2015 Holiday Tipping

We tipped for years, generously, in our UES co-op. What a dummy I was. The board paid the staff a Christmas bonus every year, that's what it was called in the monthly report, that I didn't know existed until we sold. I don't know how common this is, but that is something I'd look into first.

I'm in a similar size building (# units & # staff), same neighborhood, probably the same definition of 'luxury' (what does that even mean any more?). My building has a 'suggested' addition to November maintenance for the bonus pool, which I pay (about $225), and I also give $75 to each of the regular staff I interact with significantly over the year (thus mostly the doormen, concierge, and mailroom - about 11 of the 17 staff).

We're on the Eastside also and have a staff of 10. We tip between $50 and $200 based on the position and amount of interaction we have with that particular member of the staff. Also based on their competence and demeanor.

I am in midtown east in 200 unit coop, nice but not white glove by any means.. Staff is 10-11 and I tip as follows:
super 150, doormen 125, porters and handyman 75. I also tip for personal tasks (bringing up furniture, changing toilet seat, etc.) throughout year. In retrospect, would like to tip two of the doormen less and up porter/handyman tips, but it is a statement when you slash tip from one year to next. My advice is to start conservatively.

new2RE, you tip cash or personal check?

Cash

I always tip the porter the same amount as the doormen -- taking out the garbage and vacuuming and mopping and cleaning up messes on 20 floors? He deserves the bucks.

I don't understand how you tip $125 in cash. Six 20s, and then a 5 on top to show extra appreciation? Or $75, how does that work, three 20s, and then three 5s instead of just making it four 20s - was the goal to save $5?

cash is king

Cash in a holiday card.

Do the math Fieldchester. Not really hard to combine bills.

For coops of about 100-200 units you can use one month maintenance as a general guide for total tips. Its only a guide. Long tenured full time staff get most. Doormen and porters $150. Super $200. Swing shift or others who work fewer hours just adjust accordingly. Garage attendants collectively get a bit more than one month's charge. I don't tip during the year overtime I get my car out so I make it up at the holidays and after many years they know that. From what I observe, most people who use my garage don't tip on a daily basis either. The 6 attendants generally get $80. The assistant manager gets $100 and the manager gets $120. Even though I don't use the car at night, the night shift guy gets the same as the others since I figure he has to shuffle the cars around for morning pickups and he exercises the same care (based on the fact that the car never has been damaged in the garage. Mail carriers are public servants and I don't understand why they are even allowed to accept cash gifts. Hair salon, massage guys (not the happy ending kind), and others who provide regular services during the year get a tip equal to twice what I give them after an appointment or a little more depending. Housekeeper gets two paid weeks off during the year and a bonus (holiday tip) equal to two cleaning sessions. The person who regularly cleans my office I give $50 because she does a great job of taking care of me during the year--I don't think 95% of the other people in my office tip the cleaning staff though.

I also start giving out the tips next week so I have time to personally hand the tip and card to each person if possible and to thank them personally. Everyone of these people makes me happy all year and I'm glad to give the tips. If I were having issues with anyone then I guess I'd rethink it, but that's never been the case.

Fwiw, I did give $75 to some people years ago, and believe it or not, fieldschester's comments at the time about the effort it takes to make it $75 instead of $80 actually made sense to me and the $75 tips become $80 the next year. :)

I should have mentioned above that I usually get my car out of the garage 1-2 a week and some weeks not at all. If I were getting it more often, I might consider a higher tip since I don't tip each time I get it.

"For coops of about 100-200 units you can use one month maintenance as a general guide for total tips. Its only a guide. "

So what you're saying is that you should tip based on the size of your apartment, which I don't agree with. Someone in a studio might pay $1000 maintenance while those in 2 bedrooms might pay $2500 maintenance, don't see why the person in the larger apartment should tip more than twice as much. You might make a case for tipping based on the number of persons in your apartment but not by apartment size. It's not uncommon to see 3 or 4 persons in a 1 bedroom while you might find 1 empty nester in a 2 bedroom.

>Do the math Fieldchester. Not really hard to combine bills.

Hard? No. Ridiculous? Yes.

>Mail carriers are public servants and I don't understand why they are even allowed to accept cash gifts.

No, mail carriers deliver the specific pieces of mail that they are paid to delivery by the sender for the recipient. My tax dollars don't pay the mailman. Now, the police officer doesn't arrest the person I pay him to arrest, that is a different story.

>Housekeeper gets two paid weeks off during the year

Wow, a whole two weeks off.

>Fwiw, I did give $75 to some people years ago, and believe it or not, fieldschester's comments at the time about the effort it takes to make it $75 instead of $80 actually made sense to me and the $75 tips become $80 the next year. :)

See? My contributions to Streeteasy changes lives for the better.

fields, I'm very curious what you tip. care to share? and how many weeks paid vacation do you recommend giving a housekeeper who comes one morning a week? Maybe I'm off on that--open to considering your opinion.
realestateny: I laid out broad guidelines--not one size fits all and while I think I was clear, I say it again here. But as I think about it, yes--size of apt does matter regarding amount to tip in most Manh coops --at least to an extent-- because larger apts are usually owned by people of greater means and in my opinion they should tip more generously. Studios are often starter apts with just one occupant and I don't expect they would tip the same as the family of four in the three bedroom down the hall. There isn't going to be any universal agreement on tips. One former frequent poster was adamantly opposed to any tipping in his coop. Others will surely be more generous than me.

