8 Reasons for guests to not forget giving tips to hotel employees

A warm welcome, cleanliness, seamless service, prompt response, good food, value for money, peaceful sleeping environment, etc. are just a few things that guests expect from their hotel stay. To make all this possible and deliver a delightful experience during their stay, the hotel staff tirelessly work for long hours with a smile on their faces. Hospitality jobs, be it in housekeeping, kitchen, front office or others are very demanding. At the same time, the packages on most levels are not very handsome. Service charges and tips are a considerable source of income for the hotel staff, ensuring their economic well-being and comfort.

Every clean room, bathroom, clean glass, good-tasting plate of food, serviced request, and timely service has a prompt and sincere hotel team behind it. Where every member of the team is playing their part perfectly like the parts of an efficient watch showing the correct time. Nothing below perfection would work, because if one falters, the efficient functioning of others would also be affected.

Only 10-20 percent of the efforts that go into making an impeccable hotel experience are noticed on the surface by the guests, rest is behind the scenes that goes unnoticed. But all the effort that is visible or invisible deserves appropriate recognition and reward.

Here are a few reasons why tips should not be forgotten after a satisfactory experience at a hotel:

·       Gratitude for good service – tips are a way to express gratitude for good service during the stay or a meal at a restaurant. They are a way to say thank you for a sincere effort put in to make the experience pleasant and enjoyable.

·        Source of income - service charges and tips make for supplementary income of the hotel and restaurant staff. Hotels and restaurants that follow good practices, collect all the tips and service charges in one place and distribute them fairly among all the staff as a cushion of extra income.

·       Motivator – it is tough to go through the stress of demanding hotel and restaurant jobs every day for years.  Tips and service charge that rewards a good job done becomes a huge psychological motivator for them. Somewhere it helps them in managing the stress and look for the appreciation for inspiration of powering through.

·       Goodwill for next time – appropriate tips can affect the service you receive next time; it helps in building a relationship with the staff and motivate them to deliver good service every time.

·       Promotes good service – tips and service charge collected by a hotel or restaurant and distributed fairly among employees responsible for cleanliness, housekeeping, kitchen, front office, service, etc. promotes overall good service at the establishment, making it not only an employee-friendly place but also nurtures a guest friendly environment. They motivate a sincere effort to deliver excellence.

·       Rewards for excelling at challenging jobs – sincere effort and excellence in a tough job demands to be adequately rewarded

·       Encourages teamwork – tips and service charges collected by hotels and restaurants then distributes it across departments to the front office, front-end, and back-end employees encouraging teamwork within them. This would impact positively on the overall experience. If you are a regular client, then you would be the ultimate beneficiary.

·       Employment incentive - tips and service charges are also huge motivators for people to join hotels and restaurant jobs. This incentive attracts good quality talent to the industry.

Well-deserved tips and service charges are not a privilege but the right of hard-working employees who excel even in challenging conditions.

The Author is Executive Director, Noor Mahal and Founder Colonel Saab, London (UK).