TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin Tipping cleaning staff BSV

How much are people leaving for cleaning staff at Beachside Villas. IS $10/day fair?

For us, It depends on how many bedrooms we are using and whether we leave a lot of dirty dishes, etc. We always leave at least $10 a day for one bedroom and we almost always do our own dishes and try to keep the place relatively picked up. Your mileage may vary.

Agree with Carol. Last visit we left $80 but that was for the extra she did for us beyond cleaning. So that equates to $10 per day plus another $10.

ok thanks We are also a one bedroom and are not messy folks. Do our own dishes too.

By the way, the maids do not do it themselves, but you can request that they send out clothes to be washed. I think it was around $15 for a large load, washed and folded. No delicate clothing, of course, but it sure was a nice service! Just ask your maid about it and she will take care of it for you.

$10 a day for 1 bedroom, $20 for a 2 bedroom. We're pretty easy duty for our cleaning people.
I clean before the cleaning people arrive.

$10/day for regular daily use (and we keep it picked up and do our own dishes) and we leave $20 the last day.

I consider myself a fairly good tipper when it comes to food. But $10 per day seems really high to me for maid service. Am I just behind the times?

Linda, I tip $5 per day, and also felt that $10 was high.

I really had no idea what other people tip at BSV, but I'm quite happy with paying $10 for what we get there. To me, there's a difference between what the maids at BSV do, versus the standard timeshare. They have a lot more space to clean, including the outside deck and stairs, which usually sees quite a bit of sand, and they usually mop the kitchen and the living room. It's funny you bring up tipping on meals, as if you compare the amount of work the maid does at BSV, versus 15% on a $100 restaurant meal, the maids are definitely underpaid, at $10. Just my opinion.

I’m inclined to agree with the five dollar amount. To me, ten dollars seems high but remember, Peeps, tipping is purely a personal and individual issue. Tips used to be given for personal service beyond the scope of the norm and were a gift, not a requirement. Quite honestly, when I see the annual December tipping guides every year I go a little crazy.

When we stay at our timeshare we don’t tip daily because the service provided to us is only the daily swapping of towels and removing the trash but when the ladies do the midweek cleaning including changing the bed linens, we leave them $15.00 to $20.00 depending on the state of our unit. We don’t leave dirty dishes and we tend to treat the condo in the same manner we would our home. Upon departure we leave the same amount or perhaps a bit more if the maids have gone out of their way to accommodate us.

With regard to our stays at BSV I think we left only $5.00 per day but again, we never leave dirty dishes and don’t do any cooking beyond morning coffee. But if the maids have provided any form of personal service beyond the normal scope of their jobs, the norms change a bit.

Personally speaking, I think the whole ‘tipping’ thing has gotten completely out of control in too many situations and I’ve never understood why a wait person would receive a larger tip for serving a filet mignon than a sliced sirloin steak or more for serving a mixed drink over a beer. But that’s a personal opinion and I’m not advocating for others to agree or disagree with me.

I agree, Pat. Tipping has gotten out of control in some areas. We usually tip $5 per day for the two of us; $10 per day if we travel with another couple; a bit extra for any extra services we require. Tipping is indeed an individual issue. Restaurants are a different story, those wait staff (at least here in the States) make an extremely low salary and depend upon tips for most of their wage, though I do agree with the fact that service for a steak shouldn't be more than service for a hot dog. Other workers (housekeepers, maintenance workers, etc) usually get a more 'normal' salary and any tipping extra amount is at one's discretion. It has irked me over the past few years that most cruise ships now demand pre-paid set tips. (Yes, I realize you can have that taken off at the end if you're not satisfied with some of the services, but it should really be the other way around. I much prefer to individually tip those that have given me good service. If I have a great waiter, but a lousy housekeeper, I don't think they both deserve the same tip).

Robin

We tip $5 per night when we stay at a chain hotel stateside. When at Grand Case Beach Club or Beachside Villas we tipped $10 per day. But when we stay at Divi we tip $10 once since they only come in on Wednesdays. I don't tip for the Saturday arrival for I feel they have to clean units anyway. Besides they don't do very good work. BSV was emaculate.

Huh? Since when? I've received daily service every time I've stayed at Divi with a midweek mopping and sheet change.

