This brings me to hotels, my field of expertise. About 95% of all New York City hotels are unionized under LOCAL 6. The union contract states that any position deemed “a tipped position” (i.e. Waiter, Doorman, Bellman, Valet, Banquet Server, Room Service Attendant) is to be paid 50% of what non-tipped employees such as Engineers, Housekeepers or Security receive as their hourly wage. I get paid under $13 an hour. My weekly check for wages doesn't amount to much over $1,000 (after taxes) per month, which doesn't even cover my half of my rent! (Taxes are extreme if you work in the city limits, not to mention a pack of cigarettes is $15 and a six-pack of beer costs you about the same.) I depend on tips to pay my bills. A non-tipped employee makes over $25 per hour and cashes out at about $3,500 per month after taxes. Not too bad!
A lot of people (normally foreigners) look at this and say (in thick accents) "Aw that’s just bloody awful! Your hotel is cheating you and it shouldn't come upon me to make up for the money they are saving by not paying you a living wage."
"Look sir," I always reply. "This is America, tipping is a standard practice here. Because of that our industries laws have adjusted to that. I didn't make the rules about tipping and how businesses treat their employees here in the U.S., I'm just living with them. If you have a problem with the practice of tipping properly, maybe you shouldn’t have chosen to vacation here. Maybe you should have stayed in Europe.”(Or Asia, or Australia, or etc....)
When it comes to tipping at hotels, I will break it down by job classification.
For Housekeepers, when I check out of my room, I will usually leave a few dollars. If I stayed for an extended period of time and required them to clean the room several times, I will leave a little more. Please remember, in a union house, they are getting paid maximum wages and don't rely on tips to pay their bills. Same goes for anyone who comes to your room to bring you a coffee maker, an extra luggage rack or fresh towels. Whatever singles you have would be appreciated for the effort. Typically, anyone who brings something to your room is getting paid a runners fee of about $2 that will get added to their checks (and taxed.) Leave these folks a little something extra for the effort, but don’t stress too much about it.
Room Service Waiters are also not ones to be extremely generous with. Almost every hotel I know of adds an 18% gratuity to a room service bill as well as a $2-3 delivery fee of which the server typically receives 50%. However, look closely at your bill. If you don't see these charges, you better pay the man.
Now we get to Front of the House Staff. I feel as if I have a PhD in the ways of front of the house hotel tipping etiquette. When I stay at a hotel, I typically aim on spending $20 on tips upon check in, about $30 upon check out. I also feel I am quite biased since I consider them "my people" and tend to over tip them. Depending on whether you drive in or take a taxi you will either be greeted by a valet or a doorman. If it's a valet, give him the keys with a $3-5 tip while the doorman unloads your luggage from the back of the car onto a luggage cart. Don't be an asshole and say that you don't want help. The classic line is, "Oh, we've got it." Or, "don't worry about it, our luggage has wheels." The doorman is there to do the job of welcoming you to the hotel and taking care of you during your stay. Don't insult him by not allowing him to do the job he is there to do just so you don't have to tip him. He will help you inside and get you to the front desk to start checking in and pass you off to the bellman. For this I will typically tip $5-10 dollars depending on whether or not there was a valet and depending on how much luggage I have.
Now once I get checked in, I typically don't tip the front desk agent. Once again, they are most likely getting paid full-scale wages and are not relying on tips. If the person behind the front desk gives me a room upgrade from a king to a suite just because they have suites available, I will definitely give them a little extra for making my stay more enjoyable.
As for the bellman, I will typically tip this guy anywhere from $10-$20. If this guy is personable, smiles a lot and gives me a lot of valuable information, I hook him up. A lot of people ask me how much they should tip a bellman. My typical response is "Well, don't you think that you are going to get a biased answer from a bellman you are about to tip?" just to break the ice a little. "Tipping a bellman is entirely based on the quality of service you receive, the amount of luggage you have, and how much your luggage weighs." Is my professional response.
"If you want a mathematical way of approaching tipping bellmen," I continue to the clueless guest, "you should tip $1 per computer bag, backpack or purse, $2 per suit case or large duffel bag and $5 per box or cooler that you have with you. If you want to get very specific, how about tipping $.10 per pound or $.25 per kilogram on the overall weight of the luggage." If your bag weighs 80lbs, you should tip $8 for it, plain and simple. You can't afford that? Don't pack so much!
As for doormen who get you cabs, I will typically tip $2-5. I give just a little something to say thank you for the effort. To my surprise, I have been tipped $20 before just for hailing a taxi. It sure was nice, but I would never expect that from a guest for simply hailing a taxi.
If you follow my standards of tipping while staying at a (NYC) hotel you will probably tip somewhere between $50-$100 from the time you check in to the time we load all your luggage in the trunk of a cab going to the airport. All in all, your tips should end up being around 10%-20% of your final hotel bill. If you can’t afford that much to take care of the employees who work at the hotel, maybe you should find a hotel that’s about 10%-20% cheaper. Same principle applies to restaurants, if you can’t afford to eat at the Outback Steak House and tip your server; maybe you should head down to Wendy’s.
Anyway, I hope I've cleared things up for anybody wondering proper American tipping etiquette. Any questions? Fire away!!
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