Dear Etiquetteer:
This isn't really etiquette, but I’m curious. When you stay at a hotel, do you give a cash tip to the person who brings the meal to your room? The hotel I’m staying at charges a 20% gratuity and $5 delivery fee. But I still think I should give $10 or something to the bellhop who brings it.
I think hotel service workers are waaaaaay underpaid, and I was predisposed to giving a cash tip for the person who brings the meal. When the staffer came with the tray, she had one of those handheld machines for charging the bill, and it included an option to add a tip of $7, $8, and $10. (That’s about 15%, 17%, and 20%.) I had some cash in my pocket ready to go, but I asked her if that tip goes directly to her and she said it did, so I added a tip on right there.
Is it the right thing to do or is it just that I feel like a real cheapskate if I don’t give the staff something. What's your take on this?
Dear Tipping:
Opinions vary, but in a hotel, if they are already billing you a gratuity and a delivery fee in which you have no say, Etiquetteer would say that absolutely counts for the tip, and that it’s not necessary to provide a cash gratuity in addition. Not everyone feels that way — they value expressing personal appreciation with a cash tip to the staff actually performing the service — and Etiquetteer will not stand in the way of that.
Etiquetteer considered your use of restaurant tipping percentages for a room service delivery extremely generous, but apparently that is now the norm according to Travel and Leisure. And incidentally, it’s very wise to ask if a hotel employee personally receives a gratuity that’s added via credit card. Employers have a long history of skimming tips, including Sherman Billingsley at the famous Stork Club. Tips for the coat check girls went into a slot that led to a locked box; the contents went straight to the boss, not the girls*.
Etiquetteer wishes you enjoyable travel with reliable and courteous service.
*Etiquetteer promises this is somewhere in Ralph Blumenthal’s The Stork Club, but just cannot find the reference.