htb

Try to get the free breakfast without paying for it by reserving a room... That's how "free" it is.

HTB.

vexorg

Maybe I've been lucky, the scrambled egg seemed not too bad, same with sausages. They always have fruit juice, cereal, yogurt, croissant type stuff, decent coffee machine, bacon and beans too. In general the rates are cheaper than holiday inn, and they have extra for breakfast.

I grudge paying the overboard amount when you see how much some charge extra. It's somehow acceptable if free.

perthite

Brand standares get into quite some detail about what items must be in a HIX breakfast, but my reading of the OP is that the issue is more with the preparation of the items in the breakfast, rather than the list of items.

If the issue was 'extra items' they would be pulled into line. If the issue is the way the items are being prepared, then that may not be the case....

Baze

Semantics. All it really means you don't pay extra if you eat the breakfast. And at the same time (before you bring it up) you don't pay less if you don't eat it.

Dave Noble

Pretty trivial in HIXs I have been to for someone to walk in and help themselves to breakfast. Unlike most hotels where breakfast may be chargeable, no member of staff checking details of the person going in

The only staff were involved in cleaning tables after people left - everything was self service

RoyalFlush

There is an entire thread to dedicated to hotel breakfast buffet poachers. It is quite entertaining, now locked.

And, I've noticed HIX breakfast spreads are highly variable in quality.

sdsearch

Paying "and reserving" is not the same thing. You get the free breakfast as a guest at the hotel. It matters not how and why you are a guest at the hotel. It works if you paid, it works if you used points, it works if you used a cert, it works if you were walked to that hotel (from some other hotel), it works if for some reason the hotel gave you a "comp" stay, it works if you invoked a free night as a BRG.

So it is free for all guests. It's not free for non-guests.

At any rate, if you want to find eggs that are more consistently better at HIX, don't look in the heated tray. Look in the mini-fridge. Those eggs may be cold, but they're real.

triger02

Having worked in the food industry for a decade now, some distribuitors have contracts with certain HIX properties, while others can buy from whoever they wish. Sadly, there is no consistency.

I travel a lot for work and usually stay at HIX properties too since we get a deeply discounted corporate rate. I have noticed the breakfast items vary greatly. From cheese omelets, to scrambled to hard broiled eggs. From blueberry and strawberry chobani greek yogurts to plain yoplait or no yogurt offerings. From preecoked 100% beef sausage patties to beef/pork/chicken blend sausage links. The list goes on and on...

CMK10

I don't have high hopes. I stay at the HIX RDU a lot and the breakfast varies from good to terrible depending on when I'm there. If a single hotel can't be consistent I have minimal expectations for the whole chain.

vexorg

Maybe it's just a US thing, the UK express breakfasts are fairly consistent.

htb

I guess you're only joking when making this comparison. Just because you can steal an item or service doesn't mean it's "free".

You pay for breakfast along with the night. It's included in the price. The fact that you can't opt out doesn't make it free -- just "included". Some jurisdictions have picked up on this -- and not only those who charge more VAT for breakfast than for the night at the hotel.

HTB.

chrism20

That's how it works here in the UK these days. Raffles wrote a piece about it a while back when the ruling was made stating that it is included and not free.

On the original topic of standards I think in general here in the UK the cold options are ok, perhaps some more fresh fruit options would be good.

The hot options could probably be improved upon quality/consistency wise. The biggest problem here is that all the hotels are franchised and whilst they follow the requirements - i.e. you must provide sausages, beans and scrambled egg as a minimum. Some of the hotels then go and find the cheapest they possibly can. Given the number of properties now perhaps IHG should do a deal with a supplier and there is a set product across the estate - i.e. everyone uses the same kind of sausages, beans, powdered egg etc. Given the numbers the cost would probably be low to the hotels.

jrheyman06

A few of the HIEs in China have a full 70+ item buffet. I'd love to see that as the standard! While very little of it is traditional western options, it's the perfect opportunity to try a variety of local food without the risk of paying for something that you don't like.

walkerny

I am SPIRE, before that 12 years platinum, and IHG whatever before that. I have to say the only good thing about HI Express breakfast is the newspaper. The fact that they are proud of that gooey crap cinnamon roll speaks volumes. I haven't had a second one since they rolled those out. A calorie/carb/nutrition nightmare sitting under a sun lamp. I've had better eggs served to me in by the Army in Iraq (no, really they serve huge tins from the lowest bidder called dirty eggs...not bad). The bacon is intentionally (?) fused together, apparently heated with a hair drier. The hard boiled eggs sit in little pools of water...petri dishes. I don't even take breakfast into account anymore, it's price & location. wake up IHG Express, your competitors at Hampton & elsewhere beat your breakfast easily. Skipping breakfast beats it, as does going elsewhere and paying for breakfast, my choice #1.

highlanderfil

I've got a couple of stays coming up in the UK - what are they like? My experience with small town HIEs in the U.S. has been similar to that of the OP. I do like the bacon and the "omelettes" (ones with cheese but none of that fiesta salsa crap), but neither is available everywhere.