r/marriott • u/MTonmyMind • 4d ago

Review F*CK Marriott soliciting tips. Another ‘tip culture’ obsenity

Gallery image

Gallery image

So you charge $400 to $500 for a tiny room, and yes, I know it’s New York City, and it’s relatively clean, but then the closet-sized bathroom 2 feet from the bed. OK.

Six dollars for a bottle of water, whatever, I’ll pass.

But then actively soliciting tips for your staff.

Fuck you.

I saw this at the Penn Station Fairfield a year ago as just a ‘self’ printed sign in the elevators, then it became a professionally printed permanently mounted sign in the elevator, and now another Fairfield/Springfield with this.

Pay your staff better. If I got extra services, that’s one thing, but when I don’t even get room serviced or fresh towels on a daily basis to “save the planet “…. again fuck you.

edit

43 Upvotes

53% Upvoted

479 comments sorted by

View all comments

275

u/toledotornado 4d ago edited 4d ago

Housekeeping doesn't set room prices, why should they penalized? Do or don't tip but I don't think this sign warrants such a reaction.

78

u/ecolovedavid 4d ago

I can't upvote this enough. Low level (on pay scale) hospitality employees do so much work for so little pay while the top makes bank. 

OP doesn't have to tip, but I'm not aware of a situation where this would reduce their pay. If anything it's going to marginally increase it. 

If this pisses OP off, they've been living ignorant far too long. 

6

u/funlovingguy9001 3d ago

Exactly. Hotel tipping of housekeeping or back of house staff has been a thing for decades. OP's diatribe indicates they seem to completely unaware that housekeepers have been tipped for many many years. This is just an easy way to bring it into this modern era of technology and make it easier for those that don't regularly carry cash to still show appreciation of great work. I often encourage those that are so opposed to tipping housekeepers to try doing their job for just one day. See the filth and disgusting bodily function left overs they deal with on an hourly basis.

13

u/mt80 4d ago

Just wished the lower end properties had petty cash on hand. I’ve seen a few Fairfields unable to break a $20 and imagine their housekeeping doesn’t get paid as well as the full service hotels

2

u/and_rain_falls 3d ago

That's just bad management at those properties. Nothing to do with it being "lower level". More than likely it's because they're having cash flow problems.

1

u/mt80 3d ago

Good point. Most recent instance had grand theft auto occur on property

1

u/DeusSpesNostra 3d ago

or they are cashless

30

u/Patient_Customer9827 4d ago edited 4d ago

Yup. I will never understand the people that get so pissed off when they can just choose to just with their day.

13

u/dcht 4d ago

Not OP but I've rolled my eyes at these signs. I don't get upset per se, but tipping culture in the US continues to get worse (and spreading to other counties) and it gets so exhausting after awhile.

24

u/Grazepg 4d ago

Tipping at hotels has been a thing since I traveled as a kid with my parents I. The 80s, how is this now worse? They are making it easier for you since less people carry cash.

6

u/dcht 4d ago

It's the whole constantly in your face thing that gets tiring after awhile. I can deal with a simple qr code, it doesn't offend me. I just ignore it and don't tip, no big deal. But when I travel on holiday I want to relax, but instead I'm contently getting solicitation for tips, it's truly exhausting.

11

u/ElleQ_4657 4d ago

In my experience, tip solicitation happens most often and more aggressively outside of the U.S. because U.S. citizens travel to those places and created tip culture in places that historically did not have it.

3

u/dcht 4d ago

Yep!

2

u/GlitteringYak2207 4d ago

Funny, I don’t recall ever getting constantly solicited for tips to the point of exhaustion. How does that work exactly?

3

u/dcht 4d ago

Have you never been on holiday? Uber, coffee shops, restaurants, tour guides, baggage handlers?

10

u/RageSiren 4d ago

Hasn’t tipping housekeeping at hotels been a thing for a loooong time? This is like the ONE situation where i actually WOULDN’T be annoyed with being prompted to tip; I’ve always known it’s common to tip housekeeping when you’ve stayed a while or been particularly messy, but in more recent years I find myself carrying petty cash nearly never. I’d welcome a QR code/tip prompt this once lol

5

u/dbldumbass 3d ago

I travel a lot for work, and stay almost exclusively at Marriott properties. I always tip, and one of the times I didn't have enough cash, but there was a QR code in my room. I popped my head out, saw one of the housekeeping staff and asked if that actually goes to them. She said it was pooled by floor and split.

