I’m in a new city and am heading out for a big day of exploring. I’ve hung up my bath towels, turned off the air-conditioner and hidden my empty chocolate wrappers in the bin. My final task is to leave a few dollars on the pillow as a gratuity for the person who cleans my room. I generally budget $5 per day.
There are good reasons to tip your hotel cleaner, even if you never see them.Credit: Getty Images
“I don’t believe in tipping”, I hear you counter, in a tone reminiscent of Mr Pink in Quentin Tarantino’s 1992 cult classic Reservoir Dogs. Gathered for breakfast in a busy diner, the outspoken jewel thief, played by Steve Buscemi, announces “As far as I’m concerned, they are just doing their jobs”.
And there you have it, the number one reason travellers – I’m looking at you my fellow Aussies – don’t feel the need to tip service staff. You can’t blame us really, beyond rounding up a bill or tossing coins in the tip jar, it’s just not in our DNA. But now, after the ravages of the last few years, I reckon it should be. We all promised to do better.
Spare a moment for the housekeepers; those invisible genies who scrub toilets, empty bins, and find dropped earbuds when all hope is lost.
Twenty years ago, I barely gave them a passing thought, let alone a rupiah, ringgit or riel. They are just doing their jobs, right? No need for a pat on the back.
Then I visited Cambodia, a beautiful country that was still carrying the fresh scars of Pol Pot’s brutal regime. Hit by an avalanche of child beggars, land mine victims and poverty that brought me to tears I fell into the trap of handing out small change. But conversations with a group of volunteer British doctors warned me about organised begging syndicates and children being trafficked. Far better, they advised, to donate to a recognised charity and travel with a tour company that gave back to the communities it visited.
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Fair call, yet the desire to do something right-here, right-now was all-consuming. But what to do?
We debated the topic long into the night. What if, in place of giving money to beggars, travellers gave money to an employed person? It sounded contradictory, giving to someone who already has a job while bypassing those who were visibly struggling. But what if that person was the sole breadwinner of a large and extended family? What if the job was hard and the pay low? And seasonal, meaning that often, little tummies went hungry. Finally, if the recipient was a woman (yes, we were drawing some big generalisations), we thought there was more chance that the bonus would be squirrelled away for good use.