Do you tip hotel maids? I am not a frequent hotel traveler, but whether or not you tip a hotel maid is a question that many frequent travelers wonder. Asking the question of how much to tip a hotel maid is one with very strong opinions from all sides!
Side note: I originally had a post about how much to tip a hotel maid in my drafts folder for a long time, but was prompted to finish it off after reading this post from a years ago about the “basic rules of tipping” in the Washington Post (H/T: View from the Wing), an article I found extremely irritating. For the record, my personal rules of tipping are: 15-20% at restaurants, ~$1 / pizza if I order delivery (I don’t), nothing when I pickup carryout or eat at fast casual restaurants, nothing if I’m ordering water or pop at a bar and I do tip on the full original price if I have a coupon or gift card.
How much to tip a hotel maid
Okay, so back to the original question of how much to tip a hotel maid.
To me the difference between tipping a restaurant server and everyone else is a matter of wages. Restaurant servers (at least in the United States) specifically get lower than minimum wage and make a good chunk of their income from tips. I’m willing to be educated on this, but it’s my understanding that (setting aside being paid under the table and other extra-legal scenarios) everyone else is paid at least minimum wage. Of course many people feel passionately about the minimum wage itself, but that’s a separate conversation.
(SEE ALSO: Tipping on Amtrak – how much and to whom?)
With that said, if you’re going to tip a hotel maid, many people will suggest $2-3 / day, with higher amounts if it’s a higher-end hotel, or if there are more people in the room, or of course if the service is more than usual.
When I asked over on the Points With a Crew miles and points Facebook group, responses varied with several people stating they did not tip hotel maids, and other responses of how much to tip hotel maids went up to $5-$10 / day
Do you tip hotel maids? I don’t
So, having said that, personally, I don’t tip hotel maids, unless there is something extraordinary going on. Generally, we prefer housekeeping just stay out of our hotel rooms when we stay there (typically we keep the do not disturb sign on our room doors). And when we leave, we basically clean up the room and don’t leave a mess. When I was just at the Hilton Seattle earlier this week (READ: I’m p*****d I didn’t get upgraded), when I left, I put the trash in the trash, the pillows and sheets on the bed, the towels in the bathroom, etc. For my 4 day stay, I only had them come in one time (and then of course again when I checked out)
About the only time I could see leaving a tip for a hotel maid would be for extraordinary damages. Your kid throws up and makes a giant mess, you’re at the beach and you get sand all in the bathtub and over the room, etc.
What about you? How much do you tip a hotel maid? I’m curious to hear your thoughts in the comments
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Dan Miller travels with his wife and 6 (SIX!) children. He loves to help families travel for free / cheap, especially larger families. If you are looking for help, drop him an email at 
I’m shocked that so many of the responses are that folks don’t tip unless there’s an extraordinary circumstance. Add this to the reason i tip: to make up for you cheapskates.
please do not tip to make up for others’ cheapness. Rather, I’d prefer that wages be set appropriately
In an ideal world, sure! But this world is far from ideal, and in the meantime — I tip.
Yes, tip at the cheapskate Trump, Sheldon Adelson and Vegas hotel resorts, where the fat cats at the top rake in the dough while the sheeple in the rooms feel guilty about the exploitation of the staff, and so they tip, cuz they feel pressured to do so — making it possible for the Trumpistas to consolidate wealth even more so at the top….
Only thing worse is reading the tripadvisor comments of visitors (and shills for management) to the “all-inclusive” resorts who berate those of us who take seriously that those are supposed to be… “all-inclusive” — including gratuity. (a real problem esp. with the Wyndham/Viva brands)
I think the Hotel should pay the wages of all employee.
It’s the hotel owners that are cheap, not their guests. Pay your employees what they deserve!
Agreed, but can’t say I am surprised by his not tipping.
This coming from a guy who pulls a hissy-fit that the front desk doesn’t tell him he was not upgraded!
SMH.
Tipping is controversial. Does everyone who earn minimum wage deserve a tip for doing their job well?
I thought tipping was essential for those who make a salary of tips. Maybe I should tip my postman and the guy who takes me around in the hospital too.
My pet peeve is cruise ships adding on service fees to the bill for tips. On NCL it’s $27 a day. We had to fill out a form to have it removed.
