Holiday Tipping

We do $100 for each of them except the super. He gets $150 or $200.

See also http://www.streeteasy.com/nyc/talk/discussion/2607-that-time-of-the-year-tipping

50 is fine. It is not too cheap. Large building?
Making out like bandits.

I usually give more to the super and handyman (though I also tip them pretty gtenerously any time they do something in my apartment)because those are the people you really need. Concierges and doormen - $50-$100 each (the higer amounts to those who do more for me, and who have been in the building for some time.

Building porters - $10-20.

I disagree with the differential between doormen and porters, ph41. I tip building porters more or less the same as doormen. The porters I've encountered do a lot of heavy lifting for presumably not much money. Their jobs can be pretty unpleasant (e.g., taking out trash, sorting recyclables, dealing with plumbing disasters...). By comparison doormen have a cushy job that doesn't require much skill and yet is much better paid (for example they're more likely to be union employees with perks). I don't understand the rationale for being stingy with the porters. In my experience they have been the most deserving of holiday generosity.

OnTheMove, I found your discussion very interesting. In my rental building, I've always tipped doormen between $50-75, handymen $50 each (we have two), elevator operators $30 and porters the same. But I think that you're correct and I will revise my tipping this holiday season. Both the elevator operators and the porters (who are all pleasant and hard working) perform many needed but unpleasant duties with alot of heavy lifting and should be compensated as well as the doormen are. Thanks for the useful advice.

I think it depends on size of building. If there are twice as many employees, does that mean you should spend twice as much on tips for the same service? Of course not.

When I had no doorman, only a super, porter, and weekend porter, I did $125-150, $75, and then $50, and usually included a bottle of wine or something with it (they seemed to love the extra, even though it was usually a $10 bottle or something... they appreciated that I thought about it).

My new building must have 10 folks I'll deal with all the time. I can't imagine giving them $1000 in tips because they split up the same work.

I figure it should probably be a function of rent... maybe 10% of one month's rent in tips? More if your rent is cheap and if you have a family, say 15%?

i also agree... i think porters get shafted. Doormen have a union and are overpaid, and just sit there. The guy that deals with the trash, he's a super hardworking guy, supernice, and I always give him a little more.

Good Timing...my friend asked if she needed to tip since she's moving Feb.1. Also, the doormen never hold the door, help with pkgs. or get taxis.

screw them.

btw, I have a weird question... what happens when you move. You spend all year at one place. But then say you switch places in October. Who do you tip?

I was thinking of giving old near full tip, then hooking up the newer people with more of a "token".

our porter does far more on a day to day basis for us than our super, so i feel he deserves a larger tip. but, i'll probably give them both $100-$150.

OMG somewhereelse. how much are you paying in rent per month. you can't be serious with 10-15% of one month?????

we have only one person. he is delightful, and does a hell of a lot. we give him $300, and also offer him all of the furniture/appliances we no longer want or need. he probably has a second-hand store somewhere, or else he has some fairly lovely maple custom-made shaker-style units at home, as well as many other things we used to own.

for a number of reasons we recently decided to get rid of our daughter's desk. when the super/porter/etc. came to pick it up he offered to clean our windows for free. be nice to the people who help you. karma is important.

Where I live we have 24. I never gave money because I think below $50 is some what cheap and $1200 is bit too much, instead I give them $20 dollar wine.

somewhete else - if you're talking about giving tips as a small percentage of a month's rent I sure hope you're paying a really high rent - otherwise have a feeling you're going to get a distinctly cold vibes from your building staff.

And you're obviously in a much bigger building now - no, they're not just splitting up the same work that the people did in your old building, they're taking care of much larger spaces and many more tenants.

Not just your corridor and your trash.

Your statement was actually sort of unbelievable.

Oh wait - and the pool, and indoor driving range, and on and on and on .(all those amenities you boasted about). Oh right, they take care of themselves

Ar...I agree...

wait, am i confused? stupid? math illiterate? perhaps just cheap? are people really tipping 10-15% of monthly rent? ph41 - you think this is too LITTLE? how much are you tipping? i feel like i'm in bizarro-world right now.

