Social Question

JLeslie's avatar

Restaurants and hotels keep tips?

Asked by JLeslie (65411points) September 25th, 2013

Someone today told me that when they worked at Gaylord Hotel in Nashville the hotel would keep the tips left for the maids and wait staff that was added to the bill. Another woman chimed in and said in a restaurant she worked in here in FL the management used to keep tips also. They both said it was mostly immigrants working in the jobs that typically get tips, and they felt that was part fo the reason they got away with it. That horrifies me! I leave a tip and the company keeps it? Can that be true? Do you have similar stories?

By the way, Gaylord was acquired by Marriott fairly recently and I hope Marriott has eliminated this if indeed it was going on. I am very Marriott loyal, and I hate to think they would tolerate or condone any such thing.

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16 Answers

Coloma's avatar

Why am I not surprised. Slimey dealings abound.
Of course they are usually perpetrated against the more vulnerable.
Pathetic.

snowberry's avatar

I don’t understand. It’s usually one maid per room cleaning it. Who’s going to know if the maid picks up a tip, unless management goes through their pockets and wallets before they leave?

JLeslie's avatar

@snowberry They said if the tip was left on the bill they never forwarded it to the maids. I guess some people add the tip to their credit card. I’ve never done that in a hotel.

Pachy's avatar

After reading an article recently that some restaurants don’t pass on tips that customers have added to their credit card payments, I’ve started leaving cash whenever I can.

Seek's avatar

I imagine cruise ships are the same, with their 18% gratuity included nonsense.

JLeslie's avatar

@Seek_Kolinahr OMG. Yeah, I wonder what happens there? I always give a little extra in cash to the people who fix my room. In the catering departmentnin hotels I think they oay the wait staff a flat amount, say $100, for parking a party, but the 18% probably easily works out to be more than that a lot of the time. That has always bothered me. I had forgotten about that,

Espiritus_Corvus's avatar

This is absolutely outrageous. There has to be some agency that can investigate this. I would nail the managing bastards to the wall so hard that they would be lucky to escape personal bankruptcy.

JLeslie's avatar

@Espiritus_Corvus I would think so to. It’s outright theft in my opinion.

Espiritus_Corvus's avatar

@JLeslie Roger that. As gauche as this is to me, I’m handing the tip directly to the maid or waiter from now on. In cash.

ragingloli's avatar

Ha ha! “Gaylord”.

JLeslie's avatar

@Espiritus_Corvus I don’t think it is Gauche. Is it?

Espiritus_Corvus's avatar

@JLeslie Not anymore! God, this pisses me off.

JLeslie's avatar

I wonder if they are caught keeping the cash if they get fired? Then they have to worry about that every time they put the money in their pocket?

I really hope this sort of thing doesn’t happen a lot. My exboyfriend worked in restaurants and nothing like this happened. I worked in a spa for a short time, and absoulutely every tip left for someone was given to them.

Espiritus_Corvus's avatar

These people get paid almost nothing if it weren’t for the tips. What kind of person would even think of doing this? What kind of Dickensian director would enact a policy like this? I think if this becomes widespread we will see worse service and dirtier rooms. In communist Poland there was a very human refrain that I’ll never forget: “They pretend to pay us, and we pretend to work.” And trust me; NOTHING, ABSOLUTELY NOTHING worked as it should have. Everything was broken and dirty, everyone was lethargic, careless and ambivalent to the future. It was hopeless. It was the most inconvenient, fucked up place I had ever been. If you treat people like this, you get hopeless, surly employees who don’t give a damn. And I can’t blame them.

rojo's avatar

Yet another example of the culture of greed we have allow to flourish.

dxs's avatar

I am seeing if I can apply for some jobs at hotels where I am now, I sure hope I can get tips since most places I went to only gave minimum wage. Where I used to work, the room cleaners kept the tips.

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