TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin Tipping Villa Staff

I'm in uncharted territory now. We have been renting island villas for many, many years. I always tip the housekeeper and the property manager, usually $100-$200 each, but the services that they provide are pretty limited.
We now have an upcoming "vacation of a lifetime" planned for our family of eleven. The villa that we rented for 8 nights comes with housekeeping plus a full-time chef and concierge. They will be waiting on our family pretty much non-stop, three meals a day.
Having never done anything like this before, I have no idea what would be normal and appropriate. Your insights would be much appreciated. Thank you!!!

You are paying directly for the services being provided. Why pay more? This tipping thing is getting out of hand. Everybody has their hand out. Even the fast food places with a tip jar out front. Enough is enough.

I don't have the faintest clue what would be appropriate, but can I be a family member of yours??

I assume without knowing, that you booked this with a villa rental agent? I would ask them.

I disagree with Scuba on this one. (Imagine that!!) I definitely think a tip would be very much in order, but have no idea how much.

Hi Carol, No, we booked directly with the owner. As for Scuba, I don't want the staff to think of me like I'm thinking of him right now.

Then just open your wallet and let them have at it. To each their own.

FF--OK, I guess maybe I would think about a percentage then, but I wouldn't know what to suggest. Depending on what services each provides, I probably would do one tip for them to split. Hopefully someone else may have a suggestion.

I would ask the owner what they feel is appropriate.

If nothing else, I would consider a percentage of the overall cost of the rental. I really have no idea what but I would start at 10% and if the service warrants it, go up from there.

Yes a unusual situation as we rented a villa two years back and didn't have a clue.
Did a lot of computer research, found some that seemed to much and finally made a decision on what to leave keeping in mind that we were extremely self sufficient
and did not need any special attention.

Our house keeper would clean every day but we did our own dishes and such.
She would stay about 4 hours a day and pretty much did just the basics like making the beds, changing towels and sweeping and mopping the floor

On the day of departure our housekeeper was extremely happy and said it was the most generous gratuity she ever got
I did not think I went overboard as I do in a restaurant for good service
I was even more surprised since Julian Lennon and Kid Rock also had stayed at the Villa in the past

Besides showing the Villa on the first day and collecting the keys on the last day, our concierge did very little

I know we tipped our visiting chef $150 for one nights dinner for 4 guests, but he was excellent and did more than could have been asked
He was also very reasonable priced, less than what I charge here in the states

I guess you could figure out what you would leave for a night's stay in a hotel and add in for the extra bedrooms and remainder of the villa being cared for

Please keep in mind that I have been in the hospitality business for over 40 years and have appreciated all my guests that been so generous to me so I guess I am just passing it along

If you really are worried, I would respectfully ask your housekeeper what is fair depending on the relationship that you have during your stay

In all honestly, you can never over tip if you feel it is warranted

We used to rent a villa in Orient. We would always tip out at a 20/30% rate. We always err on the side of not knowing how much people are being paid and well if we can afford the villa then we can afford to take care of the staff who took care of us.

I appreciate ALL feedback and thank you for your help!
The villa is extremely expensive (for someone in our tax bracket), $56,000 for 8 nights.
I'm thinking that it would cost at least $16,500 to feed our family of eleven for 8 days.
At 20% that would come out to $3300. I would like to be above average in this area and leave an example for my family.
Do you readers think that maybe $5000 divided, according to the level of service provided by the three staff members would be adequate?

Whatever makes you and your guests happy.

Just an example. Would you tip 20% on a $200 bottle of wine when it takes the same service to serve a $50 bottle with the same service. Tipping is relevant to what you feel is appropriate for the service you got. Not on the amount of the bill and what you feel comfortable with.

I believe most people tip based on the total price of the bill.

I would definitely ask the owner.

As a general guideline, cruise lines charge $12-$20 per person, per day for gratuities. Marc and I recently paid $640 in gratuities on a 16 day transatlantic cruise. It was well worth it for the service we received, and we tipped another $100 or so to bartenders, waitstaff and our cabin attendant.
And, of course, there were many people who were in the customer service line, asking to remove or adjust their gratuities.

It’s all what you’re comfortable with.

$100. for maid for the week and $100. for chef per day.

FF--I'm going to ask a stupid question here, not directly related to your tipping question--or perhaps it is? Have you been in contact with the chef and expressed your preferences etc and they have been planning meals based on your wishes? And the chef is supposed to do to all the grocery shopping, in addition to alcohol, etc?? And the owner of the villa is paying for the food and the booze? Those are additional responsibilities that would not normally be the province of the chef at a restaurant. Or perhaps those things are the responsibility of the concierge? I'm not sure that really helps clarify anything, perhaps just muddies the waters.

As someone else suggested, I might talk to the owner of the villa and get their thoughts.

But I renew my question--can I be a family member of yours??

The concierge is coordinating the menu and doing the shopping. They will be adding 20% of the costs to compensate for this service.
Yes, I will ask the owner. Not sure that she will have the most unbiased opinion.

OK, that makes sense, re the 20% on the shopping. So I would assume, without knowing, that the owner is going to kick forward some of that money to the concierge. Not sure how biased the owner will be either. I would have preferred to be dealing with a villa rental agent, in case there are any issues, but hopefully not.

Do you have a link to the villa? Thanks!

Yes, I will share the link if you promise to not beat me up about the location.😊
We have vacationed in SXM 22 times and counting. We take our entire family on a yearly vacation.
They have already been to Aruba and SXM, in addition to MANY stateside destinations.
Here is the link to our family vacation in SXM:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/p0seuo6uccb6srs/St%20Martin%2C%20Thanksgiving%202014.mp4?dl=0

Here is the link to where we are headed:

https://tipofthetailvilla.com/

Wow! Amazing place.

This now becomes "Tale of the Tip" !!

I just heard back from the owner about tipping. This was her reply:


With your stay you will have on staff your own chef, butler, housekeeper and concierge. Guests on average will tip 10% of their stay and divide it amongst the staff how they see fit, but this is also entirely up to you. You can choose to tip them cash or add it to your bill upon check out and pay via credit card.

They have seen anywhere between:
Chef $1000-$2500
Butler $1000-$2500
Housekeeping $500-$1500
Concierge $500-$1000
Groundsmen $200-$500
I hope this information was helpful, if you have any more questions please feel free to ask.

Best regards,

Tamecha

Interesting. Stupidly, I had assumed we were talking about a villa in SXM. Have you been to Turks & Caicos before?

We were just at a villa in Jamaica called PROMISEAS AMAZING !!! our hosts (who paid for the entire trip tipped the staff) and we the guests, tipped our personal staff extremely generously (lol) since it was a free vacation. its up to you.. see how the stay is and tip appropriately ... JMHO

Shouldn't this be on a different forum?

Scuba--you can just let me worry about those kinds of things. The post is fine here.

Thank you so much for sharing your personal video in SXM. What a beautiful family. I hope your holiday in T&C is all you hope for and more. I am a private person when at my villa and never had a full staff. Pool service, gardener and maid only.
Which goes back to your question about tipping… Chef, butler and maids tip from the owner’s response I feel is reasonable but the grounds keeper is working whether you are there or the property is not occupied. The owner should be the one tipping the gardener. The property is awesome but just not for me. Enjoy and stay safe!