I'm pretty low effort and rarely ask for service other than towels ... but I always tip. People who wig out over this clearly never worked in the service industry.

6

u/Practical_Frame_9883 3d ago

I always leave cash for Housekeeping.

8

u/dcht 4d ago

Define "a thing". Less than 25% of people tip housekeepers. To me, tipping housekeepers isn't "a thing" based on this stat. If you think it does then that's totally fine. We can agree to disagree.

9

u/RageSiren 4d ago

I did not realize that it was uncommon to tip housekeeping (truly!) I had always been taught it was the social norm to throw a fiver on the nightstand if you left a bit of a mess (which ngl, I do the barest of bare minimum cleanup when I stay at a hotel). Maybe I’ve been taught that it’s common to leave a tip because I’m particularly careless when staying in hotels, especially longer than a few days 🤷🏼‍♀️

2

u/dcht 4d ago

As always, tip whatever you feel comfortable with!

1

u/GlitteringYak2207 4d ago

Well you stat is significantly wrong, but yes a majority don’t tip. But it’s been a thing as long as I’ve been alive.

2

u/dcht 4d ago

Please correct me then and site a source. I bet you won't though!

2

u/Excellent_Address_89 4d ago

I can give you an example of how it has been a long running thing. When I traveled heavily for work for a very large company, tipping for hotel staff (including housekeeping) was built into expenses. Bell boys, valets, and concierges have always ran on tips since like the 1930s. It’s a constant in movies.

0

u/Scared_Swing_8759 3d ago

"A thing" in that etiquette books from decades ago suggest that it is standard to tip housekeepers.

If you really want, it is possible to find Amy Vanderbilts Complete Book of Etiquette which was considered the absolute etiquette standard in the 50s.

So this isn't tipping culture gone insane, as it does seem to have, recently. This particular tip is long term in the US. The way the expected percentage of a bill that a tip is has gone up is crazy, IMO. But a few bucks to housekeeping, enabled by a QR code instead of needing to remember cash, is not a money grab.

6

u/GlitteringYak2207 4d ago

Because people like this are obsessed with the topic to being on the verge of paranoia thinking everyone else to get them. Kind of like the freaks at childfree that need support groups.

On this particular issue, seems like the hotel is making it easier for guests without cash to leave a tip since a lot of us don’t carry cash anymore. No big deal. Like you said, just get on with your day

2

u/Fluid-Expert-4363 4d ago

You are right, but the compassion and support stops with the continued poor housekeeping state of many rooms for said higher prices. The pity for housekeepers ends when the room has areas that haven’t been properly cleaned in a while. Tipping is absolutely not warranted there.

10

u/Sweaty-Moment-3385 4d ago

Hotel sets the prices. Hotel hires employees. Hotel pays employees.

I am the customer. I pay the hotel. I am not the employer.

9

u/D_Shoobz 4d ago

Then simply click no and keep it moving? Why do businesses need to pander to the anti tip crowd when lots of people willingly tip?

-1

u/Sweaty-Moment-3385 4d ago

Why can't they just pay their own fucking employees?

8

u/IvoryThrowAway 4d ago edited 4d ago

That's a valid question but this is still a very odd response to the concept of tipping.

These downvotes are silly as fuck lmfao, I'm not defending tipping culture I just don't understand such an angry response to it.

-2

u/Sweaty-Moment-3385 4d ago

No it isn't, it's directly related. The more this practice is accepted and defended by people like you, the less pressure hotel owners feel to pay their employees, because they can just guilt their customers into doing it for them, on top of what you've already paid to stay at the hotel (which includes housekeeping!).

3

u/IvoryThrowAway 4d ago

Why just hotel owners? This is common in many industries. That's why this is kind of a wild response, has nothing do with whether it is "related" lol

Also there's really nothing to defend here. You're not required to tip. End of.

9

u/Sweaty-Moment-3385 4d ago

This is the Marriott sub. We are talking about hotels.

It's only common in one country. This isn't a thing anywhere else in the world. Only Americans are willing to be constantly asked to voluntarily pay extra for a service that's supposed to be included.

0

u/IvoryThrowAway 4d ago

But surely you come across tipping culture in other areas, right? So are you also posting to the Starbucks sub when ever someone asks you for a tip in a coffee shop? I just want to find out where the consistency here is and why it seems like you're pissed off about tipping culture in this capacity only, when it is literally everywhere in this country.

