervisor.

My answer was no and my logic was that it was only around $15 and its money that I would have left when I checked out anyway. But now I'm thinking that maybe I should bring this up to the housekeeping supervisor. I don't feel good about the housekeeping staff coming into my room and taking cash or change left on my desk unless I've checked out and its obvious that I left it for them.

Thoughts. Comments.

 

[pokerpro]

It was a little different this time around. When I exit a hotel I always leave a tip. But on this occasion I had just arrived for a 5 day stay and I had about $15 in change on my desk from my previous trip. The change was gone when I arrived back at my hotel room after day 2. I still have 3 days to stay.

.

Was your money near or surrounded by other personnal items, like sunglasses, car keys,etc ? Or was it placed next to the hotel menu or other articles that belong to the hotel ?
Personnaly, when i tip i leave it on the pillow or the bed to avoid confusion.

If like you i stay 5 days, i would tip every day, like 3 dollars instead of giving 15 $ when checking out. The schedules of the housekeepers are not necesseraly the same as the lenght of our stay.
For example, a housekeeper could be cleaning your room very well for the first four days and would be on her day off when you checkout. So the replacement housekepper would collect the 15 $ and the first one would have nothing for her hard work.

 

[IamNY]

Was your money near or surrounded by other personnal items, like sunglasses, car keys,etc ? Or was it placed next to the hotel menu or other articles that belong to the hotel ?
Personnaly, when i tip i leave it on the pillow or the bed to avoid confusion.

If like you i stay 5 days, i would tip every day, like 3 dollars instead of giving 15 $ when checking out. The schedules of the housekeepers are not necesseraly the same as the lenght of our stay.
For example, a housekeeper could be cleaning your room very well for the first four days and would be on her day off when you checkout. So the replacement housekepper would collect the 15 $ and the first one would have nothing for her hard work.

The money was near my personal items. Intersting, I usually tip at the end of stay. Didn't think of replacement housekeepers. So a housekeeper must know that I'm not giving her $15 at the begining of a stay. Therefore I think I have a problem.

 

[Castor_Troy13]

I would be very careful of jumping to conclusions in this situation. While at worst for you this is a minor monetary loss, for someone else it can be a loss of their job. As housekeeping staff are so easily obtainable for hotels, they have close to a zero tolerance policy for housekeeping staff - especially if there is a specific complaint made by a specific employee and that complaint involves questions of theft/trustworthiness.

Housekeeping staff in larger hotels sometimes work in a rotation so if you are staying for 4 days, it's possible that you may have upwards of 4 different employees cleaning your room. Therefore, some guests may choose to tip daily. Alternatively, some guests choose to tip at the beginning of their stay in hopes of receiving better service throughout their stay rather than tipping at the end (or some may do both). There are no hard and fast rules to this, so I don't think there is any specific protocol that has been broken here. A housekeeper is not going to know your own personal tipping preferences when they walk into a vacant room.

If you are staying at a nice hotel, up to $20 is not going to seem like an abnormal tip and it's not necessarily going to raise eyebrows for a housekeeping staff to wonder if this is really their tip or if you accidentally just left this money out.

Of course there is a possibility that the housekeeper saw an opportunity to take this money, but for $15, I really don't think anyone would risk their job. More likely than not, this was just an honest misunderstanding and I would be careful about the degree of your complaint as you could be costing someone their job. I think the more important takeaway here is avoid leaving money out in the open - especially in small denominations - if you don't intend it as a tip. I would just forget about pursuing this.

 

[Halloween Mike]

Well personally i never tip in hotel room. I mean... those are already SUPER expensive. I pay generally like 100$ for just one night there... thats more than enough. I don't think cleaning people have under salaries like restaurants where you feel forced to tip. Now i don't use high end hotels, usually in the 2 stars category. So i dunno if people tip more in those bigger hotels. I never stay(exept like once...) more than 1 night, so i never have to have things clean or change while im there. The only time i stayed 2 nights i made sure to put the sign and advise the clerk to not be disturbed. So for me entering a clean room is the bare minimum considring what i pay, and therefore the same should be expected for the next customer.

But just to avoid any confusion, i always kep my money on me, i put the sign "do not disturb" while im there too.

There just some stuff in life i never understood like tipping. I hate that concept. The only thing i consider okay to tip is escorts. Cause sometimes they do go the extra miles to give you a better time. Some are clearly better than others at the job etc. But for restaurants for exemple, i just expect my waitress to be doing her job. Taking my order without mistakes and bringing me my food is pretty much the requirement... thats why i go to the restaurant. Sure some have more smile than others, and some come more often than others to check on you, but to me doing your job right is not worth an extra amount...

