Complimentary breakfast plus a gratuity

[JBloggs]

We recently stayed at a BnB in another state. It was in this old motorlodge turned BnB. The owners took ugly and made it funky, and somehow it worked. The grounds, the rooms, all very unique and eclectic. Included in your stay was the other half of the B - breakfast. They had a fine dining restaurant, so in the morning you wandered in for coffee and breakfast (which was complimentary). In the room book and check in form you signed it mentioned that breakfast is complimentary and that tipping is customary.
To us this may seem odd, but to larger BnB's it works. They have hired staff cooking and serving the meals. So just like at any restaurant with good service you tip well, the same applied here.
It was cook's choice and we were served a delicious plate of scramb eggs, bacon, home fries, fresh fruit and a pecan pancake. The server came around and asked if we wanted seconds and refilled coffee like at any restaurant.
If you have hired help do you suggest tipping? I mean, this server was not there for the fun of it, and to tip seemed totally normal in this situation. The breakfast was great. Served hot and fresh.

 

[egoodell]

I don't feel comfortable asking for tips. Even though both DH and I worked in the restaurant biz. He always got and still on the wine tours gets great tips and we don't ask for it. We tell them if they ask about tipping that we're the owners, and often they still tip us anyway.
On the other hand, when you have a group at a restaurant or in any form, I feel a tip should be automatically added and the group informed of it. When people are in groups they are much more difficult to serve and don't customarily tip as they should.
RIki

 

[JBloggs]

This is a place with many rooms. So you hire a server and do not let her accept tips? I am not speaking or a reg size BnB 6 rooms or less.

 

[egoodell]

This is a place with many rooms. So you hire a server and do not let her accept tips? I am not speaking or a reg size BnB 6 rooms or less..

This is a place with many rooms. So you hire a server and do not let her accept tips? I am not speaking or a reg size BnB 6 rooms or less.

No, that's not what I said. I don't like the notes that many hotels and small B&Bs put out for tips. If the guest wants to tip more power to them.
But I don't like being asked for it. I know some put envelopes in B&B rooms stating, "Cindy Lou is taking care of your room and if you would like to leave her something..."
Riki

 

[happyjacks]

"If you have hired help do you suggest tipping?"
"So you hire a server and do not let her accept tips?"
You're asking about two different things: suggesting tips and accepting tips.
We've talked about suggesting tips for housekeepers, but not for breakfast servers. In the example you give, it wouldn't bother me to see that note in the room. But I also think the owner should raise his rates if he can't afford to pay his servers a living wage. Just my opinion.

 

[swirt]

If there is staff that are not owners, yes I tip.

 

[Tim_Toad_HLB]

This is a place with many rooms. So you hire a server and do not let her accept tips? I am not speaking or a reg size BnB 6 rooms or less..

This is a place with many rooms. So you hire a server and do not let her accept tips? I am not speaking or a reg size BnB 6 rooms or less.

No, that's not what I said. I don't like the notes that many hotels and small B&Bs put out for tips. If the guest wants to tip more power to them.
But I don't like being asked for it. I know some put envelopes in B&B rooms stating, "Cindy Lou is taking care of your room and if you would like to leave her something..."
Riki
.

I completely agree with your perspective.
If somebody simple wants to pass off a larger boutique hotel as a B&B to further tap into the B&B crowd, then they should be happy with the higher volume that choice reflects.
We are etetnally grateful for a guest to even just leave a positive note of thanks in our guest books. Actual gifts, tips or gratuities make our day.
Unfortunately, we've seen the funny side of human nature all too often, where the folks taking advantage of some special, discount, staying a week, or the ones who are brain-sucking, high maintenance types who wear us out both mentally and physically, rarely if ever express any gratitude.
In our town, there is a "living wage" in place that businesses with 25 employees or more must pay something like $10.05 minimum per hour. A few of the bigger hotels have challenged in the courts what they consider their right to offset the wage by counting the housekeeping's tips as part of their wage.
We don't push for tips, we don't put anything in the room suggesting it.
I suspect that those who do, are either underpaying their help, overpaying themselves, undervaluing their rates, didn't do a careful enough business plan to account for labor expenses, or overpaid for an existing business that isn't performing.