We also tip $5/day since we use reuse towels, make our bed, and wash our own dishes etc. When we asked others who were staying at BSV what they tip (so as to be inline) I was told it was none of my business. Glad it is discussed here. We will certainly consider the tip for our upcoming visit.

Surprised that was the response, as I see no problem with discussing it. Eric usually does our dishes. If he doesn't do it, we pay extra for the maid to do them, as we often have a LOT of dishes, as we often eat in two meals a day. I don't do dishes at home, sure as heck not going to do them on vacation!! We never make the bed there either. I am happy with what we tip, regardless of what anyone else does, as Pat said, it is an individual decision. Do whatever you feel is right.

We have never received daily service. We always have had to ask for clean towels and the sheets are changed on Wednesdays. We were told that if we wanted full service there would be an additional charge.

That really surprises me; do you own there? For me, the midweek sheet change isn't necessarily on Wednesday, depending upon their workload. Might be Tuesday or Thursday. But always fresh towels and garbage removal daily.

Which sort of makes my point, of a timeshare versus Beachside. There is actual CLEANING going on every day at BSV, not just fresh towels and garbage removal.

Jazzgal I sent you a PM

Carol,

In all honesty, and personally speaking, I don’t see the need for a thorough cleaning EVERY day. I don’t clean my house EVERY day and while you can’t eat off my floors, why would you want to?!

We just returned from two weeks in Antigua where the maids did make the beds daily and did the dishes along with thoroughly cleaning EVERY day including mopping all the floors, including the porch floor, daily. It was nice to have the beds done but everything else was superfluous IMHO, and a cleaning every other day would have been just as good as far as I was concerned. But here’s the kicker - we were told upon arrival NOT to tip the staff as their tips were covered in the very reasonable AMFs the owners paid. (We did tip them anyway, but it wasn’t expected at all.)

I just can’t imagine the rooms needing that kind of cleaning effort but for the sake of the staff, I’m still happy to see them having jobs to do.

Actually, at Towers our Penthouse has DAILY cleaning. So it's not always a TS vs BSV thing. It depends upon the floor you are on there.

When staying in private condos, I usually tip $50 a week. My stays usually are a few weeks at a time so tipping by the week makes more sense to me. If I am not happy with the service offered, the tip is reduced accordingly. Tips should always be your personal choice and you should never be forced to tip a certain amount just because your friend or someone else chooses to do so. Remember it is your vacation and should be designed to your specifications!

Greetings all, just thought I'd tell you my experience here at BSV. Just arrived 2 days ago to a greeting by all the staff that was worthy of a king. This is my 21st year in a row, with the exception in 2000 after Lenny. I usually get the same villa with very few exceptions. We're usually here with a great group of friends. I enjoy cooking for everyone and over the years have brought several personal items to cook with while I'm down here. The kitchens are pretty well stocked though. I'm also a diver and usually leave some of my diving equipment here. Coming down here now, I wasn't sure what to expect, so I took many of the cooking items down here thinking there's no way these things would be in the villa after Irma went through. When we got into the villa, there was my diving equipment, and low and behold, there's all my cooking things on the kitchen counter. A little while later I saw Smarthie, usually who takes care of us, she told me she took all the things out of the villa and home with her to be safe. I'm still shock a bit over this on how thoughtful and caring. So as some have said, places vary from place to place as well as services. I'm not going to say how much of a tip she's going to get at the end of our trip, but I will say, or ask, what is that kind of service worth.

I too never thought about the need for "full" cleaning until I stayed at BSV. I like to walk around condo barefoot. At Divi I always had to wash feet before bed because bottoms were black. At BSV feet were still clean which leads me to believe Divi uses dirty water to mop the floors.

I agree. There can never be too much cleaning, for me.

Wingman--lovely story and not surprising at all!

I love this response and as a long-timer at our home resort I can only agree with what Wingman has said here.

There is something very special about that kind of a welcoming greeting upon arrival along with the hugs and good wishes upon departure and even more-so, about that kind of caring on the part of the staff. There’s no way to put a price tag on that kind of treatment which, IMHO, goes well beyond the normal understanding of the word service. Im sure the fact you’re so very well treated by the staff st BSV is part of a a well-deserved reciprocal relationship.

Priceless Mike. Please give the staff another hug from us. Enjoy and hope to see you not long after your return.