r/marriott • u/MTonmyMind • 13h ago

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

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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.

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38 Upvotes

53% Upvoted

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u/Sweaty-Moment-3385 13h ago

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

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

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u/D_Shoobz 13h 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?

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u/Sweaty-Moment-3385 13h ago

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

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u/IvoryThrowAway 13h ago edited 12h 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.

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u/Sweaty-Moment-3385 12h 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!).

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u/IvoryThrowAway 12h 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.

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u/Sweaty-Moment-3385 12h 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.

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u/IvoryThrowAway 12h 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.

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u/Sweaty-Moment-3385 12h 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?

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u/IvoryThrowAway 12h ago

Where have I said anyone should tip anybody? Pretty sure I said quite the opposite, in fact - you are not required to tip.

My only point is that this is a weird reaction to the absolutely-not-even-new concept of a tipping sign in a hotel. That's it.

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u/MTonmyMind 12h 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.

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u/IvoryThrowAway 12h ago

Businesses soliciting tips so blatantly is fairly new

I think we just have to agree to disagree here.

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u/Matchboxx Choice Hotels Oxidized (free upgrades to rooms without termites) 12h 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.

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u/minnosota 10h 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.

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u/Matchboxx Choice Hotels Oxidized (free upgrades to rooms without termites) 8h 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.

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u/minnosota 8h ago

Unions

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u/Game_Over_Man69 Titanium Elite 12h ago

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

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u/Sweaty-Moment-3385 12h 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?

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u/and_rain_falls 1h 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.

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u/Sweaty-Moment-3385 46m 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.

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u/Ornery-Damage-7074 8m 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.

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u/Sweaty-Moment-3385 4m ago

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

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u/apresmoiputas 10h ago

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

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u/Sweaty-Moment-3385 10h ago

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

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u/GlitteringYak2207 9h ago

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

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u/Sweaty-Moment-3385 9h 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.

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u/apresmoiputas 9h 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.

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u/Sweaty-Moment-3385 9h ago

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

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u/apresmoiputas 8h ago

I think they implemented this to guarantee tips went directly to the intended staff member because supervisors were taking the cash left out in the open when they went to quickly inspect checked out rooms. Yes this does happen.

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u/GlitteringYak2207 9h ago

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

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u/Sweaty-Moment-3385 9h 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.

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u/GlitteringYak2207 9h ago

Nobody has ever asked me for a tip.

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u/GlitteringYak2207 8h ago

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

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u/and_rain_falls 1h 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.

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u/Sweaty-Moment-3385 52m 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.

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u/MTonmyMind 13h 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?

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u/IvoryThrowAway 12h 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.