Tipping the housekeeper

Don't want to start an argument, but I don't. I do not tip housekeepers anywhere, the closest I come is if I seek one out for something like extra bedding/towels/or I have mess I created that needs cleaned up outside normal service.

Normal, never see them, don't know who they are, basic service? No.

Yes, I know many pity the housekeeping staff and feel they need to leave something, or they have been taught to always leave something, but I respect them for the job they do. I do often though decline service if I am staying only 2 or 3 days, in a week, maybe have them come in once.

I totally agree with Paul. In fact, the tipping culture in the US is becoming ridiculous. When I ordered & then drove to pick up a pizza & when paid by card they asked if I wanted a tip I almost gasped. Plus there was a jar there in case you wanted to leave cash. I'm not sure what I was tipping for, I ordered and picked up the pizza, all they had to do was put it in a box.
Sorry and I don't want to start a war. I do tip for service when I think the service has been exceptional.

What do you think is the amount to tip the daily housekeeping staff ?

Is this even a thing? Should I tip everyone who provides a service I have already paid for? Should I tip the traffic warden who gave me ( an entirely deserved) parking ticket this morning?

I can’t speak to Italy, but in the US I think $2-5 per day is appropriate depending on the number of people in the room and how large and messy/dirty the room is. The job can be miserable, and they make very little.

I’m going to give a comparison that I hope sheds a light on the horrors some have expressed at the idea of tipping housekeeping in the whole European continent.

It depends on the country. I always tip in France where I live because these are immigrant women working for agencies, not the hotel. They have long commutes, hard high-pressure work and entry pay. To put this in perspective, we rarely tip in restaurants here in France, or in Italy for that matter, so you can see that our tipping in French hotels is not us polluting French culture with American ideas.2-5€

Italy, on the other hand, places we’ve stayed has staff who are paid competitive wages and have other duties in these hotels beyond housekeeping. Therefore, we don’t tip in Italy. It’s not cheapness but the workers have the same status as the other employees. 0€

We seldom stay anyplace more than 2-3 nights and don’t have housekeeping come by at all. Makes the tipping conversation mute.

In Chile, where wages aren’t even close to those in Europe, we tipped the housekeeping lady at the end of our stay. We had the same housekeeper every day and had many conversations with her.

We usually do 2-5 euros a day in Europe. I don't tip taxi or restaurants in Europe except for rounding up. But the housekeeping people we tip.

I tip as Elizabeth says, if I think the staff is being taken advantage of. So I wouldn't tip waiters in France, as they don't seem to be. Trouble is, figuring out the difference.

I don't leave a tip to housekeeping staff in Italy, and also very very rarely in the US.

Sometime ago I heard an interview of the CEO of a hotel chain in the US who said that guests should leave a tip to housekeeping staff because they are miserably underpaid and don't make a livable wage.

Which begs the question: why doesn't he (the hotel boss) pay his staff a livable wage? Why shouldn't the employer pay his/her staff? I guess that way he saves money for the chain and gets million dollar bonuses. Hypocrite!

In Italy the salaries of housekeeping staff and also waiting staff is determined by the National Collective Bargaining Contract tables negotiated between labor unions and the employers' association of the individual sector. For waiting staff of 4th or 5th level (median levels) the minimum gross salary is approximately 1,500+ euro a month (the net salary at that level is about 75-80% of the gross). In cities with high demand, like Florence, Rome or Milan, a waiter however can easily get over 1,800€ month net. It is not that much, if you think that the median 850 sqft (80 m2) two bedroom apartment in Florence (the second most expensive real estate market after Milan) requires about €1,700/month while a 650 sqft (60 m2) one bedroom apartment requires about 1,300€ on average.

if I think the staff is being taken advantage of

That is an impossible judgement to make, and maybe speaks to the type of places you choose to stay.

I have tipped a housekeeping staff person when I have stopped them in the hallway and asked for something. Otherwise, no.

"That is an impossible judgement to make..."

That's an impossible judgement to make. I make it anyway. I prefer that to ignoring this issue(s).

Having a majority of the staff being new immigrants is one tell. There are others. You do you.

Italian workers are paid better wages than their counterparts in other countries, such as France, Spain and Germany. I’ve never left a tip for housekeeping in Italy, although I do it in the USA, because, the USA pays awful wages, wages whereupon one is required to have 2-3 jobs just to pay their rent. This wouldn’t happen in Italy. Same goes for waitstaff. In Italy I’ve never left a tip after a meal. That would be viewed as insulting to the waitstaff. I’ve worked in the food service industry, mainly in the USA but also in Italy. It was quite some years ago, 1999-2000, when I first went to Italy, and spent 6 months there, worked as a dishwasher and was laid the equivalent of €15 an hour. It was the end of the Lire, and my now wife, and then fiancée thought I was lying when I told them what I was getting paid. To wash dishes, using a machine. I got free lunch and dinner. It was a higher end restaurant in the city we lived in and the food was ottimo

You do not have to tip housekeeping. Or any hotel employees. Or taxi drivers. Or restaurant staff.

Yes. In the time I was in Italy the housekeeping staff (that I saw and talked to) were Italians. I didn't feel the need to tip them though I did give my unused (bus? subway?) tickets to one as I was leaving. And, once again, I only met waiters from Italy or from France when I was there. In the US the housekeeping staff have been recent immigrants. Mostly. The hotel for the Rick Steves tour in Paris had French housekeeping staff.

I don’t tip the hotel staff, but I try to make their job as easy as possible. If I hear them in the hallway, I will go greet them & take my towel to exchange and ask for a couple of coffee sticks, telling them they don’t need to clean my room. They’re usually very happy being able to save time & effort. Since most hotels have soap dispensers, an extra roll of toilet paper and I’m tidy, I am fine for a 2-3 night stay.

The people I always tip are the street musicians.

I’ve rarely seen housekeeping staff in Italian hotels who are Italians, certainly not in major tourist destinations where virtually all of them are immigrants. They might seem Italians to you because they are largely European and look Italian, but the vast majority are immigrants from Eastern Europe (Romanian, Albanian, Ukrainian in particular), several come from North Africa, Morocco especially, and many Moroccans are white and have Mediterranean features that are indistinguishable from Italians). I’ve also talked to several Latin Americans chambermaids, from Venezuela, Perù, Brazil, many of Italian descent from those countries. They speak Italian very well and unless you are a native Italian speaker or someone who is very fluent in the language there is no way you can detect their foreign accent. It has nothing to do with the level of accommodations. I generally stay in 4 star hotels and some 3 star hotels, and that is the case for all. Next time you are in a major Italian destination, especially Rome and north, ask the housekeeping staff where they are from originally and you can see for yourselves. You might be able to see Italian housekeeping staff in rural areas or in the south, where job opportunities are more scarce also for Italians, but in the north, and in large cities, the vast majority of those jobs go to immigrants.

Regarding being exploited, every single employee in any hotel must be paid according to the tables of the CCNL (National Bargaining Labor Contract for the sector), immigrants or otherwise. The reason why so many are immigrants is because Italians have more and better options and tend to shun those kind of hard occupations. When my mom was alive, al the caregivers I hired for her were foreign (all hired in accordance with the labor laws and contracts), from Romania, Albania, and one Moroccan lady. I could not find one single Italian willing to do that job. At the nursing home were she spent the last two years of her life, nearly all the caregiving staff was Romanian and Albanian, including the Director, but all speaking Italian perfectly, albeit with a barely detectable accent.