I'm glad there is this discussion. I'm learning that I've been unintentionally undertipping in my building.

i'm flabbergasted right now. i just got off the phone with my husband who thinks $150 for each of the 2 people in our building is too cheap. he also doesn't think that 10% of monthly rent is too much. so, are people giving their supers, doormen, porters $500/$600/$700+ as a holiday tip???? someone please swoop in and set me straight. dear god, i may go into labor right now!

this is a very good thread...
i always gsve 50-100 for the doormen, 100 for super and handyman and 25 for the porters (guilty). point well taken on the porters...
now i live in a higher end building and would love some guidance on what to tip...

uwsmom - last year there were 12 people on staff in my building. I tip throughout the year (help with packages, getting me a cab, repairing something in the apartment, etc.) but I still tip at Christmas, and it really does add up. But if someone such as somewhereelse is paying in the $3,000-$4,000 range for rent, so tips will be something like $300-$400 for a building staff of 10 people, yeah, that's cheap. Especially with all his boastful talk.

Some buildings suggest a tip, by apartment, by # of shares,(in one lump check) to be apportioned to the building staff (my mother's building did that). But even my mother, who was frugal by nature, added additional gratuities to the people on the staff who she felt were particularly helpful to her.

And yes, I also ask my super if there are things I am thinking of giving away that he might like (such as a handpainted ceramic table, planter boxes, and other things, but I don't consider that as part of tipping - it is not.

uwsmom, i think something in between is appropriate. things are tought right now, and you shouldn't be expected to pick up the pay differential that may be occurring with the staff because management is trying to cut corners, but the fact of the matter is that in many buildings pay may be decreasing, stagnant, or the building may be trying to cut corners by getting by with less.

it is NOT your responsibility to make up for such shortcomings. however, your peace and happiness depends to some extent on the peace and happiness of those who help you. you should certainly never overextend, and a $50-500 tip depending on your circumstances, your building, how much you need and utilize services, the size of the building, seems appropriate. i like ph41's point, also. tip when you use services. they will remember.

for a large service building, i'd suggest providing a lump sum. make sure it's given at a time when there are a lot of staff around to hear, and let them fight over and decide the breakdown. if there is then a particular staff member who has gone above and beyond, do something personal for them, as long as they can use it, such as cash or a gift certificate extra.

AR - disagree about letting the staff fight over apportioning the tips - bad karma.

That system has to b e a building wide system - supported by the board and management company, with the money (checks, cash) going to one place to be split. Otherwise could cause major dissension within the staff. Really has to be the system in place in the building.

Then, something extra for those who do extra for you.

i get that in a large, full-service bldgs small tips add up fast. but, how about a bldg with just 2 people (super & porter). giving them each $500+ seems extravagant to me, even if we can afford it.

Of course one never knows which tenants don't contribute to the building's Christmas fund, but that's just the way it is - the staff probably finds out somehow.

even giving them $250 each seems like too much. our super is nice, but he really doesn't do that much. I'm sorry. i feel like i'm yelling on this board right now. i really should be yelling at my husband who got me into a huge tizzy!!!

My question is really that I was in a condo before and the doorman were great so I tipped well. I moved in January to a "luxury" rental completed in 2007 downtown and the doormen are pleasant and friendly but totally unhelpful - frnakly I'm not even sure they realize they are unhelpful but truly they are.

uwsmom - that seems like a lot to me. (I usually keep it at the $150-$200 level)l

And I know what you mean about the super not doing that much. Our last super waw really hands-OFF , did very little, but still got a pretty decent tip - afraid of how he might take revenge. I used to give the handyman more than the super, because he really knew the building, the systems (and all the stuff in my apartment). Now the former handyman is the super, so he's missing out a little on the all through the year tips (because he's trained the handyman to do some things, but he's getting a good tip at Christmas

Where does the calculation of 10% of 1 month's rent come in??!! That would be ultra stingy. (is there a spelling difference between sting-y and stingee?)

ph41, you didn't seem to read my post. i said a lump sum for the majority of the people, and then something extra for those people you need on a daily basis.

uwsmom, you need to ask for more help, clearly. then you'll be happier paying. i'll never forget when for some reason our toilet seat fell apart. i said to the hubby we need to go buy a new toilet seat. he said, no way, that toilet seat is owned by our ll and it fell off its hinges because they gave us cheap toilet seats. i said, ok, you call management. well, some guy showed up with a plunger. i asked him, people don't plunge their own GD toilets? he said, ma'am, you'd be amazed. and he toddled off and a couple of days later a new toilet seat appeared.