No, I don’t tip maids. It’s their job to clean the room and they get paid for it. I never got tips when I was working, but I did get a paycheck. I prefer the latter.
Norma,
You are extraordinary. When folks on cruise ships had assigned cabin stewards and assigned wait staff for an entire cruise, gratuities paid directly to them were quite customary. NCL has assigned cabin stewards, but now has “Freestyle Cruising”, where restaurant wait staff is not assigned, hence the per diem gratuities.
Yes, its a bit phony, and I am left to wonder what the staff sees of the service fees, but it is part of what is rather a social contract that you pay it.
I hope (1) never to serve you and (2) if I do, that I know about it so I can spit on your food.
Some of my travel is covered by a government grant and tipping the maid is not an “allowable expense.” For this particular grant alcohol isn’t allowed either.
Amy,
Does your grant provide for set, per diem, “Meals and Incidental Expenses”?
As a federal employee, I too cannot recover room tips, but the calculation of M&IE assumes modest gratuities. Dunno about your situation, but if you are getting per diem, it is presumed that appropriate gratuities are included.
I am assuming that you normally eat 2-3 meals a day when at home. Yes, it may be cheaper than eating out. For whatever reason, when you are working, somebody else PAYS for your meals. Maybe you could take some of that savings and tip the appropriate people.
Blaming the “non-tip” on the rules of your grant is downright pathetic. If you do not want to tip, then don’t tip.
I agree with Hadley! I think you are just cheap! And maybe you shouldn’t get upgraded!
I agree with Hadley! I think you are just cheap. You don’t deserve an upgrade!
What does the room smell like after you and your crew depart?
I always tip a few dollars a day and write a note thanking them for either making my room up or respecting the DND sign.
Oh dear…racking em up huh? Inciting people to take bags off during an emergency. Bragging you don’t tip extremely hard working, very low wage workers cleaning your toilets from the wee hours into the night. Bragging you eat McDonald’s all around the world, contributing to a despicable company. Etc etc
You don’t strike me as a super likeable person. I think also you’re finding a niche perhaps of controversial posts to get clicks?
off topic – nowadays if there is someone alive behind a counter that takes your to-go order there is a tip line on the receipt. i dont remember when this started, 5,6 years ago? i dont personally think it’s appropriate, I dont tip for to-go order. ok to be a cheapskate, no tipping will not make the society worse off either way.
If you can afford to travel, surely you can afford to tip the maid. (That goes especially for those of us who are so adept at getting free rooms.) During a weeklong stay at a five-star resort, I asked the maid if most guests tip and she claimed they did not. If true, that’s pretty pathetic.
I have room service come every few days. For example two days in a row I will leave the DND sign but the third day I will have room service come and freshen up the room. I will leave them $2-$3. Then I will have the DND sign up again for a couple of days. The room isn’t messy when room service comes in, but I tip.
I generally tip housekeeping. However I’ve always wondered how best to do this – at the end of stay or daily?
I’ve normally just tipped once at the end of stay (usually around $5 per night) but obviously could be a problem if different maids make up room on different days.
I also tip the fine folk at the executive lounges – usually around $20 per day. More if they’re helping me with printing and copying.
I wish there was a way I could just charge these tips to my room account.
I leave $5 and a thank you note every day. I sometimes make requests on the note, too… please leave me a toothbrush and toothpaste, extra towels, wine glasses, etc. I still pick up after myself and don’t leave a huge mess.
Theses people (usually women) work hard for very little money.
I live in Vegas and often eat the $6.99 breakfast buffet because it’s cheaper than Denny’s and has a lot more choices.
I always leave a $5 tip.
I’m not sure if they get minimum wage or not , but my guess is they get a little more. After all, all they do is bring you drinks.
It’s $5 because I rarely carry cash, certainly no change, and unlikely any $1 bills.
If I only have a $10 bill they hit the jackpot.
The point of this is if you frequent a place, you are going to get much better service when you are known as a good tipper.
Hotel maids? Never.
I’m not really familiar with U.S labor laws, but isn’t a minimum wage actually a minimum wage? How come waiters are paid below it?
Anyway, I tip when getting a full service at a restaurant as this became and norm and I know that the waiter relies on my tip to get through college or save-up for a round-the-world trip.
I won’t tip the restaurant take-out cashier just as I won’t tip the Walmart cashier which I would assume make about the same base salary.