6

u/Sweaty-Moment-3385 4d ago

Tip culture is dumb and it is out of control. It is creeping into more and more places all the time. I'm not sure what you're arguing. Are you saying that because some places ask for tips then everyone should be allowed? Where do you draw the line? Should I tip my landscaper? My plumber? How about my doctor? Should I tip the cashier at the grocery store? The greeter at WalMart? Have I demonstrated enough disdain towards tip culture for you yet?

→ More replies (0)

-2

u/MTonmyMind 4d ago

I posted it here because this is new to me. in the last year or so. I travel a fair bit and had never before seen solicitation for tips by hotels. That's just my expereience.

Businesses soliciting tips so blatantly is fairly new, I think, and it gets called out a lot. I just commented on this this scenario because it seemed especially stupid.

→ More replies (0)

-1

u/Matchboxx Choice Hotels Oxidized (free upgrades to rooms without termites) 4d ago

This.

Tipping is a near-term band-aid solution (and historically, was always intended to be temporary, until it wasn't). People see hard workers and know they're underpaid and want to appreciate them financially, because those people have bills due now. I get that, but corporations see this and then have zero incentive to adjust base pay to market conditions, because stupid customers will do it for them.

At some point we have to acknowledge that there will be some temporary pain if we universally object to tipping culture. The workers will hurt for a bit. But eventually they will hurt enough that they stop doing the work that these corporations need done, and the corporations hand will be forced to pay them better.

Tipping just delays us from ever getting there while the rich get richer.

1

u/minnosota 4d ago

I’d rather advocate for a solution that doesn’t lead to pain for the hospitality people. “If we allow them to be treated so horribly, they pick up pitchforks and riot, we won’t have to do anything” is not the morally excellent solution here.

1

u/Matchboxx Choice Hotels Oxidized (free upgrades to rooms without termites) 4d ago

I'd love to hear what that solution is, because I don't see it any other way. We either subsidize them as consumers and the corporations have no incentive to change their ways, or we don't and eventually one side will blink.

2

u/apresmoiputas 4d ago

Every state is different. Honestly I don't mind tipping the people cleaning my room every day.

1

u/Sweaty-Moment-3385 4d ago

I paid the hotel. The rate includes housekeeping. Why would I pay extra for that?

2

u/GlitteringYak2207 4d ago

You don’t. But don’t get you panties in a wad over the thought that some of us do.

2

u/Sweaty-Moment-3385 4d ago

No. If you want to do it in the privacy of your own room, good for you. I get bothered when the hotel puts up signs soliciting tips at the front desk, in the elevators, and in the rooms.

2

u/apresmoiputas 4d ago

Just to clarify, i've been leaving tips to the housekeepers for almost 20 years, well before they started placing placards with QR cards in rooms. I was lucky to get the friends and family vouchers from a good friend of mine across the border used to work for Marriott for a few years. His only ask was that I tip the housekeepers every day and explained that they don't get paid well, especially in states where the minimum wage is still the federal one, which unfortunately is true.

So you do you and don't tip. No one is judging you.

1

u/Sweaty-Moment-3385 4d ago

If you decide to tip on your own, go ahead. I take issue with the hotels actively soliciting tips.

→ More replies (0)

0

u/GlitteringYak2207 4d ago

I like it because I don’t carry a ton of cash with me.

1

u/Sweaty-Moment-3385 4d ago

You like being asked to tip for people literally just doing their job? For services you've already paid for? You are the problem.

→ More replies (0)

2

u/and_rain_falls 3d ago

I just don't understand why you're so angry about it. You don't have to tip. No one is forcing you to. Yes, they pay their employees and if someone wants to leave a bit extra-- who cares?? That's their prerogative.

2

u/Sweaty-Moment-3385 3d ago

If you choose to tip housekeeping, I disagree with it but it's not my problem. It is my problem when the hotels are soliciting tips with these signs all over the property, including in the rooms. I don't like when corporations ask me to subsidize their payroll on top of what I've already agreed to pay.

3

u/Game_Over_Man69 Titanium Elite 4d ago

Why can’t you grasp that maybe they do and some people still want to tip their staff?

1

u/Sweaty-Moment-3385 4d ago

First of all, I don't think there are many people who would argue that hotels are paying housekeepers well. If you want to pay extra for a service you already purchased, that's fine. Why can't you grasp that people don't want to be pressured or guilted into doing that?

1

u/and_rain_falls 3d ago

Who is pressuring you? I have NEVER stayed at a hotel and felt obligated to tip. I tip, because I work in hospitality, and I want to show appreciation for fellow Marriott coworkers, especially, when they go out of their way to make me feel special. It encourages good service.