AR - I read your post, but I don't think you read mine. You wanted to give a lump sum on an ad hoc basis, just each tenant doing that on their own). I said that I thought that could really lead to problems.,

Has to be done as a building wide policy, with the money being distributed by the managing agent, or some other trustworthy agent.

delious1 - that 10% was proposed by the poster somewhereelse.

And if your staff is not helpful - then give what you consider the minimum.

And if they do possibly actually help you at some point, that's when to give them the $1 or $2 tip - sort of like positive reinforcement for humans, rather than mice, to encourage better behavior

delious1 - clearly, as we're learning here, it depends on how much staff you have and how much you pay in rent.

ph41 - our porter deserves about twice as much as our super, but i would never pay out that way for fear of the super finding out.

ar - great story. we don't ask for much, but i do believe that a nice christmans tip is remembered trhoughout the year. maybe super and porter could participate in some midnight feedings with #2. funny, the porter would probably do it. "no problem" he'd say :)

I used to be on the board of a building. FYI - all doormen and porters are represented by the same union. Technically many of those positions are done based on seniority. We had a porter that was the most senior member of the staff that decided he wanted to be a doorman and was subsequently moved into the position and put on the best shift in the building. Super and handyman are not represented but their raises are typically the same as the staff.

As for tipping, it depends on the building and your bankroll. In bigger buildings (>200 units) $50 is very reasonable although many people do give less to the porters for whatever reason. Super and handyman are important, tip them well.

and uwsmom - it's not really how much you pay in rent but that may correlate to the service level of the building you're in.

Does everyone realize how little building employees make? I believe our managing agent said the salary for a full time doorman was around $36K. And they are the most highly compensated? Yes, they get union benefits some of which are very good..overtime, holiday pay etc..but I'm not sure their health plans etc are what we would want to have (to be honest I don't know). Holiday tips are as much a part of anticipated annual compensation for building staff as bonuses used to be for Wall Street types, and are more necessary for their survival/well being. Further, if your building like mine has a substaintial number of seniors, chances are the amounts they tip are based on 1975 standards. Plus a few a-holes who tip little or nothing for no good reason. Even though this year has been anything but good financially, I'm not scrimping on holiday tips. My building staff did not scrimp on service.

Yeah, building employees don't make much. But aboutready is all for the little people, except when it is her family that has to contribute:

"but the fact of the matter is that in many buildings pay may be decreasing, stagnant, or the building may be trying to cut corners by getting by with less.

it is NOT your responsibility to make up for such shortcomings. "

liz - don't know for sure but would think the doormen mnake more than that - 36B-J is a powerful union, there is no way the porters are making only 20K a year.

And the health plans and benefits are very very good - they have mnoe holiday after 15b years than most professionals.

But I agree - Christmas tips are an important part of staff compensation, and somehow this year I have become more generous with tips in general (to cabbies, and others because I feel I am pretty lucky and others are having a much harder time this year.

So, this year will be as in years past - and possibly more.

hsf, you are so droll.

One of the large, older buildings in Brooklyn Heights recommends tipping the equivalent of your monthly maintenance.

drdrd - no way am I doing that!!!!

ar's point is a very good one and it applies to more than tipping staff during the holidays.

oh haha, I am droll, haha

let me see, can I come up for a euphemism for liar? oh right, you already provided me with one, sarcastic.

As a board member of a large co-op downtown with 13 full time unionized staff, I can absolutely ATTEST to the fact that the staff (porters/doormen/handymen) make in the high $20s to high $30s, with the supers making much more. Their health plans are excellent, and as anyone on a BOD will tell you, they have great job security. This salary is small when you consider most have families to support. Also, if you have unionized staff, they often receive yearly raises, etc. and if you have 13 unionized staff jobs, it is close to impossible to eliminate a job. The union will not permit it. And to whoever said the supers and handymen are not part of the union, that is hands down incorrect.

