Gratuities and tips have long been controversial with regards to travel and dining — to the point of contentiousness from all sides of the issue, as evidenced by the following articles which I wrote for The Gate over the years…
- Should Flight Attendants Receive Tips and Gratuities From Passengers?
- Should Customers Pay Servers By the Hour as a New Concept Pertaining to Tipping and Gratuities?
- Should Gratuities and Tips in Restaurants Be Discontinued?
- Tips and Gratuities: Your Thoughts, Please
- How Much Should You Tip Around The World?
- No Tipping Policy Pared Down at One Restaurant Chain
- Comparing Tipping to Paying Taxes? Get Real…
- When Is a Tip Not a Tip? When It is Mandatory
- Hey, Marriott: I Will Tip When I Darn Well Feel Like It
- Should the Practice of Tipping Be Abolished?
- Tipping the Hotel Maid: Yes or No?
- Tip: Charge the Charge to Tip the Tip Separately From Charging the Tip as a Charge
- Bad Service at a Restaurant: Should You Leave a Tip?
Should Breakfast Attendants at Hotels Receive Tips and Gratuities From Guests?
…but what if you were a paying guest at a hotel property which offered a free continental breakfast buffet — think Hampton Inn, Fairfield Inn or Holiday Inn Express as three examples — and you saw a tip jar displayed prominently in the breakfast area during the hours in the morning when breakfast is available? Would you leave a gratuity?
Thinking that this practice is “very tacky” after noticing tip jars during consecutive stays at two Hampton Inn hotel properties, FlyerTalk member Red Raider LV posted that “Seeing as I serve myself and take out all my trash, I’m not sure what I’m supposed to tip for.”
A policy of guests tipping employees at a hotel property is typically not officially mandated by the lodging company or brand — although Marriott International, Incorporated attempted to encourage customers tipping members of the housekeeping staff at hotel and resort properties by placing envelopes in 160,000 rooms at up to 1,000 hotel properties in the United States and Canada back in the autumn of 2014 — but management at some hotel properties does seem to condone it.
“I probably will never put money in a tip jar, but I travel with $25 gift cards to Walmart and Target, and I have no problem handing those gift cards over to my favorite breakfast ladies as my appreciation for making my day a little bit better” is this suggestion which is offered by FlyerTalk member bitterproffit. “That little gesture makes a huge difference in their week. I don’t feel guilty ignoring a tip jar, nor do I feel I am setting a dangerous precedent by giving one of my Aunties a gift card. Chances are she will spend it on either her kids or her grandkids.”
The attendants at breakfasts where guests serve themselves do set up the area, replenish the food and beverages, clean up the tables, and put everything away when breakfast time is over. Their wages are probably minimum wage — or if more, not much more — and a gratuity or gift card would likely brighten their day…
…but does that start a slippery slope towards an undesirable precedent — or should it be more commonplace?
Summary
I generally agree with FlyerTalk member pinniped, who commented that “I don’t like the tip jars. It’s tacky, and tipping is something that developed economies should be trying to eradicate, not encourage.” In fact — with some exceptions — I am against offering gratuities in general.
When a waitperson at a restaurant or a housekeeper at a hotel property is tipped, it is supposed to be in appreciation for good service when doing their jobs — and waiting on customers and cleaning and maintaining hotel rooms are respectively their primary jobs…
…which is why I typically leave a small gratuity when I partake in a breakfast buffet in a hotel property where I sit at a table at which a waiter or waitress brings out the cutlery, brings me items such as a glass of juice, and cleans the table — but I do not leave a tip at a breakfast buffet in a hotel property where I grab my own paper or styrofoam plate, prepare my own waffle, pour my own juice, fetch my own plastic cutlery, and clean up the area at which I sat when I am finished with eating breakfast. Am I wrong?
For the record, I have never seen a tip jar at any of the hotel properties of the aforementioned brands; but I will ask anyway: should attendants at breakfasts where guests serve themselves be included in the growing list of professions through which personnel should be tipped by customers — or, at least, have a tip jar prominently displayed to encourage gratuities?
All photographs ©2016 and ©2017 by Brian Cohen.
