Hellobee Boards

I wrote this response for a previous post a while back (with some edits):

Re tipping doormen, other building staff, etc - this is what my husband and I do. We live in a high-rise rental building in Midtown Manhattan. Our tipping is average for the building. Many tip more, but i'm not sure about less. Tipping is expensive in nyc - especially when you live in a building with a lot of people who maintain it:

Doormen: $100 each (we have 6 different doormen)
Porters: $50 each
Maintenance Guy: $50
Super: $150
Garage attendant: $50

I put the money in an envelope and attach to a small box of chocolates. I was advised that if possible, give each person their tip directly to ensure they receive it. My building provides a list of names of everyone who maintains our building for our convenience.

Total holiday tipping for us in the building will run about $1,200. Freaking expensive!!!

For the 1/2 year I lived in a NYC high rise these are the amounts I tipped and the number of people. This was in 2008.

doormen - $50 (7)
porters - $40 (7)
mailroom - $40 (1)
handymen - $30 (5)
manager - $80 (1)

wow some big tippers here!

i think we tipped $200/each to the two doormen in our last doorman building (we got a lot of packages), and we didn't give anything to the couple of doormen we rarely saw.... oops?

this is what nymag had to say:

There are two things to consider when you're determining how much to give. The first is building size -- the smaller the building, the larger your bonus should be. The second is the level of luxury. Lawrence Vitelli of Insignia Residential Group, which manages some of the highest-priced properties in the city, says supers at its big buildings routinely get between $100 and $300 from each tenant, and at small buildings, $500 to $1,000 is not unheard of. But chances are you won't have to shell out that much. For most buildings, $30 to $50 is appropriate for doormen, $50 to $100 for supers. Support staff like handymen and elevator operators are in the $20-to-$30 range.