Regardless of their salaries and benefits, you have to remember that these people make your life easier, and when that is the case, they should be taken care of. And I'm sorry, I truly feel that cash is better than any other gift.

Doormen we give between $150-250 depending on who it is, and how helpful they are to us, same for Porters but $100-$200 (they often help me lugging stuff into the apartment, run up to make sure I've turned off the stove, etc), and the Super $400+

And, also don't forget the garage attendants....

AR - did you tip the guy who came and replaced your toilet seat? You really should have, but I have a feeling you didn't, because it was the "LL's responsibility"

so, over $100, is it tacky to give cash? i'd rather give cash than right a check. plus, i don't know last names :)

uwsmom -definitely give cash (our buildings have always sent out a "holiday list" with names and positions of the staff.

The only "cutesy" thing I try to do besides buying some nice "Christmas gift" envelopes, is to get new bills in the various denominations I'll need.

I had a neighbor who gave $5 to each doorman.... Cheap Bitc%!

write a check and see that each clears...

CASH is King, remember? just make sure that you give it personally to each individual.

Citibank gives out crisp new $50 bills in their ATMs.

Do any other bank ATMs give out $50s?

The staff in my building are not union and they are paid a little more than union workers along with very good benefits. I like to give individual checks along with a small gift, and also include a personal note of thanks.

Cash is the currency of choice by a couple of gazillion miles. Also, if you want to add cookies, wine etc that's fine but in no way should those things be used as as a substitute for the appropriate cash tip.

Here're the 2007 hourly rates at the Apthorp in 2007. All represented by Local 32B-32J.

4 doormen at $18.13
1 porter at $14.30
1 porter at $14.55
8 porters at $18.13
2 Elev Ops at $14.30
2 Elev Ops at $14.55
7 Elev Ops at $18.13
2 Handymen at $21.44
1 Super at $38.11

Three exempt office workers at $700-$2175 per week

I am a doorman/concierge and I just wanted to say we make 19 dollars an hour. In the coop building where I work there is a staff of about 27 and we are all under the 32bj union. We have about 10 paid holidays. Sounds ok but if your schedule falls on the holiday you have to work. I havent had thanksgiving dinner with my family in years. Havent been off on xmas in a while. Not complaining but some should realize that we do make some sacrifices. As a college graduate (11 years ago), I have to say that xmas tips are one of the main reasons I decided to stay in the profession. I dont get a huge amount but its enough to survive on. In my building the doormen and concierges are definitley tipped more than the porters and back elevator operators. I believe it has mosly to do with the fact that we do most of the interaction with the tenants. In a building of about 135 tenants a good amount tip pretty well. I would suggest to not give less than 50 dollars to anyone working in the lobby and preferably 100 or more. Take into consideration how well you are treated by the person and how long they have been working there. Each worker looks at tips differently. Some get mad if they dont get a lot. Some will treat tenants diferently. I happen to treat all tenants the same. I will give the same service to the person who gave me 10$ as the person who gave me 300$. Its sad but the bigger the tipper you are the more likely you are to get better service. I also really enjoy the messages written on my cards. The little personal notes mean a lot to me. I even save some of them because they write such nice things. Some other guys dont even read them. If anyone has any questions about tipping feel free to ask.

new workers make 80 percent of 19 dollars until after 2 and a half years. then the get the full amount.

Kevin5 makes good points...I also feel tipping should not be automatic and should depend on the individual doorman, porter, etc..

On the cash vs check issue, I get why cash is preferable, but we are in a large building (will probably have 15-20 people to tip) and I doubt I see more than 5 of them on a regular basis. Should I actively seek out everyone to give them cash? I am reluctant to drop a lot of envelopes with cash off at the front desk.

When I lived in a building with a large staff, I would take X amount of cash every holiday season, take the list of staff and start divvying up. Usually gave weekday doorman the most ($200), super ($200) to grease the wheels, and particularly helpful porters $50+.

