New York – Envelopes In Marriott Hotels Invite Tips For Maids

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    This photo provided by A Woman’s Nation shows an envelope that Marriott will be placing in 160,000 hotel rooms in the U.S. and Canada beginning this week to encourage guests to leave a tip for the person who cleans the room. The envelopes bear the name of the room attendant. Marriott is launching the project with Maria Shriver, founder of A Woman’s Nation, an organization that works on issues empowering women. Shriver says many travelers don’t realize that it’s customary to leave a tip for the person who cleans your hotel room. (AP Photo/A Woman’s Nation)New York – Do you leave a tip in your hotel room for the maid? Marriott is launching a program with Maria Shriver to put envelopes in hotel rooms to encourage tipping.

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    The campaign, called “The Envelope Please,” begins this week. Envelopes will be placed in 160,000 rooms in the U.S. and Canada. Some 750 to 1,000 hotels will participate from Marriott brands like Courtyard, Residence Inn, J.W. Marriott, Ritz-Carlton and Renaissance hotels.

    The name of the person who cleans the room will be written on the envelope along with a message: “Our caring room attendants enjoyed making your stay warm and comfortable. Please feel free to leave a gratuity to express your appreciation for their efforts.”

    Shriver, who founded an organization called A Woman’s Nation that aims to empower women, says many travelers don’t realize tipping hotel room attendants is customary. “There’s a huge education of the traveler that needs to occur,” she said. “If you tell them, they ask, ‘How do I do that?'” She said envelopes make it easy for guests to leave cash for the right person in a secure way.

    So how much should you leave? Marriott International CEO Arne Sorenson says $1 to $5 per night, depending on room rate, with more for a high-priced suite.

    Michael Lynn, a professor at Cornell University’s School of Hotel Administration, says his research shows that “30 percent of people stiff the maid,” while 70 percent said they usually leave a tip.

    Sorenson noted that housekeepers “are less frequently tipped” than other hotel workers because they do an “invisible task.” In contrast, workers who carry bags, hail cabs and park cars tend to get tipped because they “make a personal connection” with guests, he said.

    Rosario Rodriguez, who works as a housekeeper at Marriott’s Times Square hotel, says many guests don’t tip and welcomes the envelope campaign as “a good idea.”

    Jessica Lynn Strosky of DuBois, Pennsylvania, who earns $7.75 an hour cleaning rooms at a hotel that’s not a Marriott, says only 1 in 15 or 20 guests leaves a tip. When they do, it’s a dollar or two; she’s lucky to get $20 a week in tips. “I’ve talked to lots of people who say they don’t know they are supposed to tip,” she said.

    Unlike waitresses who earn less than minimum wage because tips are expected to raise their earnings, hotel housekeepers are paid minimum wage, and in expensive markets, substantially more. In Washington D.C., Sorenson said, Marriott housekeepers start in the mid-teens per hour.

    Not everyone applauds the envelope concept. “It is not Marriott’s responsibility to remind customers to tip; it’s their responsibility to pay their workers enough so that tips aren’t necessary,” said author Barbara Ehrenreich, who tried working as a hotel maid for her 2001 book “Nickel and Dimed,” which chronicled her experiences in low-wage jobs.

    But Scott Lazerson, 42, who lives in Sundance, Utah, said he “had no idea” tipping was customary until his wife told him on a recent trip to Orlando. He said he “feels stupid” for not knowing all these years, and added: “Yes, the hotel industry needs to do a campaign about it.”


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    16 Comments
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    Deveee
    Deveee
    9 years ago

    Tipping is a crazy culture.
    The owner of the business should pay them what they deserve and charge the customer as they see fit. I hate it.

    LionofZion
    LionofZion
    9 years ago

    It is a minimum wage job, and they deserve a minimum wage for doing it. The goal is to strive to do better in life.

    jsjcbs
    jsjcbs
    9 years ago

    I’ve seen this in other hotels already. Not a new idea.

    9 years ago

    Biggest Torah story all day! Watch your shoes!

    schultzy
    schultzy
    9 years ago

    30% do not leave tips? What a disgrace on the human race.
    I knew tips were a requirement since I was five years old.
    IMHO, the amount depends how you left the room.
    If you leave a royal mess, minimum five dollars a day.
    I was a head waiter once in a camp which will remain unnamed.
    I served this family for 8 weeks. At the end of the summer, they gave me nothing.
    I could not believe it.
    People told me they had no money.
    I said – then they should have told me at the start of the summer and I would have dumped the plates and silverware in the middle of the table and they could have set the placements. I don’t need to make up table for someone because they don’t have money.
    Excuses people come up with. It’s a disgrace.
    Pay your babysitter on time, tip your waiter, and anyone else who does a personal service for you. And stop making excuses.
    Thanks so much for this opportunity to vent. 🙂

    9 years ago

    Nothing room with that. These hard working people survive on tips. Anyone that doesn’t leave them anything is a big CHEAPSKATE!

    allmark
    allmark
    9 years ago

    If many don’t leave tips how can it be customary. I think this is obnoxious. Unlike the wait staff at restaurants, chambermaids receive at least minimum wage. If the hotel thinks they are underpaid, let them increase wages.

    9 years ago

    My beautician tells me that when she washes, styles and cuts wigs for our women, she never ever receives a tip. This is disgraceful since I know these women spend over 2,000 dollars per wig and they have 3 or 4 of them. Five dollars to them would mean nothing, but to her would mean lunch.

    9 years ago

    Yidden shouldn’t confirm to the world just how cheap some of them are. The pathologically cheap give the rest of the normal Yidden who travel a bad name.

    It’s basic mentchluchkite 101 that one tips maids in hotels.

    9 years ago

    If a waiter or waitress acts in a nasty, rude, and brusque manner to me, they better not look for a tip at the end of my meal, as I will leave them bupkis. If they wish to act like a mentch, that is a different story. Regarding maids in a hotel, the hotel rips us off as it is, with many hidden charges. It is not my responsibility to support the maid, as I am paying for her to clean the room, and furnish me with clean towels, without me having to request extra towels. One time, some maid deliberately knocked on the door, and waited outside, to give me extra towels which I didn’t request or need. It was obvious that she wanted a tip. However, I don’t like aggressive panhandling, and that was what she was doing. I’ll tip someone who helps me with my luggage at the airport, a taxi driver, or someone who helps me load groceries into my car. One time, when I came into the Sheraton Hotel at Frankfurt Germany, I tipped the concierge, who was an Arab, who helped me with my luggage. He was a gentleman; to show his appreciation, he sent large baskets of fruit to my room!

    DRSLZ
    DRSLZ
    9 years ago

    If non-Yidden provide tips, we must do so as well.
    Whenever I’m identifiably Jewish, I provide a reasonable and sometimes a big tip.
    I still remember Shelly Lang giving me a $3.oo tip for a deli meal (that may have cost $10) when I was a teenage waiter at an eatery in Flatbush.