Cruise Ship Housekeeping: Responsibilities, Salaries and Benefits (2023)

FAQs

How much does a Housekeeper get paid on a cruise ship? ›

Average salary

Does this salary seem accurate? The average salary for Housekeeper at American Cruise Lines in the United States is $11.08 per hour, which is 13% below the national average.

What is Housekeeping on a Cruise? On a cruise, housekeeping is a team of crew members who are responsible for cleaning the cabins, public areas, disposing of waste, and sanitization of the ship. Cruise ships carry thousands of people, so housekeepers are essential for ensuring the guests and crew stay healthy.

Average Royal Caribbean group Housekeeper monthly pay in the United States is approximately $4,938, which is 139% above the national average.

For bartenders and housekeepers, you may also want to offer a generous tip at the beginning of the cruise (again, $20 or more, depending on your needs) to ensure great service while on board. As for daily housekeeping gratuity, $2 to $5 per person per day is a good rule of thumb.

A cabin steward on a cruise ship is the person responsible for cleaning and maintaining your stateroom during your cruise. Sometimes referred to as a cabin attendant, the steward will make your bed and clean the bathroom each day while you are out.

After each contract you will receive approximately 60 days of vacation before your next assignment. Your daily work schedule while onboard will depend on your particular position, but you can expect to work seven days a week and anywhere between 10-13 hours per day.

Most cruise lines offer their staff free room and board throughout the duration of their contracts. They often cover the costs of basic living expenses, such as water and electricity bills. This allows employees to travel wherever the ship goes, frequently visiting new countries during their free time.

Do Cruise Ship Crew Pay *Income* Taxes? Yes, but it mostly depends on where you are from. Whether it is withheld out of their paycheck depends on where they are from; whether they have to pay any taxes on their income earned while at sea depends on where they are from.

Who are the housekeeping staff and their duties and responsibilities? ›

Housekeepers are responsible for cleaning and reporting any safety hazards to the homeowner or manager in charge. They must complete tasks like vacuuming, sweeping, emptying trash cans, dusting shelves, cleaning windows, and mopping floors. Some Housekeepers change linens, wash dishes, and do light ironing and laundry.

The average Royal Caribbean group monthly salary ranges from approximately $1,284 per month for Room Attendant to $5,235 per month for Housekeeper.

How much do Carnival cruise housekeepers make? $10-$37/hr Carnival Cruise Line Housekeeping Jobs.

Employee Benefits at Royal Caribbean Group

Some additional benefits include 12 weeks of paid parental leave, employee discounts on cruises, and a complimentary seven-day cruise for employees and a guest after their first year of work.

A cruise ship crew member for Carnival, Royal Caribbean, or Norwegian Cruise Line can earn an annual average between $16,000 to $20,000. For leadership staff onboard cruise ships, the annual salary can be much higher from $30,000 to $100,000.

What happens if you don't tip on a cruise? Most cruise lines work on the basis that the crew members' pay structure is based on receiving tips. If you choose not to tip, for whatever reason, you are impacting the salaries of the crew who have served you so well during your cruise.

They clean your cabin daily, keeping it stocked with towels, amenities, and anything you need. If your cruise steward goes above and beyond, a cash tip at the end of your stay to show your appreciation. We usually recommend tipping your cruise steward $3-5 per person daily. What is this?

In general, plan on giving $16–$23 in gratuities per day for each passenger. Note that the amount should be tabulated for each individual in your party—don't try to tip once per couple or group. So if you're planning to go on a 7-day cruise, expect to give a total of between $112 and $161 per person in gratuities.

Housekeepers keep all areas of the ship clean with the exception of the crew areas, the ship's offices, and the dining areas. The Chief Steward manages the staff, ensures budgetary limits are kept, ordering of supplies, ensures proper training, and more.

While ZipRecruiter is seeing hourly wages as high as $31.49 and as low as $10.34, the majority of Private Housekeeper wages currently range between $15.38 (25th percentile) to $25.00 (75th percentile) across the United States.

How long is training to work on a cruise ship? ›

Courses typically last 13 weeks and are filled with practical and classroom-based sessions, a full overview of the department in which they'll be working and job-specific training.

On cruise lines, the answer is: A LOT! The pay on cruise ships is actually one of its best benefits. You might think you could be earning around the same amount in a similar job on land, but as all of your needs for your life at sea are catered to by the cruise line, there are next to no expenses for you.

Crew and staff members often have one roommate, though they sometimes have three. Their rooms are furnished simply, giving occupants some combination of a bed, a desk, a closet, a few shelves, and a small bathroom.

It comes as no surprise that the ship's captain has the biggest salary from working on a cruise ship. The master of the vessel has a huge responsibility for ship safety for crew and passengers along with navigation. The captain can earn almost $100,000 manually depending on the cruise line and experience.

