Tag Archives for free breakfast.
Hilton announced a new food and beverage benefit that replaces breakfast at U.S. hotels starting in July and running through the end of 2021. They will offer a food and beverage credit for use any time at the hotel, including in-restaurant, for grab and go, or for room service.
That sounds great in theory – you can take your meal as it’s most convenient to you. However the devil is in the detail of how much that credit is for.
If you care about your elite benefits part of selecting a hotel now must include finding out what benefits are actually being honored at a property. And if you have to work so hard to get your benefits, the benefits probably aren’t worth it to begin with, and you shouldn’t be choosing a hotel based on loyalty to a chain.
Hotel breakfast is one of the most important elite benefits and something that’s considered standard, ironically, at most non-full service properties. But what happens when a guest expects to receive breakfast and doesn’t, either because of a change to the loyalty program or as a cost saving measure gussied up as ‘protecting guests and workers during Covid-19’?
Hyatt Place is changing its breakfast offerings. They are going to vary by region of the world. Guests will no longer be guaranteed a free hot breakfast at any Hyatt Place in the world, even if they are members of World of Hyatt booking direct. That’s a huge change.
This degrades the premium brand that Hyatt Place has built. You still get reasonably stylish large rooms. I’m a fan of Hyatt Places generally, at least the properties that aren’t ex-AmeriSuites. Fortunately the change shouldn’t affect top tier Hyatt elites.
Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel -- a topic he has covered since 2002.
Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »
