The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1888-07-08
TIPPING
A Hotel That Requests its Guests
not to Tip" the Servants.

not to Zip" the Servants.
LUCERNE, June 9th. = Special to The
HERALD. And away up here in the
mountains of Switzerland, on the banks
of beautiful Lake Lucerne, let me sur
prise you. The hotel at which l am
stopping is one of the largest and best
on thee ointment, and soon after my
arrival, discovered hanging on the
wall in my room, a plainly printed
notice, in three languages, French
German and English. l give it to you
! verbatim.
NOTICE.
Ladies and gentlemen visiting this hotel
are earnestly requested not to give any eX-
ira fees TO the servants. In the superstition
| that no more fees are given, the servants
receive fixed and higher wages. Every
attendance in this hotel, as well as lights,
are included in the price of the rooms
AS read it, stood aghast-amazed!
In Continental Europe, the great "head
centre" of the abe minable clipping"
system! l adjusted my spectacles and
read tagain to assure myself that l was
awake, and finding that l was, went
down stairs, found the pr oplietor, and
asked him what that Notice" meant
| Within the last six months | had visited
the majority of the large cities in
Europe; looked at the great paintings
and other works of art; visited great
cathedrals and fine hotels, and in all
that time l had seen nothing that had
appeared to me so extremely marvel
Gus as that simple notice in my roon..
What does it mean" l again asked
the proprietor.
ut means just what it says" said
he; "for several years we have kept
this hotel. and in each and every bed
room in it, notice like the one you
allude to has hung couspicuously. We
put them there for the benefit of our
guests. We knew how the tipping
system had been abused, and how the
great travel ng public had been an
noyed and we resolved to try TO run
hotel, in that particular respect, on
different plan, and we have made sue
cess of ii. You can see for YOURSELF" he
cont ued, three other good hotels
here that are comparatively empty.
while ours is full the most of the tine,
and oftentimes we have had 10 turn
| pSOpLC away OCOnOSO VIC LGNl uOG IOOLU
| for them. Our hotel and its anne xes
will comfortably accommodate 6UO peo-
pie. Why is it?' you may ask. In the
| first place, we keep tirst-class house,
and charge fair rates. and see that our
guests are well served. Then, again,
this notice has much to do with our
success. Had we no other motive than
to restrict tbs oFominsble tipping
system, that no alone is the best
advertisement We % d have"
But" said l, W do the words
extra fees mean whl>h l see in that
notice2"
ut means" he said (resuming), Gust
this: There are times and cIrcum-
stances in the hotel experience of every
traveller, when it would seem unjust to
tax a servant beyond the ordinary
service, without some little remunera-
ton. You can readily imagine if you
We're sick in hotel and you kept a ser
want waiting en- you, night and day, for
an unreasonable time, that it would not
be an imposition on your purse and
good nature to give that servant
slight fee. Human nature is the same
the world over. One good term deserves
another, and 1t generally gets it, too,
for the public, as a rule, are grateful
people. ?
Notwithstanding this notice, guests
will, to 2 certain ex,ent, tip the ser
wants. They some how can't help it.
hard not to do it. That, however, is
their own affair. II after reading that
notice, they tip servant, it is Their
business and not ours. But We do
know that the great majority of our
guests like our notice and often speak
of it, as you have done ,and express
themselves to that effect. To con-
clude," said our genial host. I'VE pay
our servants extra high wages and get |
the best help in the country. When we |
hire servant, that notice is read to |
him or her, and they know what to ex-
pect. and if guest neglects to tip
them, they are not disappointed, or at
least. ought not to be-"
But" said i, don't you find that
guests complain of inattention in CON
sequence of your So stem?"
Mono more than otherwise. We
look to this, and if we hear of any in
on the part of a servant, we
remedy it at once. tell you," said he,
IF the hotel keepers would adopt our
system in regard to tipping they
would soon break lip the system, and
make more money themselves, and the
public would be better served
and the servant in the end would be
better paid"
This was the end of our colloquy.
After that, I remained at his hotel
fortnight, quiet observer of things
about me, and l came to the conclu-
sion that that hotel keeper was right in
his conjectures and knew how to keep a
hotel; that if We in the United States
had few hotel keepers of that sort, we
would be proud of them. Where is the
hotel keeper who dares put up notice
IN his hotel like this one in Switzer-
and? Echo answers, where?
Lavender.