Marriott hotels placing envelopes in rooms to guilt guests into leaving gratuity

Daily Mail ^ | 15 September 2014 | By Associated Press

[pleasedontzotme]

Sometimes.

[Vermont Lt]

My travel years ago was all corporate. No real needs there...a nice warm bed, clean sheets, etc.

But in the past ten years my business has changed. I need more access to internet services, local equipment needs (photographic and what not) and other more customized stuff. Try stopping a person working in the hall and asking them questions about their area, what is interesting, what are the “off the wall” places.

If you are there for a few days, they become your support staff.

Of course, the concierge gets tipped. But the everyday people taking care of you deserve a little extra now and then.

Again, for the casual user of hotels—the two or three night a year folks, this is probably not an issue. And, the service is going to be good no matter what.

But for a old style “road warrior” the “little things” are apprecaited.

For example, this summer I was on a long motorcycle trip. I had just come from three days/nights in Death Valley. It was easily 120 degrees during the day, 95 at night. When I pulled up to the Marriott in Las Vegas, the guys at the valet parking let me park my bike at the front door for three days. Right beside them. We had a couple of long conversations and I knew that I could have left cash on that motorcycle and it would not have been touched.

The folks taking care of my room were great.

Those guys got tips.

A few days later I was in Midland Texas. The room was a mess. The refrigerator was loud. The chair arm fell off. The woman at the bar was, at best, nasty.

They not only did not get a tip. But my room was eventually comp’d because I wrote a letter to the home office.

I can be a difficult customer. I have high expectations because I spend a ton of money. But, when I have people who are willing and eager to make my business there easier for me...they get good tips.

[DoughtyOne]

I like to get this straight whenever someone uses the minimum wage canard anywhere.

The only canard present here, is one that was buttressed by a leap of logic concerning a message about minimum wages.

Well, I appreciate you trying to get something straight alright.  Here, let me help.  Did I advocate raising the minimum wage across the board in a city, county, region, state, or nation?  No.

Coming unglued because I touch on a specific industry in a specific instance and advocate for better pay, isn't rational.  Beginning to see a little straighter?

1) People are paid the market rate for the production that their labor brings to the corporation. That is unless they receive minimum wage. A minimum wage earner, by definition is paid above their value due to the fact that if an employer could do so legally, he would pay that person less, and in most instances that same employee would accept the lower wage as a tacit acknowledgment that their particular labor is not that valuable to the company.

Okay, then you obviosly honestly believe that the job the housekeeper does is not that valuable to the company.  How may rooms would a hotel rent per night, if they didn't have a housekeeping staff?

Is the housekeeping staff still not valuable to the company?  For many people, the hosuekeeping staff is the staff guests come into contract with the most frequetly.

2) Two people working full time minimum wage jobs with two children at home, live ABOVE the Federal Poverty level. By a lot. It isn't the minimum wage that is the problem, It is after all a starting wage and should be limited to the least employable, as it mostly is. It is the lack of full time jobs in the Obama economy that is killing the workers of America at all economic levels.

I think this is where some Conservatives lose their way.  The housekeeping staff is the largest staff in the hotel.  It's the staff that comes into cotact with the guests the most.  It is your liason to your customers, and yet you scrimp when it comes to paying them.

Let's take a worst case scenario.  A housekeeeper spends about twnety minutes in my room.  They may spend as little as fifteen, perhaps even ten.  Let's go with twenty.  If I'm paying $300 a night for my room, part of it is going to pay my housekeeper.

Let's say a housekeeper is paid $12.00 an hour instead of $8.00.  That's $4 extra dollars an hour.  The additional taken out of my room rentals fee would be $1.33 cents.   In my original post, I addressed $300 dollar a night rooms.  Are you telling me that an increase in housekeeping wages equal to 0.44% of my rental fee is going to destroy the hotel.  Serioiusly?

If we're talking about a $100 dollar a night room, the perentage would be 1.36%.  Here again, is that going to put the hotel out of business?  No.  If that still doesn't convince you, I as a patrion would be more than willing to pay $1.00 extra per night, if I knew it would go towards the Housekeeping staff making a decent living.  That way the percentage increased to the hotel would be 0.11% and 0.33% resepctively.

BTW two full time Minimum wage workers in a household gross $30,160 per year. The Federal poverty level for a household of 4 is $23,850. 126% more than poverty levels.

You earlier talked about a man and woman with two children.  Now you're defending a wage of $30,160 dollars collectively.  I don't care what the government poverty figures are.  That amount of money is not reasoned.  It isn't good for the couple.  It's isn't good for the community they live in.  Tell me which you would prefer, couples making $30,160 dollars per year, or couples making $48,000 dollars per year living in your neighborhood?

3) The minimum wage is the greatest barrier to entry for workers ever devised. It is anti democratic, anti liberty and is on its’ face unconstitutional. A person has the right to contract their labor at any rate they would desire and for any reason they would have to set that rate. It is not unbelievable that a person would even work for free in order to gain experience or show that they are suitable for the job.

First of all, I'm not impressed by anything that is Democratic.   We are a consitutional Republic.

I am not in favor of a formal minimum wage.

I am not in favor of unions.

I am also not in favor of employers squeezing every penny they can out of employees.  There has to be some middle ground.

As for fast food restaurants, the wages are spread over the amount of goods sold per hour.  If the cost of a happy meal goes up by $0.25 cents due to the increase in wages, charge me an extra $0.25 cents for the happy meal.

