pinniped

Marriott's breakfast policy is THE original reason I discovered Hilton Honors and continue to do enough in that program to retain at least Gold status, if not Diamond.

My first frequent-travel job was at a company that was 100% Marriott corporate rates worldwide. I was a high Plat and mostly loved it. On business trips, I don't really care about breakfast or really much of elite status recognition (as long as they got bed/smoke right, which they always did).

But on leisure trips, especially now with kids, I realized we want some sort of breakfast option - lounge or buffet, anything is fine. And with Marriott, that meant we could never redeem at anything they arbitrarily deem a "resort", or at an increasing number of properties that simply opt-out of status benefits.

So I started kicking some business stays over to Hilton. Got their credit cards, started working their promos, and figured out how to work their program pretty well. Got hooked on them back when Gold/Diamond upgrades were amazing....6 nights in Hawaii with a huge upgrade and great breakfast easily trumped Marriott's 7 nights with little/no upgrade and no food option at all.

In 2017, I'm doing 75% of my business stays with Hilton and 25% with Marriott. I'm frustrated by how unstable the HH program is compared to Marriott and SPG (three major devaluations in 10 years vs. MR/SPG programs that are structurally pretty stable). But they follow the devaluations with juicy promos, so I keep playing the game. I know I don't want to lose status there, because that's where most of our bigger family trips are going. I just need enough Marriott points to do the occasional Travel Package, and as much as I love TP's I'm running out of ideas for city hotels that I want to spend a full week in...

SkiAdcock

And Hilton's russian roulette w/ exec lounge access (once I dropped to Gold) is the reason I basically dropped Hilton several years & switched my stays to Marriott vs. splitting them. With Marriott even as a Gold I would have had lounge access. With Hilton the only way I had lounge access was if I was upgraded to exec lounge floor & that didn't always happen. Breakfast is not as big a deal for me; I primarily use exec lounges in the evenings.

Cheers.

pinniped

Both of them (MR and HH) have such weak evening offerings in the U.S. that I often forget to go up there and check out the lounge at night.

Internationally, yes...definitely love to use the lounges in the evening and would probably be booking Marriott if I were Gold in both programs.

pWei

Is that why Marriott's breakfast benefit seems a lot more limited? Giving too many people the benefit likely dilutes it for everyone.

No breakfast at resorts, and more than half the brands seems limited.

Oxon Flyer

The 3 Ritz Carltons on the list (1 in Indonesia and 2 in Thailand) all specifically say "free breakfast" in their summary description, similarly for all 4 of the listed Autograph Collections (2 in Azerbaijan, 1 each in Greece & Spain). What gives ?

Indeed. This illustrates that MR has a huge 'free breakfast for all' hotel estate in the US, and a very sparse offering everywhere else in the world. One could equally argue that MR can 'afford' to offer free breakfast at the Gold tier level (compared, say, to SPG, which can't) because the heartland of MR gold members are the USA-based ones who earn and use their gold status in this huge estate where they get a free (cheap to provide and low quality) breakfast anyway.

SkiAdcock

We must be reading different descriptions, as I'm not seeing free breakfast as the standard offerings for those properties (or the exec apartments listed as well where free breakfast is not the norm).

Marriott has 469 full-service properties (am not including resorts unless there's a report by FTers of free brekkie offered, such as Vietnam) outside of the US that either have an exec lounge or offer free brekkie if there isn't one. That's not really 'sparse'. It also doesn't include the int'l limited service brands that offer free brekkie as part of their brand standards.

Are there less MAR limited service brands outside of the US? Yes. Limited service brands is something Marriott is slowly rolling out rest of world. However, SPG isn't exactly robust in brands in general that offer free brekkie or have lounges, whether that be full-service or limited service & have less of both outside of the US. I'm perplexed by your comment that SPG can't afford to offer its Golds free brekkie in the USA.

The one thing I think most of us are in agreement on is that Marriott comes in 2nd/3rd to SPG & Hilton wrt resorts & free brekkie. The lack of free breakfast at resorts has been a thorn in most MAR elites side for years & is nothing new.

Anyway, DELee did a nice job w/ his summary as did sdsearch's additional main point so well done them But as mentioned, free brekkie has been discussed in this forum & other hotel forums for years & periodically crops up every year or every couple of years. So we're all probably commenting on items we've commented on before.

Can't speak for others, but I'm moving on as I'm not sure much that's new will be added (well until the programs merge late '18/early '19& we find out how both sides will be affected wrt breakfast!).

Have a good weekend!

Cheers.

hockeyinsider

When I'm on business breakfast isn't as important because I can generally expense breakfast to a client or my employer.

When I'm on vacation having a free breakfast is important to me, which is why I've never understood Marriott's stupid policy of denying a free breakfast to elites at so-called resort properties. By the end of 2017, I'll be at 150 nights with Marriott. I've already re-qualified for 2018. Giving me a complementary yogurt parfait, medium-sized latte, and maybe an egg-white with spinach omelet at a resort property isn't going to bankrupt Marriott.

I was in Los Cabos at the wonderful J.W. Marriott recently. The breakfast buffet was a rip-off at $30 per person. Off the menu, I had an egg-white with spinach omelet and coffee, including tax and tip, for under $20 in the restaurant. Other days I had a yogurt and oats bowl and cappuccino in the coffeehouse cafe, by the lobby, for $15-ish.

What's even worse is that an increasing number of properties, as has been documented on FlyerTalk, seem to be skirting the spirit of a complimentary breakfast by providing only coffee and a doughnut/pastry.

