Split Stays and - yes THAT subject -Tipping

OK I’m tipping bell hops and people helping me with my bags.
So nobody needs to drill down into the philosophy of the American economy etc etc.
Nothing controversial
Just hoping somebody can tell me who gets the tip please.

So I think the drill is contact Bell Services/Front Desk that you’re transferring to another WDW resort when you check out so you’re in the system, and then bring the luggage down yourself so we’re not waiting for them to collect it.
Then hand it over to Bell Services/Front Desk.

Then pick it up at the new resort.
And bring it up yourself to your room (as they’re not bringing it up for you owing to the pandemic I think).
So tip-wise, I guess I’d tip the Bell Services/Front Desk at the new resort when I take our luggage off their hands?
And that’s the usual rate like they were bell hops?

ETA: or do I tip nobody because the bag handling occurred out of my sight?

BTW I tried to search tipping and found:

  1. neat article from 2018 and
  2. the search engine does not differentiate between the words tipping and tips. Less than helpful
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I tip both sides because they each handled my bags.

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I /think/ that if you’re taking it down to Bell Services and then you’re bringing it up from Bell Services you would tip nobody. If you were going to tip anybody I would say it would be the driver who transferred your luggage but that’s clearly not an option.

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This thread has a lot of insights on this topic! Spoiler alert: we didn’t all agree on who to tip and how much!

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DAMMIT JEFF! I was looking forward to reading that thread and now… well it’s just not worth my time

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Oh god, not tipping! I will remind everyone in advance to keep it civil and disagree politely.

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:laughing:

Hope you’re not busy IRL the rest of the day. Because you’re about to be busy here

:laughing:

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Bell services will come to your room and collect your luggage, and bring your luggage to your room at the new resort. It doesn’t usually take them long to get there. Personally if someone comes to my room I tip them, but if I’m doing the hauling myself I don’t. Likewise my experience has been with grocery delivery, if you ask them to deliver groceries to your room there is the $6 charge (plus tip) but if you pick them up yourself at bell services they don’t charge. And Amazon package delivery, I have picked up myself at the front desk and there is no charge.

Not tipping related, but I thought I would share that it can take quite a long time for your bags to arrive at the second hotel for a split stay. Typically, my experience was that bags usually arrived by 4pm. But our last trip, I believe they told me that they expected my bags to be there before 6pm (we dropped them at 9am at the first hotel). They ended up arriving around 5:15pm after quite a few phone calls (we even had the concierge crew trying to help track them down). All this to say make sure you have everything you need for the day!

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I just looked back at that trip report - they told me they could arrive as late as 7pm.

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sorry just trying to figure out how many Yankee dollars i will need on hand

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I’m not here to point fingers and call people wrong, everyone has to make the best decision for them - but here’s my personal reasoning on why i tip both sides.

  1. Regardless of whether i brought them down myself or not, they still will have to lift my bags and put them into storage or onto the baggage van.
  2. All bell services jobs pay low wages on the assumption of tips. Me not tipping one side or both if i bring/retrieve my own bags is basically taking away from their paycheck. I wish everyone was paid a living wage, but it is what it is, so i try to respect that.
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This is a great point and has made me reconsider, so thank you! Me giving $5 here and there is not going to break the bank on this $$$$ trip, but if everybody does it it’s going to make a significant difference in the income of a bell services guy. Didn’t think about this, appreciate the perspective.

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Personally, I tip anyone who handles my luggage (so both dropping off and picking up).

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Agree, I would tip both resorts.

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I agree. Tip both sides.

We did not have bell services pick up nor deliver our bags to/from the room, but I still tipped $1 per bag on both sides.

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This. If i bring/retrieve my own bags, i tip both sides $1 a bag. If they are coming to get them or deliver them, i tip $2 a bag for the extra work involved.

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The other question is tipping Mousekeeping.
If we’re staying at a DVC for 3 nights, I don’t think we’ll see any Mousekeeping at all.
But what if they’re emptying garbage cans on the daily?

Barring any catastrophic mess, would your usual tipping practice be reduced?

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During our stays, this still happened. I would plan to tip, but it would probably be reasonable to tip a little less than if they were doing a full cleaning.

Reflecting on what @ninjasherrie has said up thread though, it feels similar

I might have considered the same as you prior to her note which makes me think MouseKeeping is not cleaning as often as a directive and are working harder than ever with fewer resources. I’ll keep my tip as normal based on that and thank @ninjasherrie for helping me to consider that.

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