So what i do is i usually give 2:50$. Unless the service was ultra crappy. Most of the time it never exceed 17$ so im fitting the 15% requirement. But if it was not "expected" and since i know they don't have the minimum wage per hour, i do it.

The cake for me goes to bars, you pay a beer 4$ and your expected to give 1$ tip. Thats like 25% and she does not do ANYTHING beside opening the bottle, wich i could do myself thank you. Again i do it only because its mandatory....

So when it comes to hotel room housekeepers , peoples i don't even interact with personally, im sorry but tipping is not on my mind. At that point why not tipping the wallmart clerk cause you asked a question on where is an item and he took you to it... lol.

Another domain i don't tip is taxi. If its like 12:65 ill give 13$ but thats far as i tip, unless the driver goes a very big extra mile to do a great job. Like once in quebec city we where pretty new there so we asked a bunch of questions and the guy answered them all, he was very cool and gave us recomandations etc. But in montreal, its almost as it take them all there inner forces to say "hello" so well... lol

But to get back to escorts, considering the personal nature of the job, how much some of them can be fantastic while others make you feel like your just a number, i think that yeah tipping them is worth it.

Thats just my personal point of view obviously. Hope i didn't derail the thread too much

 

[IamNY]

I would be very careful of jumping to conclusions in this situation. While at worst for you this is a minor monetary loss, for someone else it can be a loss of their job. As housekeeping staff are so easily obtainable for hotels, they have close to a zero tolerance policy for housekeeping staff - especially if there is a specific complaint made by a specific employee and that complaint involves questions of theft/trustworthiness.

Housekeeping staff in larger hotels sometimes work in a rotation so if you are staying for 4 days, it's possible that you may have upwards of 4 different employees cleaning your room. Therefore, some guests may choose to tip daily. Alternatively, some guests choose to tip at the beginning of their stay in hopes of receiving better service throughout their stay rather than tipping at the end (or some may do both). There are no hard and fast rules to this, so I don't think there is any specific protocol that has been broken here. A housekeeper is not going to know your own personal tipping preferences when they walk into a vacant room.

If you are staying at a nice hotel, up to $20 is not going to seem like an abnormal tip and it's not necessarily going to raise eyebrows for a housekeeping staff to wonder if this is really their tip or if you accidentally just left this money out.

Of course there is a possibility that the housekeeper saw an opportunity to take this money, but for $15, I really don't think anyone would risk their job. More likely than not, this was just an honest misunderstanding and I would be careful about the degree of your complaint as you could be costing someone their job. I think the more important takeaway here is avoid leaving money out in the open - especially in small denominations - if you don't intend it as a tip. I would just forget about pursuing this.

Great sound advice. Just the sort of response I was looking for.

Thanks CT!

 

[EagerBeaver]

In my mind cash or coins left on a desk or counter in plain view is a presumptive tip. The presumption is only rebutted if there is a note saying don't touch it. I think it's on you and if you go to housekeeping you don't have a legit complaint.

I usually tip $15 on a 3 day stay, also usually in coins, at end of stay. Until then I keep my cash in a safe or on my person at all times. Never left cash in the open unless it was intended tip.

 

[westwoody]

In my mind cash or coins left on a desk or counter in plain view is a presumptive tip....Never left cash in the open unless it was intended tip.

Why leave cash lying around anyway? Nobody I know does that, so it would be assumed it is a tip.

 

[curious2012]

if you need to complain about lowsy$15 in change and you hobbie you need a 2nd job

Absolutely! C'mon man! :smile:.....housekeeping staff works at minimum wage (my aunt used to do this), often under a cheap hotel manager's belittling attitude, to clean people's shit!!! If anyone, they deserve a good tip!

 

[Sol Tee Nutz]

HM, did not want to copy entire post. Average housekeeping wage is probably $12 per/hr or less in a 2 star place and not much more for a 3 + star. I find it odd that you think paying someone $200 per hour and she is doing her job and you tip her ( escort ) and someone who makes $12 and does her job ( making bed and cleaning bathroom ) gets no tip because the room costs a lot ( $100 ). I am not a big fan of tipping either but tip when service is good to people who get paid very little.
In Quebec the tipping cups are everywhere, not so much in Alberta, you will not see the cups at corner stores or Tims like you do here.
As for the missing change, it should not have been taken, my understanding is tips for rooms are left on the pillow during the stay or on desk when checking out.

