What do you say to a multibillion dollar hotel corporation that charges insane prices for wifi services and then asks their customers to subsidize their employees salaries by leaving tips? ("WFT?" comes to mind.) I believe all guests should leave tips for the maid services, but hotel giants should pay them a decent wage, as well.
Hotel behemoth Marriott -- which raked in nearly $13 billion in revenue last year --wants guests to cough up a little more cash to help pay its hotel maids. In news that's surprising to no one, customers are infuriated.
The company teamed up with TV anchor and activist Maria Shriver to launch a campaign on Monday called “The Envelope Please.” This week, envelopes will be placed in 160,000 Marriott hotel rooms across the U.S. and Canada requesting that guests tip the hotel’s cleaning staff. Marriott owns a number of chains such as Courtyard, Residence Inn, J.W. Marriott, Ritz-Carlton and Renaissance.
“Our caring room attendants enjoyed making you stay warm and comfortable,” reads a message on the envelope. “Please feel free to leave a gratuity to express your appreciation for their efforts.”
--On Tuesday, customers peeved at Marriott for skimping on workers’ wages while charging fees for widely-available amenities like wireless Internet, unloaded their anger on company's official Facebook page
When I started traveling for business in the early nineties when I worked in computer parts, I was told by my boss to leave a few dollars per day tip for the maids that clean the room to help them out and I've continued that practice ever since. But when a company like Marriott, who routinely underpays those maids, asks guests to pick up the slack, I'd say customers have a bone to pick.
Hotel workers, particularly housekeepers, have a 40 percent higher injury rate than other service sector workers, according to union-backed group Hotel Workers Rising. Marriott's housekeepers are some of the lowest paid workers at the company, according to the salary research site PayScale.
If Marriott really wanted to help their attendants out, then all they had to do was join into the ask themselves --by giving them a raise and then remind guests to join with them by making sure to leave tips! But you know, that would entail coughing up a few dollars more from their end and that's obviously unacceptable.