As for hotels, I think the small envelope that Marriott leaves in my room soliciting for cash tips is a disgrace. If they care so much about their maids they would pay them 2$ for every room they clean. I would bet they would still turn a profit from a 250$ nightly rate. I don’t tip the maid as I believe it’s a service I have fully paid the hotel for much like the check-in clerk or the life-guard at the swimming pool.
There’s an exception for waiters (I think that’s about it) – they are allowed to be bapid less than minimum wage because the expectation is that with tips, their income will be above minimum wage (and as other commenters have pointed out, that generally holds)
10-20 years ago, restaurant waiters were about the only people that customarily got tips. Now it seems like EVERYONE is “supposed to” get tips
As a rule I leave $4-5 per night and write a note saying thank you for taking care of me. I never have them come into the room during my stay but I leave something when I check out because I look at that big room and think of how much work they have to do in a short amount of time. However if I’m in and out in one night I might not leave anything. I drink a lot of coffee and usually need to call housekeeping to bring me extra packs and I always hand them $5 when they bring it to my room.
Tipping has got insane! Pull up to the hotel, tip the taxi driver, tip the guy who wheels your luggage to the desk, tip the bellhop who shows you your room. tip the maid, tip the waitress, then tip most again when leaving.
The maid in Vegas told me she gets $20/hour plus tips, and lives quite well, so if they haven’t done anything special, I don’t feel guilty if I don’t tip.
Depends how long the stay. Less than 5 nights chances are I didn’t use their services. I had asked for towels but no bed made. More nights than that 1-2/Day.
I’m with you. I’ll tip when the labor laws permit the worker to be paid below minimum wage in recognition that the real income is to be generated by tips. In positions where minimum wage is legally required, the compensation for employment is negotiated entirely between the company and the worker. The customer isn’t a party to the transaction, but rather the customer IS the source of the labor for which the company is paying the worker. It really isn’t my problem if someone accepted a job for a set wage and subsequently thinks they ought to be paid more.
Now, if folks want to take a European tipping approach and leave a buck or two here or there for truly good service, that’s fair enough.
Many hotels and resorts base maid pay on number of rooms cleaned and have been using the covid measure of staying out of rooms during stays to reduce maid staff and hours. I can afford to travel, so I always leave a tip of at least $3 for room or around $10 for a suite with a note of gratitude every day, even though I’m an extremely neat traveler. It’s a tip, not a wage, but treating staff well is a matter of personal pride and respect for the dignity of their work.
I picked up several $2 bills from my local bank recently. I leave a $2 bill on the corner of the bed when I check out. I also give the free continental breakfast server a $2 tip.
The author of this article is a cheap bastard. He wrote, “I put the trash in the trash, the pillows and sheets on the bed, the towels in the bathroom, etc.” As opposed to where exactly?? Putting trash IN the trash bin doesn’t exclude you from having to keep housekeeping. He writes that, “we prefer housekeeping just stay out of our hotel rooms.” And yet you had housekeeping coming once during your last three night stay at a Hilton? Don’t be so stingy. Tip the housekeeping. Read the book Nickel & Dimed if you need to know why. Lead by example, pal.
While I agree completely about the tipping culture in the USA having run amok, making someone who has a heavy, difficult, and largely thankless job suffer because you’re being cheap is wrong. You don’t have to leave fat stacks of cash but it’s like eating out: if you can’t afford the tip, don’t go.
I often see a different maid on different days of my longer stay, during a week stay I frequently see more than two different maids. Is my experience unique? How would you tip under such circumstances?
Zero. This does not require an essay. Hotels need to pay their employees fairly. Maid work is not a job that historically deserves tips. It’s not my job to gross up comp because owners are cheap.
@Boraxo — All hand soap aside, could you explain how *not* tipping a maid is going to make hotels pay their employees fairly?
I was staying at orlando disney world.
I left a 5 dollar bill on the bed but the housekeeper didn’t take it and put it on the night table. So I called the front desk and asked why the housekeeper didn’t accept it. It’s their policy. Since then I have never tipped.
No way. Didn’t happen.
I’m a military brat grew up watching my folks not tipping at all. So I don’t tip at all unless the law says I should.
In what jurisdiction does the law say you MUST tip?
I’m a law abiding citizen. therefore, I don’t tip.