How Do We Ensure that Our Housekeeper Will Keep a Gift We Leave for Her

I assume most hotels have a policy regarding the disposal of gifts/items left in the room after guests checkout. Where do they draw the line between tossing items out, turning them into lost and found and keeping them? I know in one instance we were able to give some valuable gifts won during our trip directly to the housekeeper and she had us write a note or possibly complete a form indicating that the items were for her.

“In general, the practice is that items recovered from a room -- even those with an accompanying note from a guest -- are turned in to the lost and found department and held for a prescribed number of days, and finally either donated to charity or to the employee who turned in the items. If the guest leaves a note that is verified as authentic, exceptions are made on a case-by-case basis,” says MGM Resorts International spokeswoman Callie Driehorst.

Adds David Strow of Boyd Gaming, “If a team member (or anyone else) finds an item in a room after checkout, the item is taken to Lost and Found, where it is held for 30 days. (If the item is perishable, it is immediately discarded.) If no one claims the item after 30 days, the team member (or the person who found it) may claim it. If they don’t want the item, we donate it to charity.

“When it comes to gifts for our team members (which are much appreciated, by the way!), leaving a clear note with the gift indicating that the item is meant for the employee is the best way to go. This avoids any confusion or delays in getting the gift to the proper recipient.”

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Straski Mar-29-2019

Housekeepers

On a similar note I always leave money on the pillow for the housekeeper. I have asked them in the past in several hotels and they have all said between 10% and 15% of guests leave a tip. We stayed at a hotel in Colorado Springs for several nights. We left the money on the pillow so we would not forget and then went to visit the exercise room. We came back to the room before checking out and the tip was gone. Made me mad thinking some other housekeeper had taken it. In hindsight I should have gone to the front desk and asked who had entered our room to see who had taken the tip.

[email protected] Mar-29-2019

Tips

I, too, leave a tip on the pillow.  I leave one every day, since if you wait until the end of the trip the housekeeper who gets it may not be the one who cleaned your room on most days (for example, it may be the person who works on your regular housekeeper's day off).
I always request morning cleanings and ask for a sharps container for my room when I arrive, so I like to show my appreciation for special service with a tip.
I've noticed that more and more nice hotels leave a special envelope in the room for housekeepers' tips, including the names of the housekeepers, and often a nice welcoming message.  I haven't seen that yet in Las Vegas, but I think it's a good idea.  I think the vast majority of travelers just don't know that they should tip their housekeepers.  It's not something they ever were made aware of.  I learned about it by reading travel guides, which many people don't do.  So having an envelope is a nice way to let folks know that a tip is appreciated.

Question of the Day - 29 March 2019

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