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With only two shopping days left until Christmas, much of the country is concerend with last minute presents for picky family members, braving mall parking lots and hoping to be the first in line for a store's new shipment of PlayStations. Locally, however, many New Yorkers are concerned with gifts for a different group of people: doormen and superintendents.
Ask Gothamist received a number of panicked emails from people wondering how much to tip doormen, supers and other apartment building staff members. For help, we turned to Tipping.org and their Holiday Tipping Guidelines.
The site's advice is not concrete - the word "depends" appears twice in only a few sentences - but it's a good place to start. It advises anywhere from $25 to $100 for each of your doormen and $30 to $100 for your super. That's a wide range, but what you decide to give will, um, depend on the amount of service you receive. So, start with a base of $25 and build from there. If one doorman is especially helpful - he brings your packages to your apartment door or quietly ushers in your mistress, for example - add a little more money for him. And if your super has been to your apartment to unclog the toilet or do other repairs in the past year, throw a few extra bucks his way.
Don't forget that your building's staff goes beyond the men and women who open your front door or hand your your dry cleaning. Valets, porters and other mainentence staff are also worthy of tips at this time of year. A base of $20 - $30 is a good place to start. You can work up from there, um, depending on the type of building in which you live.
You can ask your neighbors if you feel comfortable to get an idea of what other building residents generally give. But don't feel that you have to break the bank to keep up with the Joneses. As with any responsible gift giving, you'll have to balance your gratitude with your finances.
How much do you tip your building's staff?
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Jesus, now I feel like a worthless prole--my building doesn't have a "staff."
Consider yourself lucky. You're easily saving $200 dollars or more.
I think people in Edmonton, Canada, are the cheapest tippers ever! I used to work as a bellman and the tips at the hotel I worked at just sucked! If that's what you want to do, don't work for the Delta Edmonton Centre Suite Hotel. I brought up bags, went to stores for people, washed cars and zero tips! After a while you just stop carrying. Then you just throw their bags into the trunk, wait with their fax or mail delivery, forget their wake up calls, and work turns into revenge!
who are we kidding? what you give your doorman/porter/super/garage guy isn't a tip for a job well done during the past year... it's a bribe for the year to come.
don't think so? try not tipping and see if you get the poo out of your toilet.
This year (as I have only been in the building three months):
Doormen: $40
Super: $60
Porter: $25
Maintenance: $25
Mail Carrier: $10
porters? valets?! i'm still wondering if anyone actually lives in the apartment where i bang on the door when they won't turn the heat on in the dead of winter!
i'm gonna buy my 2 supers a bottle of Veuve Cliquot each
Porter??? I need one of those. I'd happily cough up the $25.
How about for those of us who have to leave our apartments to get our laundry and dry cleaning done?
Should I tip the fluff and fold ladies? the drycleaner?
on that note - does anyone know if one is supposed to tip the laundromat for a wash and fold?
I continue to be at a loss about this, because my huge building has SO MANY SERVICE PEOPLE: 3 separate full-time doormen, 3 relief doormen, the captain of doormen, the super, the assistant super, the package room lady, and the "Invisible Employees Fund" (porters, maintenance, security). If I started at a base of $20-$30, I would be very poor very soon. I take solace in the fact that there are easily 425 apartments in my building so they're probably getting a hefty bonus.
some large buildings have a general pool that residents pay into with amounts distributed to the staff through the pool. my parent's co-op does this.
What about other service people? I'm still not sure how to tip my hair stylist at Christmas. What about people you don't normally tip? Like a personal trainer? Any ideas?
If you see a hairstylist or personal trainer on a regular basis throught the year, it's general practice to tip that person about the cost of one visit.
You do not need to tip your drycleaners, necessarily, although if there is someone who delivers your freshly pressed shirts or folded undies each week you should tip that person.
Number of hours banging on super's door for his attention: FOUR
Hours spent getting bitched out by drunken super for asking him to put the building heat on: THREE
Money spent on maintaining the building: minimal
Third year in a row sttifing my drunk-ass crooked superindendent: PRICELESS
How much should I tip my barista at a traditional Italian cafe ? I go there everyday for an espresso after lunch. I just gave him $20. Is that enough ? I leave a generous tip, almost 30% each day.
i disagree with the hair stylist and personal trainer thing... i'm the customer, shouldn't they be buying ME holiday gifts???
Joe, if you compare it to a big company, think of yourself as the boss and your hairstylist as your employee. Usually the boss of a big company will give the employee a bonus, even though he's been paying the employee all year.
