The topic of tipping at hotels can be complicated, from everything ranging from hotel housekeeping to hotel club lounges. In this post, I’d like to talk a bit about tipping hotel concierges.
I’ll share my take, though I won’t bury the lede — I’m not sure there’s a right or wrong answer, because the way that people use hotel concierges varies so wildly. It’s not like hotel housekeeping, where everyone gets their room cleaned similarly, with slight variations in terms of peoples’ cleanliness habits.
In this post:
Tipping hotel concierges is complicated
There’s an absolutely massive variance to how people use hotel concierges, and the services that they offer. Limited service hotels often don’t offer “real” concierge services, while five star hotels sometimes have rockstar concierges who can perform miracles.
Even among hotels with great concierge staff, the requests people make are all over the place:
- Some people may just ask the concierge for a map of the area, and a recommendation for a nearby hole-in-the-wall restaurant they can walk to
- Other people use hotel concierges months in advance of their stay via email to secure desirable dining reservations as soon as they become available, or some hotels might even use hotel concierges to do luxury shopping on their behalf
If you’re booking a super high-end hotel, a great concierge staff is also one of the things that you’re paying for. The expectation is that a $1,000 per night hotel generally has a more “connected” concierge than a $100 per night hotel (or whatever). After all, there are concierges who are very well known in certain cities, and can bring a lot to the hotel they’re working at.
Then there’s of course the general cultural norms around tipping:
- Perhaps the single place in the world where hotel concierges are most useful is in Japan, where they can help secure amazing restaurant reservations; however, tipping isn’t appropriate in Japan, so that’s an included service
- In the United States there’s the general culture of tipping, so it’s customary to tip hotel concierges as well; unfortunately us Americans have also done a bad job exporting our tipping culture, so at some point tipping at nice hotels becomes the norm even in countries where you typically wouldn’t otherwise do so
- In other places around the globe it’s tricky, because even if a country doesn’t normally have a culture of tipping, a lot of people do tip hotel concierges when they secure hard to get reservations, or perform other above-and-beyond tasks
How much should you tip hotel concierges?
I truly think there’s no right or wrong answer as to what’s appropriate to tip hotel concierges. So let me share a couple of considerations:
- The American Hotel & Lodging Association gratuity guide suggests tipping concierges $5-10 per service, depending on how involved the request is; it’s recommended that this can be paid on the spot, or as a lump sum at check-out
- There are definitely people who tip concierges hundreds of dollars, or even more; that’s by no means expected, but in some cases concierges fulfill some pretty wild requests
Now, what’s my personal take, based on my own travels? The situation where I value a hotel concierge the most is when I’m staying at a luxury property outside the United States for multiple days, and I want to visit multiple great restaurants. In those situations, I typically appreciate the input and booking assistance of the concierge.
If it’s a trip to a destination with great restaurants and the concierge team is consistently friendly and helpful throughout the stay, I’ll sometimes tip around $20 per day, give or take. Let me emphasize that I don’t use concierges on a vast majority of stays, but this is when they’re consistently helping me throughout the stay, and are friendly and responsive.
Otherwise, I’d say that I sometimes tip when I’m staying in the United States and an consistently asking for minor things, like the best nearby coffee shop, a restaurant I can just walk into that’s casual, etc. I might tip $10 or so in those situations.
Meanwhile if I’m just using the concierge via email to arrange transfers to or from the hotel, I typically won’t tip. That’s also in part because I think that’s a very standard service that doesn’t take much effort, and in many situations, the hotel is even taking a significant commission on that.
There are just a couple of situations where I tipped concierges significantly more than above. Some really go above and beyond, and I think that deserves to be recognized. For example, when I stayed at the Park Hyatt Kuala Lumpur recently, the concierge was super helpful. My phone stopped charging at Delhi Airport, before I even boarded my flight to Kuala Lumpur. The concierge at the hotel was happy to buy a wireless charger for me from Apple, and even place it in the car that was supposed to pick me up… talk about great service!
Anyway, I’m by no means claiming that my approach is correct, but that’s how I usually go about things… like I said, I don’t think there’s a right or wrong answer.
Bottom line
Tipping hotel concierges can be a complicated topic, given the huge variety of services that they provide. Some people will ask for a decent nearby pizza place, and others will request five reservations at Michelin-starred restaurants.
So you’ll find that people have hugely varying perspectives on how much hotel concierges should be tipped (if at all), and I don’t think there’s a right or wrong answer. However, I think it’s worth acknowledging that, and it’s also why I shared my take.
Where do you stand on tipping hotel concierges, and what’s your approach?
There should be no expectations to tip for basic services - recommendations, maps, dinner reservations, etc - it is literally their job and they dont work on a tipped wage system. Going above and beyond - sure, may be appropriate to show appreciation. Otherwise, tipping just a combination of guilt/cultural pressure or desire to feel superior by being profligate.
"What's your approach?" My approach is a friendly smile .
The photo of the girl concierge , on the wall behind her seat at the concierge desk , looks like an expensive girl , who will demand a large tip .
It never came to my mind that tipping a concierge for services like restaurant recommendations is expected. Essentially that is their profession and in luxury hotels with higher nightly rates, the service expectation is highe. This includes the concierge.
I could see that an above and beyond service, like delivering a cell phone charger to Ben at the airport, deserves a recognition.
I am very much with you on this subject Ben.
The majority of our hotel stays are for more than three nights. Most are properties which we have stayed at on numerous occasions over the decades. We are mostly treated as if we are well known and this encourages us to be perhaps more generous than some.
There is a huge difference between good genuinely helpful concierge and the smarmy crocodile smiling dumbo....
I am very much with you on this subject Ben.
The majority of our hotel stays are for more than three nights. Most are properties which we have stayed at on numerous occasions over the decades. We are mostly treated as if we are well known and this encourages us to be perhaps more generous than some.
There is a huge difference between good genuinely helpful concierge and the smarmy crocodile smiling dumbo. (Need I name the country in which most dumbo’s can be found?) I appreciate good service and have no qualms about rewarding such most generously.