Oxon Flyer

Just click the link, then filter by brand, then by country. What do you read ?

hockeyinsider

I'll drink four to five cans of Diet Pepsi per day. So, for me, the lounge or M Club is a value in that regard.

I have found that some Courtyards look the other way and comp one or two bottles of Diet Pepsi for a platinum. Not always, but often enough.

hockeyinsider

Let's not forget that breakfast buffets cost the hotel practically nothing. They make a fortune.

hockeyinsider

You mean you don't like carrots, processed cheese cubes, and mystery fried meat?

Thankfully, there are a handful of domestic properties with gratis wine.

CJKatl

OT, but my personal crusade... I was addicted to diet soda until a couple years ago, drinking up to two two-liters a day since the days of cyclamates and Tab. I cut it out, made no other significant changes, dropped close to seventy pounds, with no other effort, moving from Size 42-44 jeans to 32-34, XXL to M shirts, from a tight 18.5 neck to a 17 and from being close to needing an extender on flights to having lots of slack on the seatbelt. I can see my feet when I walk, no longer have pre-diabetes, and sleep through the night without having to get up to rehydrate or dehydrate. Diet soda made me obese and made me crave sugar and other bad foods. It provides nothing anyone needs. Water and club soda make a huge difference. Flavored Deer Creek soda water is a miracle drink.

Nature Magazine published a study explaining that for many, the body cannot tell the difference between fake sugar and sugar. That was me.

dayone

Continuing OT, anyone who does something every day should consider not doing it for seven days, and then review the effects.

soy

I think this is a bit of a distraction really. What you are bringing up are hotels that include breakfast as part of the standard rate for all customers (irrespective of whether or not they are MRR Gold/Plat).
Most on this thread are talking about getting free brekkie due to elite status.

SkiAdcock

Ah, we're looking at different things, hence the confusion! I was looking at the home page of the properties & saw nothing about free breakfast or in the hotel details summary on the property websites. The other part of the confusion is that a few properties outside the SHS, RI, FI, TPS are listed in your link that normally don't do free brekkie such as executive apartment or Autograph Collection resorts or Ritzs, hence my thinking Marriott's bad IT had struck again.

Actually on the Ritz it mentions free brekkie on the summary you show, but doesn't mention it under dining or anywhere on the property websites that I can find. I think there are a couple of threads on the Ritzs mentioned in the RC forum, so it would be good to post there & find out if free brekkie is indeed a bennie, so a wiki can be created.

On the Autographs it shows it on your summary, but not on the home page. Clicking under dining on the website it shows:

Buffet breakfast, fee from: 25.00 AZN
Continental breakfast, complimentary
Full American breakfast, fee from: 35.00 AZN
Hot breakfast, fee from: 15.00 AZN

On the Marriott exec apartment listing (exec apartments don't usually get free brekkie, hence my thinking Marriott IT had struck again) it has this under dining:

Buffet breakfast, fee from: 110.00 AED
Grab-n-Go breakfast, complimentary

Agree.

But addressing that as well as the overall.

Marriott has SHS, FI, RI, & TPS which offer breakfast to everyone, whether they're a MR member or not. SPG has the Element brand. Marriott is starting to roll out FI & RI to rest of world, but it's pretty recent wrt ROW, just as the SPG Element brand is. It would be expected that in the US w/ SPG & MAR, both being US companies, that initial roll out of limited service brands would start in the US & be more than ROW (rest of world).

* Marriott has 2,359 SHS, RI, FI & TPS in the US which offer free brekkie to everyone.
* Element has 65 in the US which offer free brekkie to everyone.

Rest of world (including those on OxonFlyer's list)

* Marriott has 51 ROW properties that offer free breakfast to everyone, whether they're a member of MR or not.
* Element has 27 ROW properties that offer free breakfast to everyone, whether they're a member of SPG or not.

So if one is going to say sparse re: ROW free brekkie for everyone, it's not surprising given that both chains are just rolling out the brands that offer free brekkie to ROW (rest of world) & the sparse would apply to both chains.

Re: full-service properties ROW, w/ Marriott there are 469 (well actually a few more if I count the ones that Oxonflyer mentions, so I'll update the exec lounge sticky ) full-service properties that offer free brekkie or exec lounge access to Gold/Plats. I don't consider that sparse. MAR has more full-service brands that have exec lounges than SPG does.

SPG Golds don't get free brekkie/exec lounge access (unless they've linked w/ MAR). SPG Plats have to choose free brekkie as their welcome amenity option (if they're at a property w/o an exec lounge), whereas Gold/Plat MAR elites get lounge access or free brekkie automatically - and Plats get a Platinum arrival gift ($10 food beverage cert or 500 points in the US/Canada, or local food/drink amenity or 500 points ROW), in addition to the free breakfast or lounge access. It's not an either/or for Marriott Plats. From SPG website under Platinum benefits. "Your choice of welcome gift upon arrival — choose from bonus Starpoints, continental breakfast or local amenity."

Where both SPG & Hilton kick Marriott's butt wrt to free brekkie is resorts, since S/H provide free brekkie to elites at resorts & MAR doesn't. Also, in the mid-range Hilton Garden Inn does, whereas Courtyard (outside of Asia) doesn't. Where SPG is better than MAR is that SPG Plats (even though they have to choose it as an option) gets free brekkie across all their brands, whereas Marriott doesn't provide it for all of their brands (RC, Edition, AC, Protea, CY don't normally provide free brekkie, although a few individual properties will do so for Plats).

Cheers.