And some hairstylists do get presents for their regular clients as anyone who goes regularly will attest.
Oh, I feel like a schmuck. I gave each guy $100, with some of the better ones $150. I overdid it. Where were you 3 weeks ago??????
Having lived elsewhere most of my life, where the myriad little surcharges of NY were nonexistent, I must admit I'm mystified at this uniquely (New York? northeastern? blue-state?) tradition of quasi-mandatory tips at Christmastime. While I'm not averse to tipping in instances where I'm paying directly for services rendered (barber, waitress, cabbie, etc), I don't understand the pressure to tip/bribe employees of the building in which I happen to be renting a place to live.
If someone has gone beyond the responsibilities of their job to assist me (which has happened on one occasion this year), then a small acknowledgment is warranted; otherwise, I don't see any rationale beyond liberal-guilt for gifts to workers who have agreed to perform a given function for a given wage, whether that be vacuuming the carpets or monitoring the front door. If the employees of a residential building deserve a raise, surely their employer should be the one expected to fill their stockings, not the employers' customers (the tenants).
A minimum tip for a doorman without being labelled a cheapskate is $20. Just remember these guys know where you live.
"Building staff"? Ha. Good one.
I AM my buildings staff.
If I want anything good for Christmas, I have to buy it myself, might as well tip myself too!
Scrooge, the point is that Xmas tipping is the culture here and it has nothing to do with being nice or appreciative. The point is that you are bribing these people to not fork you over during the next year. By this same logic it also doesn't matter how long you have been in your place.
Have never tipped rental staff, and I've rented in California, Oregon and Washington. I'm guessing it's an East Coast thang.
I've also lived in a couple different cities - Mineapolis, Columbus, Chicago - and it seems tipping is just here... Instead of tipping though, I'm making trays full of goodies for each doorman & the super. I'll let you know if I get raked over next year for not giving money...
$100 for super, handyman, 5 doorman [the first year the super realized i gave him no more than the handyman or the doorman he seemed offended]
$70 for 4 porters
ALWAYS tip the fluff and fold ladies! Unless you want your socks to take a walk!
Extensive discussion at:
http://www.curbed.com/archives/2005/12/05/ask_curbed_the_tipping_point.php
So I have at least a half dozen garage guys (most of whom never hear me honking at 2am when I'm tring to get their attention to open the door, because they have "ladies" who visit them in the night.) One guy has definately made a point to remind me that it is Christmas... he also asks for tips on a regular basis which upsets me. It isn't that I'm cheap... I usually give the guy $5 each time I take my car out (3-4x/week) which is far more than my neighbors admit to giving these chumps. So do the same rules for doormen apply to garage attendents? Or is it slightly less? I'm more worried about dents in my car than missing socks from the fluff and fold ladies.
I usually tip the garage guys $20 each and the Manager like $30. I really don't think they deserve it, since I tip them every time I use the car. Plus they've caused so much damage to my car over the years. ( I usually catch it after I leave the garage) But I figure, if I don't tip, they'd put sugar in my gas tank for kicks...
Man, this tipping junk is just silly. I can't imagine spending that kind of money on these people who are already getting paid for doing their job. I never tip anyone and don't have any problems because of it.
ha, this is the time of year we find out who is from NY and who is not, by the comments posted.
I've been in my new building only since December 1. We have a super, but no doorman. What is appropriate to tip the super at this point?
Honestly, I don't see why we should be responsible for more than $25 per doorman and $30 for the super. I mean I don't know about everyone else, but I feel the rent is expensive enough.
Does anyone have any idea what is customary to tip doormen and front desk staff in Philadelphia??
I gave $20 dollars to each doorman. I have 7 and the same to the super. When things need to get done in my apartment I do it or pay someone to do it.
We have 20 doormen, concierge, and handymen! We picked 12 and tipped them $60 each. Didn't tip our super since we never talk to him. There are 300 units after all ... I do feel cheap but I didn't want to fork over $1000. The worst thing is that some deserver more than others but if we gave them different amount, they would all talk about it wouldn't they?
You think you guys have issues? I rent from a building with 33 building staff members!!! Single parent living moment to moment but was destined to live here so that my child can avail of an excellent school district. My intentions this year is to give everyone $20 in separate personable holiday cards and leave it at the resident manager's office. Then, I will personally give a second envelope to the "special" people that make our lives more comfortable, containing a personal message that it's an extra gift for their extra effort and ask that they not mention it to others. There goes my holiday bonus...I hope it works!