Family Furious After Being Asked To Tip at Vacation Rental: ‘Excessive’

A traveler has shared his frustration after he was greeted with a tip jar in a vacation rental.

Brian, who is from Cincinnati, Ohio, was staying at a cabin for a family vacation with his in-laws in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee.

“I noticed the tip jar in a little basket on the kitchen counter. There was nothing to indicate whether the tip was for the cabin owners or a house cleaning crew,” he told Newsweek.

The jar had a white label stuck on the front that read: “Welcome to the cabin. We hope you enjoy your stay!” before adding: “Tips are appreciated.”

A spokesperson for Heartland Rentals, who let the vacation cabin, told Newsweek: “We have contract cleaners that clean the cabins after every stay. The cleaners have a set price for cleaning each cabin price depends on size of cabin. Some guest respect the cabins and others trash the cabins. We allow the contract cleaners to leave a tip jar for tips.”

“Seeing the tip jar irritated several of us, especially my in-laws who had paid out a handsome sum to rent the cabin, paid a separate cleaning fee, and had a litany of instructions from the owner on how to prepare the cabin for their departure,” said Brian. “I was particularly irritated because of the excessive tipping culture in America.”

Tipping culture in the U.S. has been gaining increased criticism in recent times—from a tip jar at a self-serve breakfast bar to being expected to tip for an ice cream cone, the public’s patience for the practice is waning.

Deeply ingrained in social norms, voluntarily giving a gratuity to service providers is generally expected in many settings. Because U.S. minimum wage laws allow employers to pay a lower base for tipped workers, known as tipped minimum wage or subminimum wage, many people working in service rely heavily on tips to subsidize a low paycheck.

In a recent survey by DealAid.org, 1,050 U.S. consumers were asked about tipping culture in America. Randomly selected using SurveyMonkey panel services, respondents were equally distributed across all U.S. states.

Of the respondents, 48.6 percent of American consumers said that they felt tipping was out of control, while over 70 percent said that they had felt pressure to tip.

It isn’t just customers that are disgruntled with the current system either, workers across the country are refusing to work for subminimum wages for the first time in decades.

According to the DealAid survey, 40 percent of Americans blame low minimum wage for the increased pressure to tip and more than 63 percent said that they tip less when traveling outside of the U.S.

“Tipping has been creeping into every type of business, from coffee shops, take out food counters, and other places where employees earn a regular wage,” said Brian. “My in-laws paid the listed price for the cabin and a separately stated cleaning charge. Why should cabin renters be responsible for tipping a cleaning crew that has accepted a job at a given rate, in a separate line item on the bill?”

Frustrated by the jar, the family did not leave any tip.

“I admit I was tempted to leave something nasty in the jar, but I’m a better person than that,” said Brian. “I’ve never seen a tip jar at any of the vacation rentals I have stayed at. It felt really scummy and trashy, particularly in this $600k 5-bedroom cabin. I have no problem leaving a tip for housekeepers at hotels, servers, bartenders, and my barber.”

He shared the picture on Reddit and in over 600 comments, other people shared their frustration at the tip jar too.

“I stayed in one where they had a picture of their young child and a story of how she cleans the room, asking for tips for her as they don’t pay her,” said Redditor LostToRNG. “Insane the things people try to pull.”

“Tipping culture is out of control,” said Bert197941. While user no_not_this said: “I stopped tipping. Used to be awkward now it just feels good.”