 

[egoodell]

This is a place with many rooms. So you hire a server and do not let her accept tips? I am not speaking or a reg size BnB 6 rooms or less..

This is a place with many rooms. So you hire a server and do not let her accept tips? I am not speaking or a reg size BnB 6 rooms or less.

No, that's not what I said. I don't like the notes that many hotels and small B&Bs put out for tips. If the guest wants to tip more power to them.
But I don't like being asked for it. I know some put envelopes in B&B rooms stating, "Cindy Lou is taking care of your room and if you would like to leave her something..."
Riki
.

I completely agree with your perspective.
If somebody simple wants to pass off a larger boutique hotel as a B&B to further tap into the B&B crowd, then they should be happy with the higher volume that choice reflects.
We are etetnally grateful for a guest to even just leave a positive note of thanks in our guest books. Actual gifts, tips or gratuities make our day.
Unfortunately, we've seen the funny side of human nature all too often, where the folks taking advantage of some special, discount, staying a week, or the ones who are brain-sucking, high maintenance types who wear us out both mentally and physically, rarely if ever express any gratitude.
In our town, there is a "living wage" in place that businesses with 25 employees or more must pay something like $10.05 minimum per hour. A few of the bigger hotels have challenged in the courts what they consider their right to offset the wage by counting the housekeeping's tips as part of their wage.
We don't push for tips, we don't put anything in the room suggesting it.
I suspect that those who do, are either underpaying their help, overpaying themselves, undervaluing their rates, didn't do a careful enough business plan to account for labor expenses, or overpaid for an existing business that isn't performing.
.

We are etetnally grateful for a guest to even just leave a positive note of thanks in our guest books. Actual gifts, tips or gratuities make our day.
In our town, there is a "living wage" in place that businesses with 25 employees or more must pay something like $10.05 minimum per hour. A few of the bigger hotels have challenged in the courts what they consider their right to offset the wage by counting the housekeeping's tips as part of their wage.
We don't push for tips, we don't put anything in the room suggesting it.
I suspect that those who do, are either underpaying their help, overpaying themselves, undervaluing their rates, didn't do a careful enough business plan to account for labor expenses, or overpaid for an existing business that isn't performing.

Yes, we just had some guests come back for the 4th time in our two years open. They brought us a Christmas tree ornament as they noted that we were building a wine christmast tree collection. And when they left they gave us two bottles of wine from their wine tasting.
We gave them a local cheese from our stash. It was so unexpected that I had to find something to send back with them! We had charged them the old price for the room but just have so much fun with them when they com.
I absolutely hate those big companies that try and cheat people out of a living wage by counting their tips. The tip is the reward for excellent service and should be left alone. When DH was a restaurant manager in Napa they made him stay there in high season from breakfast through dinner. They always say you can take your time off in "the slow season". Then whenever he hit his sales quota for his bonus, they would make the quota higher so that they would not have to pay it to him. And they wonder why people quit the restaurant/hotel management business....
Riki

 

[Tim_Toad_HLB]

If there is staff that are not owners, yes I tip..

We're notoriously generous tippers in every arena of consumption but that probably isn't relevant to this discussion. We've always been that way due to my wife's 30+ years in the hospitality trades.
Our internal experiences of how good it feels to get any kind of gift from our guests hasn't influenced that at all except that we probably have gotten even more generous.
I wouldn't find the tip envelope insulting in a place with full staff and more of a resort setting. Its probably pretty rare to find it in an owner occupied, run B&B with less than 6 rooms.
Hell, the satellite dish went out last week and they sent the technician out on freakin' Memorial Day and I threw him a $10 for his troubles despite knowing he was probably earning time and a half or better.
We were tired last night from getting up an hour earlier than normal for some regular guests who needed an early breakfast and went to the nearby restaurant who we send anywhere from 250-300 guests per year to for dinner.
We've never gotten so much as a free margarita out these folks and don't expect it, because we just are grateful that such a good place exists close by for our guests. Our server knows us and saw that we were under the weather and got our food to us quickly. She got over 20% for her kindness.
One thing we do go out of our way to do thanks to this experience is to be nice to service people. Even phone solicitors are treated with a little respect until I can politely disengage.

