Do you tip hotel maids? I am not a frequent hotel traveler, but whether or not you tip a hotel maid is a question that many frequent travelers wonder. Asking the question of how much to tip a hotel maid is one with very strong opinions from all sides!
Side note: I originally had a post about how much to tip a hotel maid in my drafts folder for a long time, but was prompted to finish it off after reading this post from a years ago about the “basic rules of tipping” in the Washington Post (H/T: View from the Wing), an article I found extremely irritating. For the record, my personal rules of tipping are: 15-20% at restaurants, ~$1 / pizza if I order delivery (I don’t), nothing when I pickup carryout or eat at fast casual restaurants, nothing if I’m ordering water or pop at a bar and I do tip on the full original price if I have a coupon or gift card.
How much to tip a hotel maid
Okay, so back to the original question of how much to tip a hotel maid.
To me the difference between tipping a restaurant server and everyone else is a matter of wages. Restaurant servers (at least in the United States) specifically get lower than minimum wage and make a good chunk of their income from tips. I’m willing to be educated on this, but it’s my understanding that (setting aside being paid under the table and other extra-legal scenarios) everyone else is paid at least minimum wage. Of course many people feel passionately about the minimum wage itself, but that’s a separate conversation.
(SEE ALSO: Tipping on Amtrak – how much and to whom?)
With that said, if you’re going to tip a hotel maid, many people will suggest $2-3 / day, with higher amounts if it’s a higher-end hotel, or if there are more people in the room, or of course if the service is more than usual.
When I asked over on the Points With a Crew miles and points Facebook group, responses varied with several people stating they did not tip hotel maids, and other responses of how much to tip hotel maids went up to $5-$10 / day
Do you tip hotel maids? I don’t
So, having said that, personally, I don’t tip hotel maids, unless there is something extraordinary going on. Generally, we prefer housekeeping just stay out of our hotel rooms when we stay there (typically we keep the do not disturb sign on our room doors). And when we leave, we basically clean up the room and don’t leave a mess. When I was just at the Hilton Seattle earlier this week (READ: I’m p*****d I didn’t get upgraded), when I left, I put the trash in the trash, the pillows and sheets on the bed, the towels in the bathroom, etc. For my 4 day stay, I only had them come in one time (and then of course again when I checked out)
About the only time I could see leaving a tip for a hotel maid would be for extraordinary damages. Your kid throws up and makes a giant mess, you’re at the beach and you get sand all in the bathtub and over the room, etc.
What about you? How much do you tip a hotel maid? I’m curious to hear your thoughts in the comments
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Dan Miller travels with his wife and 6 (SIX!) children. He loves to help families travel for free / cheap, especially larger families. If you are looking for help, drop him an email at
I’m shocked that so many of the responses are that folks don’t tip unless there’s an extraordinary circumstance. Add this to the reason i tip: to make up for you cheapskates.
Agreed, but can’t say I am surprised by his not tipping.
This coming from a guy who pulls a hissy-fit that the front desk doesn’t tell him he was not upgraded!
SMH.
Tipping is controversial. Does everyone who earn minimum wage deserve a tip for doing their job well?
I thought tipping was essential for those who make a salary of tips. Maybe I should tip my postman and the guy who takes me around in the hospital too.
My pet peeve is cruise ships adding on service fees to the bill for tips. On NCL it’s $27 a day. We had to fill out a form to have it removed.
No, I don’t tip maids. It’s their job to clean the room and they get paid for it. I never got tips when I was working, but I did get a paycheck. I prefer the latter.
Some of my travel is covered by a government grant and tipping the maid is not an “allowable expense.” For this particular grant alcohol isn’t allowed either.
I agree with Hadley! I think you are just cheap! And maybe you shouldn’t get upgraded!
I agree with Hadley! I think you are just cheap. You don’t deserve an upgrade!
What does the room smell like after you and your crew depart?
I always tip a few dollars a day and write a note thanking them for either making my room up or respecting the DND sign.