Overtime pay does exist on cruise ships depending on the contract. It could be given based on working over a certain number of hours in a day (e.g. 10) or in a week (e.g. 70). The amount that overtime pay is depends greatly on the job and base wage of that crew members position.

Yes, you can work onboard a cruise ship if you have a child. A huge percentage of people working on cruise ships have kids. Most of those kids are not onboard though. The majority of crew member that have children have family members at home taking care of them while the crew member works onboard.

In reality, it's very lonely to be an employee on a cruise ship. Even though you're surrounded by thousands of guest and coworkers, Bruns shares that it can still be an isolating experience. It gets worse as Bruns calls his time working aboard the Carnival cruise ship as the loneliest he's ever felt in his entire life.

The management concept of “5S” is promoted for good housekeeping practice in workplaces, which includes five complementary principles of “Organisation”, “Neatness”, “Cleanliness”, “Standisation” and “Discipline”. “5S” is a practically management tool for good housekeeping practice in workplaces.

What are the 4 types of housekeeping? ›

The 4 common types of housekeeping are cleaning/maid services, live-in housekeeping services, live-out housekeeping services, and house manager/housekeeping services.

The Executive Housekeeper/Director of Housekeeping is the Head of Department and manages the Housekeeping operations. He/She is committed to providing the highest levels of comfort and hospitality to guests, which leads to achieving maximum guest satisfaction and organisational profitability.

Hospitality staff face dual challenges every day. First, cleaning each guest's room to the stringent standard of cleanliness required, and second, doing so within an extremely tight time frame. The average hotel housekeeping worker is required to check and/or clean between 12 and 20 rooms in an eight-hour shift.

they take care of their employees and very family oriented

great company to work for, very flexible with schedules, benefits are great, they really care and do a lot for their employees on every level. i would highly recommend working for Royal.

RCL pays the highest-paid employees over $90,000 a year, while the lowest-paid employees are paid less than $24,000. RCL employees in different jobs earn different salaries. In engineering jobs, employees earn an average salary of $94,289.

Average Carnival Cruise Lines Housekeeping Superwiser salary in India is ₹ 3.3 Lakhs for experience between 5 years to 9 years Housekeeping Superwiser salary at Carnival Cruise Lines India ranges between ₹ 0.6 Lakhs to ₹ 8.5 Lakhs.

RCL Overview

Despite their political differences, employees at RCL seem to be happy. The company has great employee retention with staff members usually staying for 4.8 years. The average employee at RCL makes $47,500 per year.

Average Royal Caribbean group Crew Member hourly pay in the United States is approximately $18.43, which is 43% above the national average. Salary information comes from 9 data points collected directly from employees, users, and past and present job advertisements on Indeed in the past 36 months.

Average Princess Cruises Housekeeping Attendant salary in India is ₹ 3.8 Lakhs for experience between 3 years to 8 years Housekeeping Attendant salary at Princess Cruises India ranges between ₹ 1.0 Lakhs to ₹ 6.0 Lakhs.

Do cruise workers get their tips? ›

The Carnival website states: “100 per cent of your gratuities are distributed to the crew who you interact with, such as your stateroom attendants, dining, bar and culinary services staff, as well as others who work behind the scenes to enhance your overall cruise experience.”

Average Carnival Cruise Line Housekeeping Manager monthly pay in the United States is approximately $1,550, which is 47% below the national average. Salary information comes from 1 data point collected directly from employees, users, and past and present job advertisements on Indeed in the past 24 months.

To apply for a cruise ship job in Accommodations, contact an authorized recruitment partner in your country of residence. Housekeeping positions include Executive Housekeeper, Deck Supervisor, Accommodation Supervisor, Stateroom Steward, Assistant Stateroom Steward, and Utility Cleaner.

How much does a Steward make at Royal Caribbean group in the United States? Average Royal Caribbean group Steward monthly pay in the United States is approximately $1,208, which is 35% below the national average.

$40,500 is the 75th percentile. Salaries above this are outliers. $57,000 is the 90th percentile.

You want to be as close to the pivot point as possible to feel the least movement. Avoid cabins near the front (bow) or back (stern) and on decks higher than the middle deck of the ship. So, on a ship with fourteen passenger decks, your best options are below deck seven.

Do cruise ship employees get free food? ›

Do cruise ship employees get free food? A majority of cruise ship lines offer their employees free food throughout the duration of their contracts. There's typically a special kitchen on the boat that prepares food for staff members. Employees may eat in separate dining areas, depending on their classifications.

There aren't any hard-and-fast guidelines for this type of tip since it's contingent on your experience, but $25 to $40 on behalf of a couple roughly works out to an extra $2 to $3 per person, per day, for a seven-night cruise.

Taxes on Cruise Ship Employment Income

Crew members are responsible for any taxes due to their country of origin. Only United States citizens or employees that reside in the USA will have US federal taxes deducted from their pay.