You should tip 15-20 % . .

We had 9 people and gave the captain a 200.00 tip.

Wow! Connie, excellent tip!
Yes, it is appropriate to tip IF you are happy with how your trip went. The Capt. makes the most (and is sometimes the owner, so keep that in mind) and the crew makes about half of what the Capt. makes.
Connie, Did you tip Granville? How did his oriantation go?

15% is about right 🙂

Pia

Sherri, because we had 2 wranglers and 9 people, I had to ask him to put our luggage in the back of his truck. It was so funny because his truck was full of all kinds of wood, buckets, things from doing his job. I thought for sure that something was going to pop out going up those hills.

Granville was great. Such a nice guy. We tipped him $40.00 for taking us there (about a 20 min ride) and then when we were coming back to the airport we gave him another $40.00 plus some things like 2 box fans we bought, an unopened bottle of wine, unopened bacardi rum and some food that was never opened. We told him just to get it out of the freezer. It was things like hotdogs, bacon and butter.

With things being so expensive down there he seemed very happy to have those things.

He walked one of the men in our party through the villa, and helped us carry some luggage in. Even when we were leaving and had 3 bags of trash which we were going to put in one of the dumpsters on the side of the road, he said to just leave it and he would get it.

By the way Sherri...On wed the cleaning girls came and were sitting outside when husband and i went to the store. We told them we didn't need them because the younger people were still sleeping. We didn't leave a tip for them because first of all, the place was dirty when we got there and C-21 said that the mid-week cleaning was provided by them. I think C-21 is mostly responsible because they should keep up on their rentals. I work for a real estate agency and I know how this works. Our company would never have a rental like Wyndcliff.

Tipping is always a hot topic, isn’t it? We all have our standards and points of reference which guide us as to whether or not we are going to tip at all and, if we do, how much we are going to tip. I wish that someone who provides or is familiar with each service on island would chime in and tell how they really feel about the subject and what is customary for which services.

Not to be argumentative but just offering an opinion here and hoping to spark some more discussion on the subject:

Re the cleaning crew: IMO, the owner of the villa or accommodation has to be taken out of the tipping equation when it comes to housekeeping – unless they are performing the service themselves. If there are problems with the condition of the villa then my issue is with the owner (in the case of owner-direct) or with the management company who is charged with maintaining the villa. We once arrived in a villa on STT that had not been cleaned following the previous guests’ departure. Turned out there was a disconnect between the management company and the cleaning crew – the crew had been told the guests were not leaving for two more days. One phone call and the cleaning team arrived very quickly. Of course, they were apologizing and cleaning like mad, suspecting that we would hold them responsible for the state of the villa when we arrived. This kind of brought it home to me.

If the villa is not cleaned to my liking when I arrive then my issue is really with owner or management – not with the cleaning crew. That may sound odd but the crew may have been given standards by the owner that may not be my own but that’s the level of cleaning for which they are being paid. This can be a tough one but, if the villa cleanliness is disappointing, talking with the crew is a good way to find out what’s what. Conversationally, you can usually determine what the standards are for your villa. There’s also only so much cleaning can do. If the general villa condition is bad or really worn or if the kitchen stuff and cookware need to be replaced, then the cleaning crew can only do so much with these things to try to make them nice again. As they say – it’s tough sometimes to raise the dead – lol.

If we are only staying a week, then DH and I often don’t really require the mid-week that is included. We are pretty neat folks. But, the crew most likely does not get paid unless they clean and I would be counting on that, if this were my job. We tell the crew when they arrive that we think we have been kind of neat and don’t require a lot but that they should go ahead and do whatever they think needs to be done. On STX, our housekeeper agreed that we were neatos so once she did what she thought was needed she unloaded the dishwasher and then hand-washed all of the stemware in the cabinet because she said she noticed that we had a couple of bottles of wine and some sparkling wine and wanted to make sure that the glasses on the top of the cabinet were fresh. She put a couple of the glasses in the fridge for us and also reloaded the fridge with water, beer and soda. She was also very gracious to spend some time talking with us and telling us about the island and about some good restaurants to try. So, did she take care of us even though she was not scrubbing all day – YES, she sure did!

I am not the neatest when it comes to departure day and I know that I have left some messes in my wake when hurrying to make a ferry or plane because I have pushed the last of my island time to the limit before getting ready to leave. So, I feel that what the housekeepers have to do to come in after we leave also goes into the whole tipping thing.