Ok, I live in a huge building and there seem to be many workers scurrying around all the time. I moved in this year so I haven't even met most of them yet and don't know most by name. My rent is exorbitant and it takes up most of my disposable income (I know, not smart but it's a temporary situation).

What the heck am I supposed to do about tipping? I can't afford to dole out hundreds of dollars for the dozens of staff!

Am I screwed or do these guys understand that people who live in high-priced rentals aren't necessarily as well-off as those who own in similar type buildings?

I'm really interested in hearing what people in luxury rentals give out to the huge number of staff.

Hi, kevin5, thanks so much for sharing. I usually tip $80 each because our apartment is a pied-a-terre, we're gone most of the time. I may raise it to $100 for lobby staff though because of what you said, and because I'm wondering if tips will be down this year because of the recession?

I also always write something nice in a cool card, and I would never leave envelopes with anyone else to distribute, it's just not polite, you should give your card to the person with eye contact and a grateful heart and smile. Sometimes it's taken until January to locate my target (again, we're not there much) but it's really fun so worth it. I start tipping right after Thanksgiving.

This is one of those New York things that is part of life here. I know it seems crazy expensive if you're not from around here (and I'm not, and it does). But as kevin5 points out, gratuities are a big part of the compensation of these employees and if we stopped tipping, eventually our monthlies would go up, we would lose the best staff people, and for both reasons our apartments would be harder to sell someday.

{Manhattan real estate agent.}

robot, you can only do what you can do. get a holiday card and write a sincere note. thanks for all you do and i wish i were in a position to give more. something along those lines. and then give a lump sum and let them divide it as you don't have personal relationships with them. if there is someone who has been particularly helpful, try to give something extra if you can. fluter's approach is obviously more personal, but it's not always feasible, and in a large rental building where they hardly know you from adam i don't think it matters so much.

hate me now but i always saved the biggest amounts for the guys in the garage. worked better than body side molding.

Lorenzonyc - I understand the problem with leaving cash - at two buildings I lived in, there was a lock-box at the concierge desk 9the kind with a slit in the top) so you could drop in your gift envelope if you couldn't find the staff member in person. Made a lot of sense to me, as I feel the same way you do about leaving envelopes of cash at the front desk.

I have tried, so far without success, to have my current building use this system, but so far without success. So, sometimes the staff member hasn't gotten the envelope until after the holiday because I just couldn't find them in time.

Kevin5 - I also agree with your post, but I must say, that is a really heavy staff/resident ratio in your building, so I would assume it's a really upper-end coop and that you get some great tips.

I live a freelance life so some years are better than others, but as an owner, I always try to make the total holiday tipping pot equal one month's maintenance/common charges. (That may sound high, but if you think about it, that's 8.5% of what you're paying for the basic service, so it's only half of what you'd tip a waiter.)

The difficult then is splitting that up among a staff of dozens. In my world, the doormen get most of the $$, and frankly, the handymen get a little shafted -- but we do try to hit them during the year as they do specific jobs for us.

It seems more difficult to come up with a "guideline" for renters, but in general, I think you want to be handing out fifties to people.

If you can't afford it, you should do cookies with hand-written notes. Put in some time to say "thank you" if you can't put in some money.

and, ph41, I am notorious for handing out tips 1st week of January ...

ali r.
{downtown broker}

I thought that we New Yorkers were an intelligent bunch but you're starting to worry me. You're going to give somebody a pile of cash to divide amongst their co-workers? How would you like the boss to give one guy in your office the 500k to split amongst you & this not even in front of anybody but when it's convenient for the boss. So ..... one guy takes most, if not all, the cash & you're just a cheap SOB - not to mention STUPID. It's one thing to trust people, another to tempt them.

I missed this little gem guidance on tipping from aboutready:

"we have only one person. he is delightful, and does a hell of a lot. we give him $300, and also offer him all of the furniture/appliances we no longer want or need."

Nice, is this one person the same guy who replaces the toilet seat that your, your husband's and your daughter's ass broke?