 

[Ponce de León]

I say it was a honest mistake, just leave it alone and if you do not plan to tip in the future you can keep it in your pants.

 

[IamNY]

if you need to complain about lowsy$15 in change and you hobbie you need a 2nd job

I agree with you. It was more about how it happened instead of the amount. But in the end if I need to complain about $15 I really shouldn't.

 

[Sol Tee Nutz]

If you leave money out and strangers are coming into you room expect it to be gone.

I think the standard tip at restaraunts has gone from 15% up to 20%.

Taxi drivers are paid peanuts don't be so cheap give them a tip.

I had a flight come in and no time to take the shuttle or I would miss my connector bus to my place and a 3 hr wait was second choice. Took a cab and told the driver that if he got me to the bus depot in 20 min there would be a $30 tip, he got me there on time..... I had the wrong schedule and had to wait 1.5 hrs anyway..... :Cry:

 

[mjs28160]

Wow. If you pay a measly $100 for a hotel room and think that's expensive, but then pay $200 dollars for SP and think it's the only job worth tipping, that's bad. Housekeepers, bartenders, taxi drivers, etc. all deserve to be tipped. The only reason you don't is if you're given bad service. You obviously, have never worked for tips. There's a term for this. It's called being cheap. If you have worked for tips and you still don't tip, there's a name for this it's called a**hole.

 

[mjs28160]

Leaving money on your desk at a hotel is like leaving money on a bar. Either it's a tip or your just being a jerk. Strive to get a little class in life. People will appreciate it.

 

[Halloween Mike]

Well for the people judging and all...

I never worked for more than 12$/h in my life. When i go see an escort its money i saved up and im not feeling rich or 'extra generous" because i just spent 220$ for it. A tip should be earned and not expected. I don't tip taxi driver because honestly i never had a service worth tipping in montreal yet. If anything i had taxi driver try to take advantage of my tourist status and take the long road or play dumb so they would make more money. Not to mention seeing a smile or receiving a "bonjour" almost never happen. I don't tip in hotels because once again i never saw a service going out of the ordinary. Im not a dirty customer. I leave a room in very decent shape when im done. All they have to do is THERE JOB.

I don't tip at Tim Horton or whatever. Why would? Its not because there a cup there that you have to. I go and make my order, i take it to the table, why would i tip really?

On the other hand im very happy to dump my change in those boxes at mcdonald because it goes to a good cause.

I know some of you make lots of money, and 15$ is change for you. Fine. Its not for me. 15$ can be the difference if i eat before leaving montreal or not before going home.

The problem is with tipping at that point then why not tipping the clerk at video game shop? Most of the time they go the extra mile to answer your questions and they smile, are friendly etc, and they are rarely paid a lot. Yet i NEVER seen anybody tip them. Why then would i tip a taxi driver that can't even say bonjour to me, look like he is extra pissed off, and that already charge me 20$ for a couple minutes of driving.

Anyway thats how i see it.

I think the funniest thing i read is a bartender deserve to be tip? WHY? Cause he/she open the beer for me? Jeez thanks i could never had done it myself... :jaw: Thats like THE job where they do NOTHING tut there job. The only reason i do it there is cause its mandatory. But i never did it thinking that person deserve so much to get 1$ for opening my bottle.

And when i work on the delivery truck, we sometimes take the stuff down the basement, those weight 40 lb each, sometimes we have 20-25 to deliver. Some people basement is atrocious, you have to walk with your back bent, or the stairs are very small, sometimes there stuff in them. The compagny delivers at home sure, wich is the purpose of it, but it could be just dropping it near the door. Some clients are very hard to do do and guess what? Despite working hard, i can count on one hand the times i have been tips in years.

The thing is, there is not much compagnies doing what we do, so peoples don't have the tip in mind. Yet they will give 2-3$ to the pizzy boy because its "what people do" and everybody knows you have to tip the pizza boy.

So if im not being tip for carrying 80 lbs in my hand multiple times to a basement that i can even walk straigh in, im certainly not tipping a person that just change bed sheets and clean a toilet that looks like its not even dirty.

And Sol Tee Nutz, when i tip an escort, its because she gave me a very good time, if she just "did her job" and follow the motion, thats not the same. Im happy to tip one that gave me an extra good time. That got out of her minimum to please me, thats what should be deserving a tip. And yes the room cost 100$ or more already, its the bare minimum that i walk in a clean room at that price... lol. I don't understand why should i tip the person that clean it and that i don't even see, but not tipping the clerk that welcome me and that i interact with? You can't start to tip left and right everywhere. At that point why not tip the bus driver too.. lol