I think of leftover food as something the housekeepers have to deal with, rather than as part of their tip. I mean, we can’t take the food home with us and it’s great if someone can use something we have left unused but, if not, it all still has to be dealt with by someone. We all kind of say – oh, we’ll leave that for the maids - and we may feel good about that and think we are doing something for someone – sometimes we could be, but, my point is that no matter whether or not someone uses it, that fridge and any dry perishables have to be dealt with before the next guests arrive. Just my opinion again, here, but I kind of think it is insulting to expect anyone else to want my leftovers from cooking in the villa or from my restaurant plate. I’m not big on eating from someone else’s plate so why would I expect anyone else to want to do that?

So, this is just my long-winded take on tipping the housekeeping crew. Hope I didn’t offend anyone and I hope that we all continue a spirited discussion on tipping from all sides.

Margy...i want to make this clear, and I hope that I'm not reading your post wrong. We didn't leave any leftover food. In fact, we left everything in the villa cleaner then when we got there.

We left unopened hot dogs, bacon and butter. We didn't want to throw that away and we asked our greeter if he wanted it, which he said he did. It was only those 3 things. We even threw out mustard, mayo and ketchup that we had used.

I would NEVER leave plates of or containers of cooked food in any place that I stay. I am totally a neat freak, but I won't throw out good, unopened food. With the prices of food in STT and STJ...we thought we were doing the right thing. Why throw it in the trash?

OK Gals, I will give you my input as I am a maid, a greeter, and come from the standpoint of an owner! Ooooh, this is going to take some serious thought and time to put into words!!!! Today is my daughters Birthday - Sweet 16 and my day is full, so I will get to this as soon as I possibly can! It is a very good topic to discuss and worth going further!

I thought the first post was asking about a day charter (say for a yacht charter for the day) not tipping for "other" things - different story 🙂

Pia

Yes, we kind of hi-jacked the thread, Pia - apologies to the OP, we should have started a new one. Connie - nothing personal to you in my post - you brought up the villa cleaning as related to tipping and I took the opportunity to run with my thoughts. I just returned from a trip to STT with 4 women and we had some issues about this and tipping in general so the whole topic was on my mind. It also brought back tipping issues from other trips DH and I have taken with other with couples. Sherri, I would love to hear your take on this - especially as you are coming at it from a couple of different directions. Happy B'Day to your daughter!!!

Pia, yes this was concerning tipping for a charter and that answer was addressed, but I often find threads move into other areas and this should be just fine after all it is entitled "tipping" and people interested in the subject will be sure to look I would think! Funny, Connie PM'd me prior to her visit and asked about tipping her escort so it is a valid discussion!

I as usual am limited for time so keeping this short and sweet.
Most importantly- when it comes to tipping anyone for any reason, you need to be happy with the service provided. You should not tip if you are not happy. That part is quite simple.
Yes, we all rely on our tips. For the maids, this means also left over goodies! I have a info sheet in the villas that asks for any good food to be left and not thrown away. ( this would include condiments and anything open and well as sealed). AND I have "Tipping is appreciated". There are issues within issues here if you can believe it. Yes, the comp. cleaning is paid for actually by the owner, this service is usually Hotel type and does not include doing dishes, but mostly linens and surface stuff. Tipping for maids goes like this....$2.00 per person per day of your stay. Sometimes there are several maids cleaning 1 house (we only have 4 hours to clean a house on a same day turnaround depending on ck out time, ours is 11 am and ck in time is 3pm).
Connie mentioned that the house was not clean upon her arrival and she was dissatisfied. She could have requested that the maids return, (I am not saying that you should have done this, this would be entirely up to you). Regardless, she was not happy with the cleaning service, therefore my personal believe would be not to tip. No offense Margy, I understand your point and am happy you think the way you do! We DO rely on our tips!!!!!! 🙂
I DO have to say that the cleanliness of the house, tho a reflexion on the owner and management agency, is not the owners fault. Most owners live off island and rely on this service being provided to be done to the best of the maids abilities!!!! He really doesn't know for sure!!!!! What reflects on the owner the most is the quality and upkeep of linens, furniture and up keep of the house. The villa agency usually will keep up on this and let the owner know when things need to be replaced. I KNOW for instance that McLaughlin Anderson DOES do this. Mind you, an agency cannot go to every villa before every rental to see if things are presentable!!! That would be nice, but not feasible. Also the Maids are responsible to notify the management agency when things like this need to be replaced. If the owner does not take care of these issues himself, the agency can then go ahead and deal with these issues and take it out of the owners income.
As an escort, I always try to do my best to answer any and all questions and give as much info. as possible. I sometimes get tipped and sometimes don't. That is OK.
As a wedding coordinator, I get paid the least of all vendors and do the most time- I totally depend on a tip, but again, don't always get tipped.
As a maid, that is all said above- again sometimes we get tipped and sometimes we don't. If we get alot of left over goodies, we feel fortunate! Our average tip is $20 up to $50, mind you this is for a one bedroom or two bedroom house! On all of these, I strive to do my best! 🙂
Hope this helps and hope that I didn't offend anyone!

