Guests staying at Marriott hotels will now have an extra prompt in their rooms reminding them to tip their housekeeper.
Marriott International is the first hotel chain to join The Envelope Please program to help seemingly under-tipped hospitality staff earn a few extra bucks.
"Room attendants arguably do the least glamorous job. And, because we don’t see them, there’s very much an out-of-sight, out-of-mind attitude to gratuity," etiquette expert Karen Cleveland, who blogs at Manners are Sexy, told CBC News. "So we should absolutely be tipping them."
More than 160,000 Marriott hotel rooms across Canada and the U.S. will have special envelopes to encourage travellers to leave tips and thank-you notes for their housekeeping staff.
It is the brainchild of Maria Shriver's foundation, A Woman's Nation. The foundation created the program as a response to under-appreciated housekeeping staff who are often overlooked for tips because they have little contact with guests, according to the foundation's site.
The American Hotel and Lodging Association supports the initiative. It suggests guests tip between $1 and $5 US per night of their stay.
Cleveland seemed to agree with this suggestion, saying that if someone is staying in a ritzy hotel they ought to spring for a toonie or so every morning.
Many people CBC News asked said they already tip hotel housekeepers — if the service is good.
But not everyone feels comfortable with the idea of being prompted to do so.
"I think it's down to the individual to sort of make that choice," said a tourist from the U.K. staying in a Toronto-area hotel. "I don't think it should be imposed." He said he generally tips housekeepers if he's happy with the job they have done.