You should tip your housekeeper just as you would tip a doorman, valet, bellman, etc. The amount of the tip depends on the length of your stay and how messy your room is.
It is often said that hospitality professions are among the most underrated in our society. Although they require a lot of work and dedication, they are often performed when no one else is around. As a result, consumers take them for granted and don’t think about them as often when deciding which services to tip for.
Housekeepers, for example, are employees who spend a lot of time and effort making sure hotel rooms are always clean, but you never actually see them at work. To make a hotel stay as smooth as possible, maids work when guests are not in their rooms – so they are almost “invisible.”
Although this is a great advantage for guests, it often devalues the work of maids because people forget that they are working at all and should be tipped. That being said, you should definitely tip your maid when you stay at a hotel, even if it’s just for one night.
To help you know when, how much, and how much to tip your housekeeper, here’s a guide to tipping housekeepers.
How much should you tip your housekeeper?
Although the American Hotel & Lodging Association’s Gratuity Guide suggests an amount between $1 and $5 per day, we recommend that you tip your housekeeper between $3 and $5 per day, as these amounts are more in line with industry standards.
However, it is important to note that you should also tip your housekeeper for the amount she has to clean up. If you only give the housekeeper a bed to make, you should give her a normal tip. However, if you had a party in your hotel room the night before and leave the housekeeper a large amount to clean up, you should tip between $7 and $15.
A good way to predict how much to tip your housekeeper is to estimate how long it would take you to clean up the mess you leave for her. Since they have to stick to a schedule and probably won’t get paid much more for more difficult cleaning jobs, you should generously give what you can. After all, you’re the person making their job harder in the first place, so you need to take responsibility too!
The amount you should tip your housekeeper does not vary from state to state. Unlike other forms of tipping (such as for janitors), the amount paid to a housekeeper is more like minimum wage, so you should take that into consideration when determining your tip. However, if you want to do more to show the housekeeper that you appreciate their work, don’t be afraid to tip significantly more! By doing so, you’ll not only make their day, but you’ll also spur them on to try harder at cleaning your room in the future.
Another way to tip your housekeeper is to use a housekeeper tip calculator. A tip calculator can help you figure out how much to tip, but you should also keep in mind that most tip calculators underestimate the right amount to tip. This is because wages change and inflation continues to rise, which means you should tip your housekeeper more today than you did 10 years ago.
When should you tip your housekeeper?
If you are staying in a hotel and using the housekeeping service, you should tip daily. The maid is one of the few people who derive a large part of their income from tips, so you should always show them that you care about their services and well-being.
The best time to leave a tip your housekeeper is right before you leave your hotel room for the day. Though there are some who prefer to tip hospitality workers on their way out, this is not compatible with the schedules that normal housekeepers maintain. For example, many hotels have different housekeepers cleaning different rooms every day, meaning that it’s very likely that the same person will not be cleaning your room two days in a row. This is reason enough to leave your tips on a daily basis, allowing the people who actually did the work to get proper compensation. However, if you’re staying only for one day, don’t worry about this distinction—just leave your tip on the way out.
How to Tip Your Housekeeper – Cash, Card or Via an App?
The traditional—and best—way to tip your housekeeper is by leaving cash on the table and a note indicating that it is for the housekeeper to take. This is an important distinction to make because oftentimes housekeepers might be worried about taking money from a room in fear that they will be accused of stealing later on.
Though there are hotels and similar establishments that allow you to tip workers via an app or by card, these often come with associated fees for the employees. By tipping your housekeeper in cash, you can ensure that all of the money goes directly to them! One of the downsides of cash is that there is always the possibility for someone else to steal it, but these chances are low due to the fact that the only person entering your room will be the housekeeper.
In the event that you check out of your room and forget to tip the housekeeper, you can still make sure they are tipped sufficiently! To do this, just be sure to go to the front desk and give them the money. If you come to them the day the housekeeper cleaned your room, there’s a large chance that they’ll be able to pass the money directly to the worker.
In Conclusion
Knowing how much to tip a housekeeper is much more nuanced than it sounds. Because there are so many factors that play into how much to tip a housekeeper, you need to make sure that you understand the entire process. We hope our guide about how to tip a housekeeper has been helpful so that the next time you’re staying at a hotel, you know exactly how much to tip and when to do so!
