ADVICE: Tip Your Hotel Maid. I generally do, and my tips are usually pretty generous. My theory is that they work hard and make your room nicer, and are underappreciated. Once I even tipped the maid who was cleaning the surgical waiting room at the hospital where my mom was having surgery — she said “you don’t have to do that” and I replied “no, but I want to do that, and what you do is important.” The appreciation seemed to please her almost as much as the money.

I’m not entirely unselfish, though: I usually tip on the first night I’m there, to ensure better service for the whole stay. But the Insta-Wife and I decided a while back that we’d put money directly in people’s hands in preference to charitable donations, so that it would go where we wanted it instead of buying a leather chair for somebody’s fancy office in a nonprofit headquarters somewhere.