"people of greater means and in my opinion they should tip more generously"

I thought you tip for service. I've heard that the richest people give the smallest tips in restaurants. Besides, many young professionals living in studios make a lot more money than a senior citizen living in a larger apartment. Hard to generalize.

I would never think of offending building staff with anything quite so vulgar as cash. They have their pride. I give personal gifts that I make for each one, like macramé or decoupage objets d'art. Alternatively, you can take care of them with a fifth of Ten High. Make it a handle for that doorman who does doubles.

As I said, opinions will differ. That's why we can each offer to share what we tip as a reflection of what we think is fair under our own circumstances. No need to challenge what others do. Everyone decides for themselves. But what emerges is a general range that gives people an idea of what others do. How you arrive at the number you think is fair may not matter that much in the end, since you and I (for example) use different ways of figuring it out but don't seem all that far apart on what we end up tipping.

Nice to hear your voice again kylewest. and happy holidays. Your input, along with a few others, meant a lot to me when buying my first place and I just wanted to thank you.

>fields, I'm very curious what you tip. care to share?

IRL, I'm a generous tipper.

On Streeteasy, I live in my mother's basement, so, I'm an unappreciative bastard.

>and how many weeks paid vacation do you recommend giving a housekeeper who comes one morning a week?

Well, let's be explicit here. When you say "weeks paid" vacation, are you talking about paying a full work week, or just a day? If just the equivalent day for day otherwise worked, then why would you offer less vacation than a regular employer would pay a regular employee? Why fewer benefits than a union? I've always pictured you as a liberal, you know, raise the minimum wage so high that more people are unemployed, free healthcare that creates incentives for automation instead of employment, paid sick leave that encourages sickness, unlimited maternity leave that biases employers against hiring women and against advancement for women.

kyle?

I guess he's on vacation.

RealEstateNY I lived in a condo where the managing agent sent out a guide for tipping. It was solely based upon the size of an apartment. The idea behind this was that people with 4 bedroom apartments needed more services than someone in a studio. Since this was building had over 300 apartments, the Board suggested pooling the tips and distributing them based on a formula they created. The managing agent had an office on the premises, so they set up a collection box and distributed the monies to the staff just before Christmas along with a card listing all the donors. When I left there 3 years ago, the suggested donation was a little more than half of the maintenance. (Remember that a condo owner's real estate taxes are not part of the maintenance.) Some people gave directly to staff that they liked to exclude those they didn't like. Others contributed to the pool and gave an additional gift (food, wine, etc.) to favorite staff members.

" Since this was building had over 300 apartments, the Board suggested pooling the tips and distributing them based on a formula they created. The managing agent had an office on the premises, so they set up a collection box and distributed the monies to the staff just before Christmas along with a card listing all the donors. "

Don't like the idea of the managing agent distributing tips. Tips should be given directly to the recipient so that he/she knows their value to the particular resident.

Who wants the managing agent making those decisions.

I still say the size of the apartment should have nothing to do with the size of the tip. As I said earlier you might make a case for the number of occupants being the deciding factor but I still believe the size of the tip and to whom it's given is a decision for the tipper and no one else.

Kylewest, what about a building of 60ish apartments?

RealEstateNY: The donors and amounts were all identified when a card was prepared for the staff. The managing agent did not decide on who got how much. The BOARD set the guidelines and the managing agent was accountable to them for all monies coming into the condo. Also, with a staff of 35 people, rotating the coverage for 3 shifts across the 7 days of the week, there were few staff members you didn't get to know. I gave the suggested amount to the pool to cover everyone and gave extras to those who went "above and beyond" for us.

I understand your point about not being based upon the apartment size. All I know is that there were many more people in the 4 bedroom apartments than the studios asking for services. There was more maintenance work (covered by the Condo) in the larger apartments than the small ones based upon sheer size.

I downsized and moved to a coop where they do not have a tipping pool. There are around 170 to 180 apartments, depending upon how you count the combined apartments (up to 6 bedrooms). I don't know how much people tip here. I give each category the same amount: porters/repairmen = 1/2 doormen/concierges = 1/2 super. I also give extras of holiday food. I base the super's amount upon what I've seen in articles in such sources as the NY Times and Streeteasy. The staff is exceptional here and each goes that extra mile to help people. So I treat them equally. This is costing me over 4 times as much as for the larger apartment in the building with a "pool". I'm not complaining about that . I just consider the Christmas tip as an "add on" to the maintenance and budget accordingly.

" Also, with a staff of 35 people, rotating the coverage for 3 shifts across the 7 days of the week"

Over staffed!

