Major Hotel Chain Will Ask Guests To Tip Every Employee Using QR Codes
The more you tip at hotels, the less a hotel has to pay in wages to attract workers.
- If an employee demands $25 an hour to work at the hotel, that might break down as a $20 wage and $5 in tips.
- If the hotel can push guests to tip more, say to $10 an hour that a worker expects to receive on average, then the hotel only needs to offer $15 an hour to attract the workers they need.
Hotel chains aren’t pushing guests to tip out of affection for their lowest-paid employees. They’re doing it as a way of controlling owner costs. The CEO of one hotel group even says they need guests to tip more – so they don’t have to raise wages.
Eight years ago we started seeing Marriott put envelopes in hotel rooms as a way of encouraging tips for housekeepers. Some hotels have been adding tips to guest folios automatically. Holiday Inns are adding QR codes to rooms for tipping housekeeping.
Now the Wyndham chain – which includes 22 brands including Ramada, La Quinta, and Days Inn – has a new approach to pushing for tips: they’re rolling out mobile web-based tipping via QR code for all employees, not just housekeeping. And since this is all about hotel owner costs, guests even pay an add-on fee to cover credit card processing and software.
Once a hotel opts-in and is setup on the Béné platform, guests can easily recognize the team member of their choice by scanning a QR code during their stay and choosing how much they would like to tip. QR codes are unique to each team member and tips are deposited daily either directly into their individual bank accounts or into the property’s account to be distributed with regular payroll.
The platform accepts multiple forms of payment, including credit card, Apple Pay® and Google Pay™. Similar to other digital payment services, platform costs are covered by guests via a small transaction fee, leaving franchisees responsible only for basic marketing materials, which they can either order directly from Béné at a minimal cost or create themselves.
Tipping in the U.S. is out of control. It’s one thing to tip a server in a restaurant, or a mobile delivery driver. If you go out to eat at a quick service restaurant, where you stand in line and pay for your and collect your food at the register, you’re likely to be prompted for a tip amount. You may even have to take extra steps, like first choosing other to navigate to a separate screen, to opt out.
In hotels things are even worse. During the pandemic, Hyatt’s Motif Hotel in Seattle asked guests to tip the Hong Kong-based investment group that owned the hotel.
(HT: Travel Essential)