Question

Hotel housekeeping staff are paid minimum wage and receive almost no tips as most travelers either do not tip or are “not aware” that tipping housekeeping staff is a commonly accepted practice. Further, housekeeping staff are typically operating on a strict time schedule and must complete their assigned tasks on schedule which further adds stress to their job.

A quote from the travel magazine Budget Travel in which a housekeeper relates:

I cut corners everywhere I could. Instead of vacuuming, I found that just picking up the larger crumbs from the carpet would do. Rather that scrub the tub with hot water, sometimes it was just a spray-and-wipe kind of day… After several weeks on the job, I discovered that the staff leader who inspected the rooms couldn’t tell the difference between a clean sink and one that was simply dry, so I would often just run a rag over the wet spots… I apologize to you now if you every stayed in one of my rooms. You deserved better. But if housekeepers were paid more than minimum wage – and the tips were a bit better – I might have cleaned your toilet rather than just flushed it.

What would you suggest hotel managers and/or owners do to minimize or eliminate this behavior by housekeeping staff? If this is a Principal / Agent problem what solution can be made to stop this and why?

Answer 1

I will suggest the manager and owners of the hotel to raise wages of this housekeeper who are working in their hotel because any employee who is in a feeling that they are not paid well for the service they are providing to the company than they will not do the job sincerely. The same scenario has happened here the main problem is that housekeepers are not given minimum wages which are not upto the mark they want and they even don't get side income from tips because only if the customer is willing to give they will get other wise they won't get any extra income. So with these wages and tight working schedule they will have stress on their job which makes them not perform their work as they do. Hence I will tell the owner and management to increase the wages for these house keepers.

If this is a principal agent problem I will tell the principal to create an environment where agent works according to their interest that means I will tell Hotel owners to increase wage and incentives to housekeeper and which in turn make the house keepers to work for the interest of the owner. In principle and agent problem both should work for each other interests to benefit mutually and overcome this problem.