We give $100 to each of our three doorman, $100 each to the super and assistant super and $50 to a couple of the porters. There is one other doorman who is not pleasant or helpful so we don't tip him.

Maybe that doorman isn't helpful because you don't tip him? Which came first?
It's like for kylewest, his apartment is probably a complete mess because he skimps on the paid vacation for his housekeeper so she either takes it out on him, or she's not sufficiently regularly refreshed enough to do a good job.

Whatever!

That's what KW said

Great. If everyone in these 200 unit buildings tip as suggested above, the building staff will each get $30-$40,000 in cash (no taxes here) tips this month. Isn't union work grand?

nycsport, the current union contract pays around $45K a year -- admittedly with good benefits, but would you be willing to trade what you do for $45K plus a chance -- if everyone tipped well, which they don't --- at another $35K? You want to try to live in NYC and put your kids through college on that?

I have lived in doormen buildings most of my decades here in NYC, and some of the staff have been outstanding while some have not, but I really don't think any of them are living a "grand" life.

Right, FP, and I don't remotely believe that anywhere close to everyone tips, or tips at these levels (or, frankly, that those advocating those tips are in practice as generous as they preach). Tipping is just the wrong way to compensate people, from all directions. It imposes uneven burdens, and in my many decades experience it is often those that make the most use of the services that tip the least (and vice-versa). It leaves compensation for the employee at the whim of residents, most of whom will avoid paying if they can (the doormen in my old 300 unit building used to tell me less than half of residents tipped). And, it is simply a tax avoidance scheme for the recipients. But the population admittedly is not as generous as it should or claims to be. I tried to get my condo to give an "appropriate" tip to our super so the individual unit owners (10 in total, all quite well off) would not need to, and it would force the commercial unit to kick in. My neighbors all gasped at the suggested amount, which proportionally was half what I paid every year. So, we stayed in this tipping merry go round, where I am obviously overpaying for services I don't use at all since I am only home about half the time and there is nothing for the super to do specific to my apartment because we bought the hallway on my floor and incorporated it into my apartment. Anyway, I am off to the bank to get my annual stack of hundreds to pass out like the pied piper.

Perhaps what Danny Meyer is doing or a version of it could be adopted by co-op and condos in NYC. Maybe build the "tip or year end bonus" into the buildings budget.

I don't mind the fact that there's a lot of non-tippers. I generally tip on the lower end of the scale so having a bunch of non-tippers makes the staff more appreciative of smaller tips.

FP: " but I really don't think any of them are living a "grand" life."

With a limited skill set and limited education, unfortunately you generally don't live a "grand life". Building employees have a very good benefits package, job security and make a decent salary, when you add in tips it's not a bad job and based on my observation they rarely leave, many have tenure going back several decades.

See: http://www.brickunderground.com/blog/2013/11/doormen_speak_whats_a_fair_tip_how_the_tipping_system_should_change_who_gets_the_best

Brick Underground article on tipping? That explains why the former SE poster who used to work for them was fired.

Wow, you all are tipping way more than I did and now you have me questioning myself. I live in a 300+ full service building below 23rd Street. There are 15 f/t employees, not including the resident manager. I did some research on curbed and brick underground, etc. and ended up giving $350 to the pool of the doormen, porters, etc. and then $175 to the resident manager. I also have a garage (off-site) and gave the manager there $75 and the attendants $25 each. I rarely use my car and tip each time I do take it throughout the year. Reading these posts, I feel like I grossly undertipped but I can't realistically tip too much more. I wonder if I seem completely cheap to them now? Also - when people do give money on top of the pool money to certain doormen, doesn't that seem like a very little amount b/c the bulkl was in the pool? Do you acknowledge it somehow?

I live in a huge 450-unit full service co-op building on the UWS (Lincoln Towers). That means more staff (around 20), but also many more tenants who are tipping. E.g., if 450 tenants each give the resident manager $100, that would equal $45,000 in tips! Too late for this year (gave $500 in the aggregate) but what would be a reasonable amount to tip in the future? Not looking to be seen as a cheap bastard, but also not looking to spend more on the staff than I do on my own family! What is appropriate?

The larger the building the smaller the individual tip. Just makes sense.

thoffdiddy: That's why the similar sized condo I lived in had a "holiday pool". The Board suggested an appropriate amount based on apartment size. That came to around $400 per apartment on the average or $180,000 spread across 30 employees. The Board set the % of the distribution based on job title/length of service.

Curbed and brick underground seem to go way on the low side using LIC, Astoria, Harlem, as examples - not typical of much of Manhattan.

>not typical of much of Manhattan.

Some people in Manhattan co-ops only give two paid days off to their maids, but think they are generous for doing so.

Here's a good example in the Times of hypocrisy: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/03/nyregion/poster-child-for-new-yorks-paid-sick-leave-law-failed-to-follow-it.html ‘Poster Child’ for New York’s Paid Sick Leave Law Failed to Follow It

gracefoster, how were the tips received?