Tipping for Villa Management

[SuefromMA]

We will be staying at a villa for 5 nights.

I am assuming that most likely we will be met at the Ferry dock by a management agent and brought to our villa either then or later in the day.

It has been awhile since we rented a villa. What seems to be the "going rate" for tipping the management? Also, would we just slip that person some cash after they show us the house or do we just leave something in an envelope on the property upon our departure?

Just want to be sure that we are doing what is proper.

Thanks,
Sue

[stjchica]

You will get different opinions on this..but my thought, until I saw this same question on the forum,
was that it was a customer service/courtesy thing that they do. It never even dawned on me to tip them.

[ColumbiaSCTraveler]

I definitely want to follow this discussion....interesting, indeed!

We always tip the person who meets us and brings us to and through the house, however.

I never know if what we tip is enough, though. Advice?!?

[PA Girl]

Greeter - almost never. Frankly, we want the greeter out as soon as possible. I don't ask to stop for groceries, my husband gets the rental vehicle on his own, we don't need to ask him/her a ton of questions or take up their time looking for an island education. The one time we did recently tip a greeter was when she hung around long enough after we started settling in that is was obvious she was waiting for a tip. My husband gave $20 and showed her the door.

Cleaning staff - yes, $10 per bedroom. I guess I put house cleaners in the same category as hotel cleaning staff. I tip at a hotel so do the same at the villa.

[lark22]

If you're going to tip the greeter (we do, unless the greeter is the property owner), then I'd recommend handing it to them in person that first day. I figure that if we had any needs later in the week, that we'd have even more responsive help. We do $20, and nobody's refused it yet.

For the cleaning staff: we always tip, and we leave at least $20 or $30 (more if we have more than just the 2 of us -- +$10 per bedroom sounds right). The cleaning staff works hard, and compared to how much we spend on the villa, it's so minor. One year, when we were re-renting a villa we'd stayed in the previous year, the villa owner mentioned how much the housekeeper appreciated her tip the year before...that cemented it for me!

[dreamshark]

Good thread. Honestly, it never occurred to me to tip the greeter or the house cleaner. I don't think it's quite the same thing as in a hotel. Hotel maids provide daily service to me while I am staying there, so it makes sense to tip them. But villa cleaning is a management service that happens between stays, so not it's not a personal service any more than other property maintenance activities. But I imagine house cleaners don't get paid any better than hotel maids and if they are even half-way expecting a tip I don't want to stiff them, so I'll probably start leaving $20.

As for the greeter - confusing! Our last greeter was the property owner. Other times the greeter is clearly the person who owns the on-island management company (e.g., Nancy from Carib Havens), who is already taking a cut of the rental. I suppose it might have made sense to tip the caretaker from Cimarron that showed us to our villa in 2009, but it didn't occur to us. He didn't ACT like he was expecting a tip, but he was nice enough to take our picture with the view in the background - probably should have tipped him. Our upcoming rental is through an on-island agency that already adds a 5% fee to the property rental. For that amount of money I would think they could afford to pay their greeters fairly. After reading this thread I'll have a $10 or $20 bill handy in case it seems appropriate.

[Caw954s]

Oh man! It 'never' occurred to me either to tip the property manager or leave money for the cleaning person. Pia knows property managers, maybe she'll chime into this thread, if not I'm going to pm her and ask. I absolutely believed the manager got a % when booking and I did not leave anything for the cleaning crew...I always do at hotels? Well, I'll know better next time...

[Monkeynoclimb]

It is up to you if you want to tip the greeter or the cleaning staff. It is a nice thing to do but it is not expected that you do so however. Each house has its own payment system worked out.

[lazylane]

We never tip the greeter as that is part of the customer service that they provide and a lot of times we go directly to the house ourselves, no greeter!!! However, we are in the cabin rental business and know first hand how hard housekeepers work (I have done it myself!!) so we always leave the housekeepers a tip. I know our girls appreciate it immensely when our guests leave them a tip!

[Teresa_Rae]

We do not tip our villa greeter. They are paid for their services so unless someone was to go above and beyond normal responsibilities, I don't see a reason to tip. They aren't waitresses and waiters being paid $3 an hour who NEED tips.

[EagleRayLover]

This is an interesting thread. I'm not sure there is a right or wrong answer, but
it's interesting when people say they don't tip when the greeter is getting paid. Do you tip your hair stylist? They get paid- I do know from a recent experience some do not get paid- they may get a reduced rate in their rent.. Also sometime the greeter is the housekeeper. Not sure what the right answer is!

[P-600]

Before we moved here we always tipped our villa greeter $20 after showing us to the house whether we stopped for groceries or not and we would leave $20 for the cleaners on the day we left.
While working for a villa management company on island I hardly ever heard from our villa greeter's that they got tipped. The cleaner's were rarely left tips and when they did it was at most $10. The cleaner's also take any food/alcohol that is left in the fridge.