Ali, now I'm feeling like a cheapskate. Maintenance is now up to a bit more than $2K, but we've been doing the same $100 for most of the guys for years, totalling maybe $1K. Time to jack it up, I guess.

what is it that makes people troll the board?

Agree Glamma. Sometimes SE seems like a nice party where one "overserved" ahole shows up, demands attention and spoils a good time for everyone.

So is the one-month's maintenance a good rule of thumb if you are in a luxury building? BTW, is there a technical definition of "luxury" building?

i also think it's nice to do something like give cash AND a bottle of wine if it is someone you have a relationship with (and not give less cash due to the wine).

Man, you really have to fork over the cash in full service bldgs, huh? I should stop complaining about the 2 people I have to tip ;). It must be strange to tip people you rarely, if ever, interact with. I'm not sure how i would handle it. If there were people who helped me frequently, i would probably give them the most. Also wouldn't give one envelope of cash to one person. Unless there was a secure spot for drop-off, I would probably want to hand deliver each envelope. Seems like the most respectable thing to do. And if you don't know them or see them enough to give the tip to them, should you be tipping them at all? craziness i tell ya!

uswmom- there are many people in a building who work at times/shifts in which you don't interact with them. And I don't hang out in the compactor room, so I don't always see everyone - do see people when they're vacuuming a corridor or polishing brass, etc.

You might not see everyone who works in your building, but they are the ones maintaining it for you. So yes, you should tip.

Kevin, Ali etc - thanks very much. This has been helpful. Our maintance is about $1500/month so I will up everyone to $100 each. I personally believe in tipping everyone equally at holidays - but tipping generously and VERY individually throughout the year.

I'm just realizing that y'all live in some big ass buildings! We moved from a place with 8 units to a place with a little more than 30 (and the new place feels big to me :). sticking to my small town roots i guess.

it is very strange to tip people you hardly interact with, and even weirder to hunt them down on January 3rd to hand them a twenty after you've given most of the tip money to the friendly doormen.

But the downstairs staff (the Vendome is a 600-unit building, and it's like a small city down there) do keep the building running, and that makes my quality of life better, and I want to say thank you. And as been mentioned, even though these are union jobs with great benefits, the salaries aren't that high, and they want to send their kids to college too.

ali r.
[downtown broker}

This totally depends on "how much" your staff actually does for you.
I think ppl should kind of give a gauge on how much their staff does for them, when they give tip numbers.

I mean, if they barely do anything for you, a $100 tip seems excessive.
But if they walk your dog, drop packages at your door and park your car... then a bigger tip seems more appropriate.

I would hope that if they walk your dog you are paying them for that service, not just tipping them at Christmas (because they're probably doing it on building time as well).

aboutready - for someone with a household income of $700k+ and who pays less than 10% of take-home pay on rent, you think you could spluge for a good toilet seat

On a related note, how does one convey the tips to the recipients? I see the doormen regularly, and will tip them very well because I like them a lot and they're super helpful. But I also know that there are several people working under the building super who work very hard and keep the building spotless, but I don't know their individual names or even exactly how many they number. Do I just flag down the super and ask, then flag him down again and trust that he will convey the tips to the supervisees? Or is there a more structured method of delivery I don't know about?

This is my first time tipping doormen. Thanks all for advice.

Some responses. Cash is definitely preferred but check is definitely safer. As much as you want to you can not trust everyone with the money if it is left with the super or someone at the desk. Ive seen people act very strange when money is around. Ive never seen anyone take but it would not surprise me one bit. Fluter noone could complain about your 80$ tip especially if you are never there. I actually think the tips might be up a bit considering the stock market has risen since last year. I work in a Park Ave Coop. I would say my avg tip would be about 70-80 dollars. Ranging anywhere from 0 (a couple of tenants dont tip) to 300-350. What I find strange is that some of the wealthiest are the least generous. We have a family that own a castle and have never given xmas tips. We also have 2 people who own jets and several houses but they dont tip well at all. they even fly in their hairdressers from Ca. Ph 41. It is a upper end coop and I am treated very well but you would be surprised by the amount of tenants who give 50 or less. I was shocked to see in the post last weekend that the doorman on 5th ave gets almost 30,000 for xmas. I might need to send out a resume and move to 5th lol. i would definitely suggest doing each persons card individually. I know its very time consuming but when you just send down a bunch of money to split it seems very impersonal. You probably could just get the envelopes and hire one of the guys you trust to do it for you if you didnt have the time. Oh and we definitely love the gifts. We dont care if its candy you received and didnt want. We appreciate the gesture. As for trying to find the guys who you never see I would just suggest leaving it in a CLOSED envelope with the front desk or super.