Hello,

I want to get this straight, if you rent a house/villa and even though you don't get daily maid service you should leave a suggested tip of $2.00 a day for the maids?

Thanks,
Grace

Grace - Yes, IMO, I think that's about right. Like I said, I try to consider the cleanup after we leave, as well as the mid-week cleaning.

Connie - I agree with you completely about the unopened food and, Sherri, about condiments. I didn't mean to imply that I think you should throw out a loaf of bread just because someone has used some of it, or a jar of olives or pickles because some have been used. And, it would kill me to dispose of a bottle of liquor just because it was opened - lol. But, if one of my fellow travelers has a habit of drinking out of the milk carton then I would be sure to get rid of that carton - lol. I have had experience with folks I am traveling with thinking that restaurant or table leftovers should be left for the maids and I disagree so that's what I was referring to. My point was just that someone has to deal with this stuff after we leave (whether or not they can or want to use any of it) and that, again, only in my opinion, I don't consider any leftover food as part of the cleaning tip. Sherri, I totally agree with calling the owner or the manager if you are dissatisfied with something when you arrive at the villa. Sometimes, if there is an underlying issue to what the guest sees, it provides the opportunity to repair a small problem before it becomes a major repair problem or replacement.

When newbies talk to me about renting their first villa I always suggest that they rent through one of the "majors" on their chosen island at least until they get a feel for things. Things happen and, as Sherri said, owners are often not on island which is why they have a manager. Unless there is an on-site caretaker at the property, a major can usually make problems right in the shortest amount of time or can move you to another property if things have really gone wonky. It just happened to us on STX - when we got to the airport Deanna (from Bubble Makers, our provisioner and greeter) told us that we would be in a different unit at Villa Madeleine - that when she had shown up at "our" unit to deliver the provisions that she had discovered the previous guests still there long beyond their checkout time, discovered that the fridge had been broken for a day and a half without them reporting it and that the nude-swimming guests had used so much tanning oil that there was a huge slick on the water and lots of algae growing in the tiled pool. Yuck. She got in touch with Marti at Vacation St. Croix who decided to move us rather than let us see that mess and have to wait out a fridge repair or changeout and a complete pool scrubbing. (Maybe my reputation as a picky "b" has moved from STT & STJ right on over to STX but that's OK - lol) Back in '01 when we were in Allure, a back hoe showed up at 6:30 AM our first day to break ground for Quintessence right next door. One call to McL A and they sent out someone to show us some vacant properties they could move us to. Sherri, you know that story, things resolved themselves with a back hoe accident (fortunately the operator was unharmed) but quiet returned for the rest of our stay until the back hoe could be righted and repaired. Nothing against owner managed properties - I am sure that most of them are wonderful - and after this many visits I wouldn't hesitate to go that route on STT or STJ but on a new island I want that little bit of insurance.

Oops, now I am getting away from tipping - sorry! Sherri, could you give us your take on tipping for other services associated with a villa vacation? For example: villa greeter, concierge for booking activities, provisioning, pool maintenance. Are there any others I haven't mentioned that we should consider??

I hope the comments keeps coming on this. And particularly if folks would chime in on tipping the person who greets you at the dock and shows you to villa, etc., that'd be great. My first trip to STJ was 2 years ago, and I remember seeing this as as a hot, hot topic on the message board in the months leading up to my trip. I tried to find that in a search but cannot find the specific thread. It was fairly heated and if memory serves, the overwhelming consensus at the time was that generally speaking, you would NOT tip greeters/rental agency reps. Of course, as in all things, exceptions exist and it's always at the guest's discretion but TYPICALLY it's a no-go.

