We have one housekeeper and we have a funny postcard that thanks the guest for staying and says it is ok to tip at a B&B and tells the housekeeper's name. When the season is over and she's done here, the postcards will go in the trash and we'll redo them for next year's housekeeper. The reason guests don't know it's ok to tip at a B&B but are damn certain it is ok to tip at a hotel is because they all think the kid running around cleaning is my daughter and why would they tip her when she's getting free room and board!
Just for ourselves? No tip note, we own the place. The guest will more than likely thank us in person when they leave. An appropriate thank you for the housekeeper is a tip. If it's ok to tip the person who cuts your hair, holds the door open for you every day in your fancy apt house, carries your bags at the swank hotel, then it's ok to tip the little college student cleaning up after your sloppy self.
Tipping is not a subsitute for poor pay, it is a thank you, nothing more, nothing less..
"Tipping is not a subsitute for poor pay, it is a thank you, nothing more, nothing less."
Maybe not in most decent employer's eyes, but tell that to the millions and millions of restaurant servers, bartenders, hotel housekeeping staff, etc. whose employers go to great lengths to calculate their hourly pay to make sure once tips are added up, the person is barely making poverty level wages.
Or those joining industry/business groups that throw millions in lobbying dollars and influence to make sure unions are suppressed, living wage laws aren't passed, maintaining the offset minimum wage laws that pay way below minimum wage because of "all that" money in tips this category of workers earn.
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