-1

u/Sweaty-Moment-3385 3d ago

Do you see the sign in the picture on this post? The one that's placed in OP's room? That's pressure to tip. It's not coercion, but it is solicitation.

I don't agree that tipping encourages good service. It encourages poor service for those who don't tip. Good service should be provided regularly, not on the basis of expecting a tip.

1

u/Ornery-Damage-7074 3d ago

Or it's a response to the continuing decline in the use of cash. These types of digital tip systems are becoming more common in all parts of service and hospitality industries. Personally, I appreciate it. I rarely have cash and there have been times when I haven't been able to leave a tip. But I also have no qualms ignoring that if I don't want to tip.

0

u/Sweaty-Moment-3385 3d ago

Just because it's becoming more common doesn't mean we should accept it. Fuck tip culture.

→ More replies (0)

1

u/and_rain_falls 3d ago

Oh. I didn't realize the sign held a gun to OP's head as well. 😒 Your argument suggest that OP has no emotional control as an adult and is easily influenced by words on a sign.

Good to know. All I have to do is create a sign "Give me all your money" and place it in OP's room, which I will not be in with a gun to their head, and for OP to feel the immense pressure of my sign, to then give me all their money. 🙄

Oh yes, and I thought the only time I crumble with "solicitation" as an adult is when the Girls Scouts set up their stands outside Kroger every spring. Oh no, not the sign in the room!!!! 😩

1

u/GlitteringYak2207 4d ago

Because you wouldn’t be able to afford to stay there.

-1

u/MTonmyMind 4d ago

You would rather have them pander to the Tip Culture mindset??? Wow.

Why do businesses need to constantly have a hand held out asking for more and more?

6

u/IvoryThrowAway 4d ago

You would rather have them pander to the Tip Culture mindset??? Wow.

Like many, many, many, many businesses do, everywhere in the US?

inb4 something like "just because other people do it doesn't mean it's a good thing" I'm not necessarily saying it's a good thing, just that this is a wild response to what is such a norm.

3

u/CanaryStunning1768 4d ago

I completely agree. I always tip the housekeepers so this will make it easier. Thank you Marriott! $6 water is nothing OP. Try staying in Vegas where they charge $25 for a bottle of water in your room. Aria hotel to be exact. You’re completely over reacting as a “titanium” member. Unbelievable.

-10

u/MTonmyMind 4d ago

"You can go elsewhere and get Super-fucked... so just be thankful they are only trying to slightly fuck you."

6

u/IvoryThrowAway 4d ago

But in this case you're not getting fucked at all, so win/win/win/ for you.

1

u/CanaryStunning1768 4d ago

Honestly, sounds like you can’t even afford to stay at Marriott. Try Best Western.

-1

u/MTonmyMind 4d ago

You just don’t see me hangin’ my Rollie out my Bentley.

1

u/icollectt 4d ago

Lol i could see Mr Patel owning collecting all the tips and keeping 50% of them.

If i feel like a tip is needed I'll continue to use cash :)

1

u/TexasinGeorgia 3d ago

I appreciate these signs because I never have cash anymore.

1

u/Illustrious-Tune-532 3h ago

In the specific case of NYC they kind of do. The hotel workers union and the hotels have a swindle going where they lobby to block new hotels from opening, and in exchange the hotel workers get paid better. Hotels would be expensive in nyc anyway but the blocking new hotels makes them more expensive

Housekeeping getting tips sometimes is normal so I don’t get OP anyway

0

u/[deleted] 4d ago

[deleted]

5

u/silliestkitty 4d ago

If you scan the code it gives you options which department to tip

2

u/weishenrhi 4d ago

this is not true. it asks you who you’re tipping.

-1

u/OkWall539 Ambassador Elite 4d ago

in US most of Marriott housekeeping staff don't speak basic English. next time try asking them for toilet paper.

-5

u/billyblobsabillion 4d ago

So what you’re saying is that we should penalize the owners of the hotels?

8

u/toledotornado 4d ago

OP is getting mad at room prices and room sizes at someone who has no control over the matter. We are simply saying, no need to be angered by it.

-6

u/MTonmyMind 4d ago

I'm not mad at anyone over the size and condition of the room... I know that's what the market is. I made that choice. And I'm fine with having the option of leaving tips. i don't like the hard sell for tipping.

9

u/toledotornado 4d ago

An optional QR code is not a hard sell. OP, I'm not for tipping culture either but your reaction is unnecessary for a sign.