evnyc. in our building we send out a xmas list with all the workers pictures, names, positions and years served.

We usually send it out late Nov early dec

Kevin, thanks. Do you mean that the building distributes this list to the residents? I am in a rental and there is staff around 24/7, which means that there are some staff that I don't intersect with on account of schedules. In those cases would it be safe enough to give a card containing cash with a sealed envelope to the super? Or leave it with the doormen? I don't mind time-consuming, but getting up at five am in an attempt to track down the supervisees before I leave for work might be a bit much (as much as I appreciate their efforts and want to express my gratitude!).

I'll ask for a list of employees from the doormen or the super when it gets a bit closer to the holidays.

"OMG somewhereelse. how much are you paying in rent per month. you can't be serious with 10-15% of one month?????"

In the older apartment... paying each of the two even $150 was covered and then some by 10%... no doorman, though. So I'd add another 5 or 10% for that.

my point is just, should you be paying more for the same service just because your building is twice the size?

"and you're obviously in a much bigger building now - no, they're not just splitting up the same work that the people did in your old building, they're taking care of much larger spaces and many more tenants.
Not just your corridor and your trash."

You're completely missing the point. Yes, they're doing more, for sure. But they have twice as many people paying. So, lets say the building is 5x as big, and there is 5x as much work. But 5x as many tenants. In theory, all tenants paying the same means the same is paid for the same amount of work.

Flip it the other way... if all the employees of the building decided to work half time, and now there were twice as many... would you give them each the same tip and double your tipping costs?

Of course not.

To me, it is COMPLETELY illogical to double the amount you pay for the same share of work just because it it split. Maybe a bit more, but to pay more because you're in a bigger building.

Thats absolutely nonsensical.

> Your statement was actually sort of unbelievable.

Only because you missed the point.

> Oh wait - and the pool, and indoor driving range, and on and on and on .(all those amenities you
> boasted about). Oh right, they take care of themselves

Actually, different staff. I'd be tipping them separately.
So, not really relevant.

ph41, following your logic, if you have more that one person waiting on you at a busy restaurant, do you tip 40%? 60%?

And if the restaurant is twice the size, do you double your tip?

somewhereelse- - your logic is totally absurd - read the thread

you've moved from no luxury to "luxury" but you're still bargain basement thinking.

Or, to put it another way - you're really cheap

> somewhereelse- - your logic is totally absurd - read the thread

I did. Thats where I got your nonsense from.

"And you're obviously in a much bigger building now - no, they're not just splitting up the same work that the people did in your old building, they're taking care of much larger spaces and many more tenants.

Not just your corridor and your trash."

You COMPLETELY miss the fact that the increase in building workload is proportional to the tenant increase.

Without that, your logic falls completely flat.

> you've moved from no luxury to "luxury" but you're still bargain basement thinking

I'm still talking about the old building, as I said.

And you still didn't answer the question.

Do you tip 40% when a second waiter helps with the meal?

Seriously, your claims are lacking in logic.

> read the thread

Still waiting for you to read the thread and actually respond to the points made.

Saying nothing but insults sorta means you don't have much of a point.

and, btw, do you really need help hailing a cab?

> Or, to put it another way - you're really cheap

Because I don't tip 60% at restaurants?

Nah, thats not cheap... its called just not being completely illogical.

evnyc. Our building manager prints out a list for all the tenants and we send it up with the mail. I dont know if that is the same way they do it in rentals. Many tenants (probably most) leave the envelopes for the guys they dont see with the super and concierges. Like you said just make sure the envelope is sealed to be safe.