Receiving tips in your hostel

Does your team ever receive tips from your guests?

How do you feel about having a tip jar in the hostel?

How would you divide the tips that are given? Does the person who received it keep it for themself, or is it divided among the whole team? How often do you divide the tips, since hostels have such high staff turnover?

This topic went around the internet in a few different groups this month, so I thought I would summarize the suggestions. (There is no right or wrong in this summary, just a list of the suggestions that were made)

What do you do in YOUR hostel?

Who keeps the tips:

• All tips should be divided evenly among the team on duty when it was received
• If it was handed directly to an individual, that individual can keep it
• If it was left in a jar or an envelope for the team it should be divided up among the whole team
• The managers and owners should not receive tips, only the non-management team members (including volunteers) should receive them

When should the tips be divided up:

• At the end of the night
• At the end of the month
• At the end of the season

What should be done with the tips:

• Split the money evenly among the team
• Give the money to the housekeeping staff
• Lump the money into a beer fund for a team party
• Use the money for a "fun fund" for things like a BBQ, water park, Thank You dinner, goodbye presents, boat rental, shooting range excursion
• Use it to make change at the reception

How effective are tip jars or boxes:

• The most frequent donations are very small change, random foreign coins, condoms, and drawings of penises of varying quality
• If the tip jar/box is not bolted down it is likely to be stolen so it doesn't matter what people put into it
• "Adults who stay in a dorm room maybe aren't gonna be the best tippers"
• "mostly it is a depoit for a key that they are leaving as a thank you"
• Small tips add up, so it's worth having one even if people don't fill it with money every day

Possible signs to encourage tipping:

• "If you fear change, leave it here."
• "Put the tip in, see how it feels."
• "We won't need tips if you share your alcohol with us."
• Two tips jars with competing messages or images like "DC movies are the best" vs. "Marvel movies are the best" or a picture of Trump vs Obama
• Shout out to Adam Toth at Wombat's Budapest for this link of 35 tip jars that deserve your money

Alternative to tips:

• A percentage of the annual profit could go to staff as a bonus for a job well done