 

[Samster]

If there is staff that are not owners, yes I tip..

I worked at a 12 room B&B and the owners were nowhere to be found during breakfast. There was a cook and the others of us that arrived early did double duty as cook's helpers, servers, and kitchen clean-up. Then, we had to hit those rooms. I made a pitiful wage (one of the reasons I pay my new part-time housekeeper well) and we NEVER got tips at breakfast, NEVER. They had tip envelopes in the rooms but I never received any money from those tips either. There was a pretty high attrition rate with the help at that place too.
I'm sure that it was out of the guests' consciousness that we were being paid such a low wage when they saw us serving breakfast. I would want to pay my servers enough that an unexpected tip was a bonus. I'm not sure how comfortable I would be with what that place did regarding the servers' tips...I'm not even sure how I feel about tip envelopes in the room.

 

[Don Draper]

I think it depends on the size, this was clearly a restaurant where Joe was eating, and individual tables, it sounds like...not a big deal to leave a tip, just like you would in a restaurant.
So many of us go out of our way to stress that our b&b breakfast is complimentary, plus we serve at one large table, it would seem really odd to tip here (plus we are the owners and we are serving breakfast).
We do have housekeepers and I simply put an envelope with a seasonal graphic printed on it and the word "Housekeeping"...our girls make a great wage and usually enjoy generous tips as well...I don't think it has anything to do with room rates, it's just nice...you're on vacation and someone else is cleaning up your messes for you...I tip every time, even in motels...'cause I didn't have to make the bed or clean the toilet and I'm thankful someone else did it for me!

 

[gillumhouse]

I have seen the word gratitude a lot lately - in many different posts.
This is my attitude on B & B guests and gratitude.
I feel gratitude to them for choosing my B & B out of all of them that are out there. I feel gratitude to them for being such nice people. I feel even more gratitude when they pay wioth cash or check so I do not have cc fees (some have actually said I am giving you a check so you do not have the fees).
When I do something more than expected - as in this weekend I gave them a one-use camera to take memories of their anniversary here, a teddy bears in a basket with hard candy (after Valentine's-sale sale item for .75 meaning get rid of this!) on the bed on arrival, and sparkling cider and WV goblets at dinner - all I expect is them to enjoy their stay and to show their gratitude by coming back another time. They paid for their stay and any time I feel they did not pay enough, it is up to me to raise my rates - and I definitely do that! Yes, tips do engender gratitude on my part but as most of us agree, they are not expected.

 

[Penelope]

I have seen the word gratitude a lot lately - in many different posts.
This is my attitude on B & B guests and gratitude.
I feel gratitude to them for choosing my B & B out of all of them that are out there. I feel gratitude to them for being such nice people. I feel even more gratitude when they pay wioth cash or check so I do not have cc fees (some have actually said I am giving you a check so you do not have the fees).
When I do something more than expected - as in this weekend I gave them a one-use camera to take memories of their anniversary here, a teddy bears in a basket with hard candy (after Valentine's-sale sale item for .75 meaning get rid of this!) on the bed on arrival, and sparkling cider and WV goblets at dinner - all I expect is them to enjoy their stay and to show their gratitude by coming back another time. They paid for their stay and any time I feel they did not pay enough, it is up to me to raise my rates - and I definitely do that! Yes, tips do engender gratitude on my part but as most of us agree, they are not expected..

all I expect is them to enjoy their stay and to show their gratitude by coming back another time. They paid for their stay and any time I feel they did not pay enough, it is up to me to raise my rates - and I definitely do that!

K- I really like that phrasing.
I think it was Ann Landers who said that "no one can take advantage of you without your permission".

