bamba70

I recently checked into an executive room with executive lounge access. During check in, the front desk rep offered me a "special deal" to add breakfast for only $25 or so. I declined, thinking I may later change my mind and pay the hotel or eat outside.
As it turns out, complimentary breakfast was served in the executive lounge... so those $25 would have bought me the "privilege" of eating just about the same breakfast but on the ground floor restaurant...

Quite disappointed with Marriott...

johnaalex

Which property?

bamba70

Grand, Moscow

leeky

I've stayed here and the breakfast in the lounge at the Grand doesn't come close to the quality and variety in the restaurant.

Again I am not normally a Marriott defender but your comments of being disappointed with Marriott are way off as this may have been a hotel scam as you call it but had nothing to do with Marriott as management.

bamba70

I actually called the reception to ask about breakfast since I originally booked via on OTA which hasn't mentioned breakfast being included, but later saw on the Marriott site that the executive room includes complimentary "continental breakfast". The front desk told me decisively that is only includes in the lounge "coffee and bread with butter or jam"... Curious to see if this was the case I dropped by the lounge in the morning to take a look, only to discover a very nice breakfast with about 30 different item types.

kmersh

I also stayed at the Marriott Moscow Grand Hotel and interestingly had wondered about breakfast in the lounge as well (though I knew it was served, just not what exactly was served) and got the answer about coffee/bread/butter/jam and then had my friend a Russian call and speak to them in Russian and the person on the phone elaborated more than just coffee/bread/butter/jam and gave a better description (exactly what at this point I cannot remember).

Regardless, my Wife, buddy and I chucked it up to the hotel employees being more comfortable in their native tongue and thus were able to elaborate more on the offerings than when I queried them in English.

I never thought scam (maybe I am naive, entirely possible), just more of a language barrier issue.

BTW the breakfast in the restaurant was materially better than the offerings in the lounge and while were were not offered a set price (like the original author here), we felt it was basically worth the money and for $25 it would be IMHO worth the money.

Often1

Scam? Really? Sure it attracts people to your thread, but it's hardly a "scam" to charge for a full meal served at a table in a restaurant vs. the fact that some items might be laid out in a lounge. It's a choice, not a scam.

MSPeconomist

IMO it's a scam to attempt to upsell the breakfast without mentioning that the lounge breakfast is included in the rate or included for the room type. People may have a choice, but the hotel is doing nothing to ensure that it's a well informed choice.

leeky

Disagree - Maybe you missed the OP (who's been on the boards for 4-years) stating that - "I recently checked into an executive room with executive lounge access." cause if he had lounge access then he KNEW that he had lounge breakfast whether that be Marriott, Hyatt, Hilton, Starwood, etc.

Old Hickory

Not really. You were clearly offered something different, a better choice of breakfast served in the hotel restaurant. As it turns out, you made a choice you were happy with.

What's the issue?

cfo314

I've stayed at the Renaissance Moscow and the lounge breakfast and restaurant breakfast there are totally different. The lounge breakfast still exceeds U.S. standards and the restaurant buffet reminded me of Vegas. If the Renaissance is like the Grand then this is not a scam.

FWIW I loved the breakfast at the Hotel National too and that was USD 50 at the time.

JamesS

From the other posts, it seems clear the $25 breakfast is actually better than the complimentary one - the complimentary one sounds pretty good (30 items?!) so I suspect it would be hard for the other one to be $25 better, but not really a "scam", just "not a great deal".

Continental breakfast free, or full cooked one for $25? I'd probably stick with the first one, $25 seems a lot for breakfast, but not unreasonable when put like that. (I've had a few really, really lousy "complimentary" breakfasts - can't remember the name, but the Continental crew crash pad hotel at EWR had one bad enough I paid for breakfast next door instead! Meanwhile, the old Colony hotel in Toronto - sadly gone now - did a wonderful breakfast, but not included in room rate: probably well worth $25.)

Mike Rivers

Does a breakfast at a hotel or on the street in Moscow really cost $25? Would this have been a good deal for someone who didn't already get a free breakfast with his premium room?

Efrem

If you stick to high-end tourist locations like this hotel, yes. If you go where most Russians go, not even close - and you'll probably eat better. (It helps to know a little bit of Russian for this, but you don't have to be anywhere near fluent.)

kmersh

Personally, if I were to have been offered $25.00 a day for breakfast in the restaurant, I would have sprung for it because the restaurant really turned out a great breakfast and it was more expensive than $25.00, so it would have been a plus for me. Added to that the waiter was truly excellent and remembered that I like my Tea black, no sugar, no milk and my Wife takes her coffee black, plus he made recommendations off the menu on what he liked (none of this choices were the most expensive things on the menu, btw) and he smiled each time he heard that we liked his suggestions. A truly awesome guy and a gear head like myself, so we talked cars while the Wife read the paper. He has driven what some describe as the best driving road in the world (lucky duck) I hope to get to Romania one day myself and drive the Transfăgărășan.

A good friend of mine is Russian and there are cheaper places that offer great breakfasts it is true, but I really did not find the prices at the Marriott out of line for an upper end hotel.

The Grand Hotel Europe in St. Petersburg is whole different story entirely, the restaurant there was a total rip-off imho as the food was not up to the prices that they were charging. Breakfast was running well in excess of $30.00 person and it was just meh, my Wife had to send back her omelet because it was burned on the bottom and I had to on another day send back an order of bacon that had not been heated at all, it was still cold from the refrigerator. Truthfully, the entire hotel was just meh, but the Wife wanted to stay there, so she was happy and a happy wife makes for a happy marriage.