If you rent in a staffed building, you've probably wondered whether the holiday tipping rules apply to you. They do, just not at the level of an owner who plans to stay for 20 years.
Here's the short answer on how much to tip apartment staff: tip the people who keep your home running, once a year around the holidays, at an amount that fits your budget and how often you rely on them. The rest of this post covers who belongs on your list, what each role typically gets, and how to tip when you don't have a stack of envelopes and cash on hand.
Start with the people you see or depend on. In most staffed rental buildings, that list includes some mix of these roles:
|
Role |
What they do for you |
|
Superintendent (super) |
The super handles repairs, schedules work, and answers for the building day to day. |
|
Doorman or front desk staff |
They sign for your packages, buzz in your guests, and know who belongs in the lobby. |
|
Porters |
They handle trash, recycling, and common-area cleaning, often on shifts you never see. |
|
Maintenance technicians and handymen |
They're the people who show up when the dishwasher floods. |
|
Garage attendants |
They belong on the list if your building has a staffed garage. |
Leasing agents are a different case. They're office staff, and none of the tipping guides cited here list them. If one went out of their way for you, a thank-you note is the safe move.
For more on each role, see our guide to what residents want to know about tipping property staff. We also have separate breakdowns for tipping your doorman and tipping a concierge.
The best benchmarks come from etiquette authorities and big-city real estate publishers. The Emily Post Institute sets a national baseline, and three New York City sources publish higher ranges for full-service buildings.
|
Role |
National baseline (Emily Post) |
NYC: Brick Underground |
NYC: Corcoran |
NYC: StreetEasy |
|
Super |
$20 to $80, or a gift |
$150 to $300 |
$150 to $300 |
$100 to $200 |
|
Doorman / front desk (each) |
$15 to $80, or a gift |
$75 to $200 |
$75 to $200 |
$100 and up |
|
Handyman / maintenance |
$15 to $40 (handyman) |
$50 to $100 (handyman) |
$25 to $50 |
$50 to $75 |
|
Porter |
Not listed |
$25 to $50 |
$25 to $50 |
$50 to $75 |
|
Garage attendant |
$10 to $30, or a small gift |
$25 to $75 |
$25 to $75 |
$25 to $75 |
Treat these as recommendations, not measured averages. Brick Underground and Corcoran land on nearly identical numbers for a New York City full-service building. Outside a major metro, the Emily Post range is the better starting point.
Renters are expected to tip, but not as much. StreetEasy's guide says it plainly: renters "should tip their building staff for the holidays too," but "are not expected to tip as much as homeowners, because they did not invest in their homes." Brick Underground adds that renters, as a group, tend to tip less than condo and co-op owners.
That puts renters at the lower end of each range. From there, four factors move your number up or down:
|
Factor |
How it moves your number |
|
How long you've lived there |
A resident in year 4 who knows the staff by name tips differently than someone who moved in during October. |
|
How often you used them |
Three emergency repair calls and a daily package pickup count for more than a quiet year. |
|
Building size |
StreetEasy notes that in larger buildings, individual tips tend to be smaller because staff receive tips from many more residents. |
|
Roommates |
Per StreetEasy, each roommate should tip individually, and splitting the unit shouldn't lower what each person gives. |
If money is tight, give less and write more. Two or three honest sentences land better than a $10 bill with no card.
This is the most searched version of the question, and the answer is short. None of the guides above expect you to tip on every repair call. The holiday tip is the recognized moment to thank your maintenance team for the year.
Anything extra is a judgment call. If a technician came in at 11 p.m. for a burst pipe, or spent a Saturday fixing something you broke, a tip or a note is a kind gesture. For a routine filter change, a thank-you at the door is enough.
All of the guides above are written around the December holidays, so that's the default timing. Renters move more often, though. If you're leaving partway through the year, thank the staff who helped with your move before you go, rather than waiting for a December you won't spend in the building.
Cash in an envelope is still the tradition, but it's no longer how most people pay for things. The Federal Reserve's 2026 Diary of Consumer Payment Choice found that cash covered about 1 in 7 consumer payments in its October 2025 survey. StreetEasy now says sending tips electronically is "increasingly acceptable (and sometimes preferred!)."
Personal payment apps only get you partway there. You need each staff member's handle, and you rarely have it for the overnight porter. A tipping tool your building runs solves that, because the staff list is already built.
If your community uses TippingLink, you can tip building staff through the resident portal, the resident app, or a direct link your property shares by flyer or email. Your management team adds the staff members who can receive tips, so you pick from a list your building already set up. Here's what that looks like for you:
|
What you get |
How it works |
|
One checkout for several people |
Enter an amount next to each staff member, add a message for everyone or a personal note for each person, and pay once. |
|
Credit card or bank transfer (ACH) |
Fees apply and are clearly displayed at checkout before payment: a TippingLink fee of 3.5% with a $1 minimum per transaction, plus a 3% credit card fee if you pay by card. Paying by bank transfer doesn't add anything on top of the TippingLink fee. See the TippingLink Terms and Conditions for details. |
|
Staff receive 100% of their tips |
Any fees are paid by the resident on top of the tip. |
|
Privacy |
Tip information is privacy-protected, and management is not shown individual tip details for specific staff members. If your building uses a tip pool, management may have visibility into who contributed, tip amounts, and disbursements to staff members. |
|
Tips show up right away |
Resident tips appear instantly for staff in TippingLink. |
|
Thank-you notes |
You can add a personal message when you tip, and staff can send you a personalized thank-you note back. It arrives by email, and your email address isn't shared with them. |
|
Tipping history |
You can review your prior tips in TippingLink, which helps when you decide what to give next time. |
Some buildings also run a tip pool, which shows residents one "tip the team" option. Depending on how your building sets it up, you can tip the pool, individual staff members, or both. A pool is the easy way to thank the overnight porter whose name you never learned.
One note: tips aren't anonymous. You'll enter your first name, last name, unit number, and email at checkout, and staff can see who tipped them and how much.
Your residents are asking the questions in this post, and many of them are asking your front desk. TippingLink gives them one place to thank your staff, whether they've lived there 6 years or 6 weeks. If TippingLink is activated for your community, residents get access through the BuildingLink resident portal and app once you add your staff. You can also generate a staff list flyer with QR codes to share with residents before the holidays.
The holidays are the biggest tipping moment of the year, and residents need time to learn a new tool. Communities that set up TippingLink this fall are ready when December arrives. Connect with a member of our team to see how it works.