One old comment I did find from Islander makes sense--that the greeting was really part of the villa rental and what you paid for by renting from a particular agency. How would you find your way/get your key/etc otherwise?

Having made it through college as a bartender who relied on tips, my hub and I are FAR from chintzy when it comes to tipping when it's typical/appropriate. And I mean no offense to anyone who makes a living off tips. But in this day and age where tipping is a bit out of hand (example: there's a tip jar at our local Dunkin' Donuts drive-thru, for crying out loud, as well as every ice cream joint and sandwich shop in town), our rule of thumb when considering tipping and how much is (1) service but also (2) whether or not the person's income is largely reliant on tips (like waitresses) or if they're already paid a full regular wage and tips are more a nice additional perk (like, say, curbside check in folks at mainland US airports). In which category are greeters/villa mgt agency reps?

Lots of good points Dreaming. We stay at Gallows Point and receive cleaning every day and since they really do clean (even our dirty dishes) they get a good tip when we leave. Tip is actually left at the front desk since different crews can end up cleaning.

I think one of the problems is that tipping is expected for everything. Sorry to those who greet. But why would you get a tip since someone has to show me to my villa, right? It's part of the villa management company's job to get you there. People pay some big bucks for that villa probably not a bad idea to have someone meet them at the ferry dock.

I think one of the problems with tipping especially in a place like STJ/STT/STX is that, for example, the captain or villa management company can pay less and expect the tips to make up the difference.

I love tipping folks like wait staff in a restaurant, in a bar where the bartender seems like he cares, airport porters who can make things happen. That's where I love to tip.

Too much rambling!!!!

Just to let people know that on STJ (don't know about the other islands) almost all the villa greeters work for the villa management company (they are not part owner) and are generally paid either a flat rate of somewhere in the $40 range or are paid by the hour. I sometimes pick up for a company here on STJ and NEVER expect a tip. In the 30 or so that I have done I have been tipped 3 times all $20 - it was a very nice gesture and again never expected 🙂

Pia

I felt tipping our greeter was in order, but I guess it's all an individual thing. He had to wait for us to get the luggage, which took quite awhile. We also ended up getting 2 jeep wranglers with 9 people, so there was NO room for our luggage. He took that luggage and put it in the back of his truck. We would of had to rent a cab to take the luggage to the villa if he wasn't there. Also, we called him to get us back to the airport with our luggage, which he didn't have to do. So I thought tipping in this instance was a must.

In my earlier post, I said that as a greeter/escort, I sometimes get tipped and that is OK. I do not expect a tip, tho it is appreciated!!! I DO feel that I go out of my way to inform our guests in many ways. One of them is that I carry walkie-talkies and give the guests info as we are driving along to the villa. I am the only escort who does this. I also rarely charge for carrying luggage (there is a $35 fee). There are times too, that I have waited at the airport for hours, when the plane is coming from PR and they keep changing the arrival time and I can't leave- too hard to explain this situation or when I was given the first plane arrival instead of the last plane arrival (guests coming in on separate planes) and we have to wait for them. In these cases, I think it nice to be tipped, I do not expect it.
Often I get calls and have to help to direct the guests back to their villa when they have gotten lost. My cell is on 24/7! I always try to be there for the guests as much as possible for their whole stay.

Margy,
To answer your question, these are the places I see tips in the villa world. Sometimes escorts and definitely maids if you are happy with your services provided. When I did provisioning, I sometimes got tipped, but remember the provisioner is getting $25 and hour. The concierge is on the payroll and is her job. I appreciate what your points were Margy, you were concerned about the little people and that means alot and you were thinkin' of the maids. In Connie's case tho, she arrived to a dirty house. I would encourage guests to contact their agency and have any situations like this and others rectified including a dirty pool!

promoguy,
Don't get me wrong, I don't like going to get my hair cut and feel like I have to tip for that. I feel that it is wrong, but it is expected. I never EXPECT a tip, I appreciate it IF I get one!!!

Also, I remember Blu telling us that she would have had to pay her escort IF she wanted one, in the last villa she rented out in Peterbourg. She knew her way enough that she felt she could do it on her own. This was a rental thru an owner.
That fee would have been $75 tho I can't remember for sure.

Looking forward to hearing more thoughts!

Connie,
You were writing while I was!!! Yes, you are right!!! It was appropriate to tip for Granviles services!!! Thank you for being considerate! 🙂