Hacker News Reader

Comment by JohnFen | Hacker News Reader

This problem has become ridiculous, and has led me to completely revamp my tipping strategy.

I'll still tip for the things that traditionally have been subject to tips. Dining where I'm being served, cab rides, hotel housekeeping, etc., but I'll no longer be as generous in my tipping. And I will no longer add a tip at the point of sale no matter what.

Nobody else gets a dime except when some individual actually goes above and beyond for me. If a place insists on demanding inappropriate tips through PoS machines, I'll avoid going there in the future.

This tipping problem actively worsens my day. Enough is enough.

View on HN

Tipping in cash is a good idea, when practical.

Another thought is to leave bad reviews on places like google maps and yelp. If you're already going to avoid them over it, it's only reasonable to communicate it so they know why they're losing business. My only concern would be to try to direct the brunt of the bad reviews to larger businesses, at least at first.

It’s interesting that you say, traditionally have been subject to tips, and mention hotel housekeeping. This was not common until relatively recently. I never tip hotel housekeeping since I grew up with it not being normative.

I wonder what tipping will be like in 10 years if this trend continues. I suspect though that tipping will slowly die as people are fed up with it.

> This was not common until relatively recently.

Well, it was common when I was a housekeeper back in the mid-late '80s. The customary tip was $1 per day the room got cleaned. About 3/4 of guests would tip that. Ironically, the ones who didn't tip were almost always the ones who left the room trashed, which was completely backward. Leaving a room in good shape was considered as good as a tip by my fellow housekeepers.

That’s interesting to hear. I traveled extensively in the 80s with my family and we never tipped and there were never sign suggesting a tip as far as I can remember. My tip is that I always leave the do not disturb sign on my door handle for the duration of my stay.

No, there's never a sign. Like with all tipping, you're supposed to just "know" somehow.

But (at least then -- I've noticed that things are a bit different now) there is usually a little card telling you the name of your housekeeper. That's where you're supposed to leave the tip (if you're leaving one). Money on the card was deemed a tip, money left anywhere else was deemed forgotten property and turned in (if the housekeeper was being honest).

Where I worked (at a Hilton), we had to clean 17 rooms per day. If every room left a $1 tip -- which never actually happened -- that would come close to doubling my wages for the day. It made a significant difference.

I see signs now asking for a tip in hotel rooms. Lots of tipping relies on signs. Like at the register stand where the iPad is swiveled around asking for the user to input a tip percentage.

By signs I mean things like you mentioned nudging one to tip. It’s not an overt sign stating it is expected but it is a sign letting you know that it is expected.

At the last hotel I stayed at, they tipped me.

I didn't bother to work out what the German meant, but the "eco-friendly" thing where you don't want them to change the towels every day took the form of a small, woven bag. I hung it on the door, and was pleased that housekeeping didn't come into the room at all -- I don't like my stuff being moved around.

When I left I noticed there were chocolate bars, fruit etc in the bag, one item for each day I'd stayed.

Can I just ask why the hell are cab rides expected to be tipped?

What is the "above and beyond" service being performed now that your phone does the navigation for you? Never had a cabbie help me with luggage either.

Just charge me $X per mile and don't bother me during my ride (some cabbies were actually asking ME for directions, when I already gave them the address).

Reply on news.ycombinator.com