 

[JBloggs]

I love the way this forum takes a question and lets it run amok. LOL! I was not asking about THE HOSTS receiving gratuities, I am asking about larger inns with staff. I was giving an example where it was done tastefully and when you had a server you tip, like at any restaurant.

 

[gillumhouse]

I love the way this forum takes a question and lets it run amok. LOL! I was not asking about THE HOSTS receiving gratuities, I am asking about larger inns with staff. I was giving an example where it was done tastefully and when you had a server you tip, like at any restaurant..

Yes, herding cats fits us doesn't it.
If in a restaurant setting, I would tip.

 

[Penelope]

I am the hired help and I serve breakfast on the weekends ( I am not the owner). Yes, I make a wonderful rate. Yes, I love my job. Yes, I am not there for the tips. Yes, a tip is VERY much appreciated. It's the same anywhere else, imo. There was one time a few weeks ago when the other server (who is much younger than I) received her FIRST tip. The look on her face was priceless. She will remember that day for the rest of her life. I try to tip anyone who is "serving" me: housekeepers, bellhops, servers... they might be working for tips, they might not. I may never know. I like to try to show a little monetary appreciation with my verbal appreciation.

 

[gillumhouse]

I am the hired help and I serve breakfast on the weekends ( I am not the owner). Yes, I make a wonderful rate. Yes, I love my job. Yes, I am not there for the tips. Yes, a tip is VERY much appreciated. It's the same anywhere else, imo. There was one time a few weeks ago when the other server (who is much younger than I) received her FIRST tip. The look on her face was priceless. She will remember that day for the rest of her life. I try to tip anyone who is "serving" me: housekeepers, bellhops, servers... they might be working for tips, they might not. I may never know. I like to try to show a little monetary appreciation with my verbal appreciation..

You should have seen the face of the man, not a kid, who loaded my daughter's truck at the lumberyard. She gave him a tip (knowing her and her Chicago standards, it was generous green) and he asked, "What is this for?" She told him for loadig the truck. It was probably the first tip he ever received in his life (he was not a kid when we started going to that lumberyard in 1995!).

 

[Penelope]

I am the hired help and I serve breakfast on the weekends ( I am not the owner). Yes, I make a wonderful rate. Yes, I love my job. Yes, I am not there for the tips. Yes, a tip is VERY much appreciated. It's the same anywhere else, imo. There was one time a few weeks ago when the other server (who is much younger than I) received her FIRST tip. The look on her face was priceless. She will remember that day for the rest of her life. I try to tip anyone who is "serving" me: housekeepers, bellhops, servers... they might be working for tips, they might not. I may never know. I like to try to show a little monetary appreciation with my verbal appreciation..

You should have seen the face of the man, not a kid, who loaded my daughter's truck at the lumberyard. She gave him a tip (knowing her and her Chicago standards, it was generous green) and he asked, "What is this for?" She told him for loadig the truck. It was probably the first tip he ever received in his life (he was not a kid when we started going to that lumberyard in 1995!).
.

You should have seen the face of the man, not a kid, who loaded my daughter's truck at the lumberyard. She gave him a tip (knowing her and her Chicago standards, it was generous green) and he asked, "What is this for?" She told him for loadig the truck. It was probably the first tip he ever received in his life (he was not a kid when we started going to that lumberyard in 1995!).

I bet he was flabbergasted!

 

[Morticia]

I've been tipped but I have never tipped the breakfast staff anywhere except a restaurant.

 

[Samster]

I love the way this forum takes a question and lets it run amok. LOL! I was not asking about THE HOSTS receiving gratuities, I am asking about larger inns with staff. I was giving an example where it was done tastefully and when you had a server you tip, like at any restaurant..

You hit the nail on the head...we are a bunch of side trackers

Having been there & done that, I would (and do) tip the servers at large B&Bs. I'm just not sure about putting that on the registration form. Hmmm...some restaurant menus mention tips and they usually all talk about an automatic gratuity for large parties though. It wouldn't offend me and I would tip like you did. I guess the owners felt that they needed to put that out there for their staff to get tips.