Marriott’s maid-tipping program draws ire
Commenters on the hotel chain’s Facebook page say the company should boost the pay of its housekeepers rather than rely on guests to help them out.
Asking someone to do a nice thing doesn’t always elicit a friendly response.
This week, Marriott International announced that it was the first hotel chain to join a program called The Envelope Please, a push by a group called A Woman’s Nation to encourage people to tip hotel housekeepers.
A Marriott press release announced the partnership:
Beginning this week, Marriott International will place signature envelopes in more than 160,000 guest rooms at participating Marriott-managed hotels in the U.S. and Canada, making it easy for guests to express their gratitude and leave a voluntary gratuity for their room attendants. Marriott has also invited its franchise hotels to participate in this initiative.
Sounds nice enough, but dozens of commenters on Facebook took exception to the suggestion that guests should leave behind a tip for a housekeeper when they already pay high room rates and hotel fees. They argued that Marriott should simply raise its housekeepers’ pay.
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