I love this topic because I have always been very particular with all the cars I owned. From my Acura's $18,000 to my Mercedes'. It's not an issues of how much the car is, it's an issues of NOT HAVING DINGS.
I also will try and give the guy some money up front and park it myself, it hasn't been an issue most of the time.
I have witnessed valets ding cars, and also back into cars, and no matter how much you give them they will never be as careful as you. Even giving someone $100 dollars up front will not guarantee they will be as careful as you with your car, and it doesn't make them a better driver if they are not very experienced drivers.
If I am absolutely forced to valet, I will pay them some money up front, and still inspect all sides of the car to make sure there is no damage, and then pay them again when I leave if all is well.
The other places that I inspect the car thoroughly are at the dealer after I pick it up from Servicing it.

 

I'm sure if I owned a $100K car it'll be very hard just handing it over to someone who isn't necessarily a great driver (well you just meet them).

My building doesn't, but my sister's building has valet parking and it's a must (unless you'd like to circle the block over and over looking for parking). But basically the valet staff are very polite about the matter and try to mimic and respect your driving preferences and style. For instance: I (and my brothers/sisters) all have manual cars, and one thing we all do is never use handbrake (and can I just say I hate the 'Mercedes-style' hand-brake), anyway we usually put the car in gear (which serves as a hand-brake). And upon going to the building in the first 2 visits, they've realized to put the car in gear (and not use hand-brake). Also, they clean the driver's floor mat before returning the car to you. For my sister, who lives there so interacts with them very often, in winter if she calls for the car and is immediately coming down, they'll leave it running and activate the heater and the heated seats, in summer they'll activate the AC.

So while they do have their faults, they are some that try their best to give you extra service to make you feel comfortable knowing your car is in trusted hands. But still of course not all are like this and there are many problems that happen with valet parking. Respect of one's property must be the first principal to this job, and unfortunately while it may happen 90% of the time, that 10% is more than enough to make people feel shaky.

Good luck.

(NB. For those in New York, The Marriott Marque -- Times Square, has very bad valet service... They leave the seat way reclined, are just disrespectful, the very RRRRRReving my car and the first that came didn't even know how to drive manual -- yet he was about to give it a try)!


Tee_Tz.