If you sell 250 burgers an hour, and you use ten employees to do it, then a $12.00 an hour wage vs an $8.00 an hour wage, means you would spend $40 more dollars over that hour.

That's an increase of $0.16 cents per burger.  I'm not going to stop going to my favorite fast food place because they charged me $0.16 cents more per my burder.

Of course it wouldn't just be for the burger, but for the drink, the fries, and the burger.

I think the unions are gaming the public.  People who work in the fast food industry are not going out on strike.  Idle union members are paid to come in an represent a fraud.  We all know it.  None of us should approve.

None the less, I don't think it would hurt as much as some folks think, if wages were increased, the owners and the public paying a little more.

You see, employing Americans with a wage they can live on, does not have to be the negative that some folks claim it has to be.

If I'm going through a drive through picking up food for a family of five, I'm not going to give it a second thought that I might be charged $0.75 cents more total for five meals.

If that employee is earning more money, they will spend it in my community.  The people they spend that money with will have more money to spend.

This isn't a zero sum loss here.

If I spend that $0.75 cents, some of those emplyees are going to be buying my goods too.  I'll make that $0.75 cents back down the road.

I'm not in favor of employers getting taken to the woodshed.  A stong business environment is important.  If we could get the local, state, and federal tax people off businesses backs, they could pay their employees more, the government would bring in more, and our communities would be more.

[The Duke]

And if you don’t tip then you get a complimentary tarantula left in your bed...

[NonValueAdded]

They renamed the Triboro Bridge. Now it’s the Robert F. Kennedy Bridge.

I would NOT want to drive across a bridge named for a Kennedy ... just sayin'.

Love, Mary Jo

[Albion Wilde]

Maria Shriver? What does she have to do with anything?

Maybe if she'd tipped her maid, her maid wouldn't have extorted a child, and child support, out of her household.

[Albion Wilde]

Find a few curly hairs around the toilet and bathtub drain? Place them in the envelope.

[Albion Wilde]

Just to be clear, you might want to tip the maids, but if you leave cash, they probably won’t want to take it in fear of being accused of stealing from guests. I think the envelopes are a good idea for those who may want to tip.

What is a logical, practical and fair-minded suggestion doing here on FR?

[Albion Wilde]

Its beyond shameful that this is something that has been forgotten so much that people need reminded of it.

You are correct. I have traveled so infrequently since 9-11 that it has slipped my mind. If I stay anywhere again, I'll have to remember.

[Larry Lucido]

How much do you tip a chambermaid, anyway?

[Albion Wilde]

I resent being woken up at 7:30am with “..BAM!BAM!BAM!BAM!-Housekeeping!!!...” ... to get these people up and out!... I resent when 2 housekeepers are working the same floor, with a radio blasting Spanish music while they ‘chat’ over it -each one hollering... down the hall to the other.

I think if the conditions you describe are happening at a $120 per night (and up) Marriott, you should write to the corporate management and give the location, since these are legitimate training concerns. If this is happening at the $49 per night Budget Inn, well, you get what you pay for.

[Albion Wilde]

If I followed my dad’s customs, I would leave nothing, or would be arguing that the bill is too high

[Individual Rights in NJ]

My response is, if I don’t tip or otherwise are you saying your company/hotel rents uncleaned rooms?

Is that your business? Renting uncleaned rooms?

I’m not sure I understand....

How about I stay only at hotel chains that cater to their guests from now on. Starwoods are great! Marriotts are outdated crap holes anyway. Never updated, always poor service.

[Albion Wilde]

I would NOT want to drive across a bridge named for a Kennedy ... just sayin'. Love, Mary Jo

Post of the day!

[Graybeard58]

I heard about cruises where tips are included - and I’m going to look into one of those for me and DH for our 25th anniversary next year.

Even on trips where the tip is added to the price of the ticket, service people still have their hand out. If you ask them, they'll tell you that they don't get that money.

[Jim from C-Town]

I think you misunderstood much of what I said as an attack against you.

I also believe you went off on a tangent about hotel rooms and burger joints that had almost nothing to do wit the idea of minimum wages and those that earn them.

BTW: People who earn minimum wage generally don’t live in my neighborhood unless they live with their mommy and daddy.

I generally tip the cleaning crew, but I don’t think it is the responsibility of the hotel owner to pay any more than market rate for labor.

[Individual Rights in NJ]

I don’t carry cash either.

I’ve also never tipped hotel cleaning staff. My parents didn’t teach me because we weren’t rich and we didn’t go on fancy vacations and stay in hotels.

I travel a lot now, and I agree with the posters who state that I’m not sure what we are tipping for, unlike the personalized experience you get with wait staff, bartenders, etc, HamiltonJay’s bullying aside.

[Individual Rights in NJ]

While his opinion is valid, all his posts are just bullying.

Whatever, it is the free market. Do as you please.

I prefer to stay at chains that don’t encourage shaming/shakedowns.

It is kind of part of the experience. Starwoods are a good experience. So are boutique hotels.

[Ingtar]

Do not disturb stops the banging on your door, sometimes. It does not stop the blaring music, the bangs on all the other doors, or the shouting over the blaring music.

[ThePatriotsFlag]

Waste of envelopes. Aren’t those made out of trees? Hmmm, the environmentalists must be solidly against this!