I’m not really familiar with U.S labor laws, but isn’t a minimum wage actually a minimum wage? How come waiters are paid below it?
Anyway, I tip when getting a full service at a restaurant as this became and norm and I know that the waiter relies on my tip to get through college or save-up for a round-the-world trip.
I won’t tip the restaurant take-out cashier just as I won’t tip the Walmart cashier which I would assume make about the same base salary.
As for hotels, I think the small envelope that Marriott leaves in my room soliciting for cash tips is a disgrace. If they care so much about their maids they would pay them 2$ for every room they clean. I would bet they would still turn a profit from a 250$ nightly rate. I don’t tip the maid as I believe it’s a service I have fully paid the hotel for much like the check-in clerk or the life-guard at the swimming pool.
There’s an exception for waiters (I think that’s about it) – they are allowed to be bapid less than minimum wage because the expectation is that with tips, their income will be above minimum wage (and as other commenters have pointed out, that generally holds)
10-20 years ago, restaurant waiters were about the only people that customarily got tips. Now it seems like EVERYONE is “supposed to” get tips
I’m with you. I’ll tip when the labor laws permit the worker to be paid below minimum wage in recognition that the real income is to be generated by tips. In positions where minimum wage is legally required, the compensation for employment is negotiated entirely between the company and the worker. The customer isn’t a party to the transaction, but rather the customer IS the source of the labor for which the company is paying the worker. It really isn’t my problem if someone accepted a job for a set wage and subsequently thinks they ought to be paid more.
Now, if folks want to take a European tipping approach and leave a buck or two here or there for truly good service, that’s fair enough.
Always a contentious subject but people who argue “I shouldn’t tip, the hotel should pay living wages” are seriously living in a dream world. This may be true in Europe or Australia but in the U.S., with exception of a few major cities, everything is driven by profit and bottom line. For gods sake, there is no guarantee employees get sick/medical leave or anything above minimum wage. In some states, employers can get a credit towards minimum wage if they believe that tips general will help employees exceed minimum wage; eg Texas where server minimum wage is $2 an hour. But yes, please state that it’s the owners responsibility, e.g, Blackstone or a group of banks or REITs to pay fair wages. More often it’s the 3rd party management company.
Then, the argument I know becomes well the housekeepers don’t have to be housekeepers which again comes from a pretentious position of privilege. And yet you will still insist in daily housekeeping and fresh towels and someone else making your bed.
Net, net if you use the service you should try to tip. And for transparency my single mother was a housekeeper and you do not need understand the joy a $10 room tip brought to her day.
Wow, you are really cheap!
I put myself through college by waiting tables and bartending. As a result, I almost never tip less than 20% at restaurants. On a small tab I may leave 25 or 30% if I found the service to be great.
Waitstaff earn half of minimum wage but are required to declare some tip income (rules vary by restaurants, but typically minimum 10% of sales). As a result, the half minimum wage paid by the employer will be completely eaten up (get it?) by taxes. That has just changed with the new tax bill, these tipped workers can now earn tips without being taxed up to a certain amount.
I tip a small amount: 5 ~ 10% depending on size of order on takeout because 1) there is still some work involved from the waitstaff and 2) it’s likely that those sales amount are figured into the minimum they need to declare as tips.
Having said that, I do feel that tipping has gone completely out of control in America. I just returned from my holiday trip. I had to put my dog in a pet hotel, I paid $70 per night for 9 nights + $75 for a pet bath before pickup and they asked for a tip. I gave them $5 on the $700 bill.
I do not typically tip a hotel maid unless I am there multiple nights and/or my family has made a mess of the room. I believe that these workers are paid a real wage.
How do you tip hotel maids if you stay for several days and each day you see different persons cleaning the rooms?
I spent 4 nights in a sleeper room going across country. The attendant is responsible for all people in sleeper cars 24/7. He keeps the toilets and showers clean. I have seen him deliver all meals to families. He helped me on and off the train with my luggage. These guys are the most under tipped people on the train. He had a second job to support his family when not working. I tipped 20 dollars a day. I never saw any one else tipped him.