Hotel Chain Nixes Bacon and Sausage From Menus
Jennifer Billock November 20, 2015
So long, bacon, sausage and cheese. Guests at Choice Hotels in Scandinavia can no longer enjoy these breakfast staples.
It’s every traveler’s worst nightmare. No bacon for breakfast! Nordic Choice Hotels Group, a company in Scandinavia that owns the Comfort Hotel chain, recently made the decision to pull the salty meat from its menus — along with sausage, some cheese, and some cereals. The pulled items all contained palm oil. Choice Hotels made the decision to wipe them from the menu in order to promote a healthier, plant-based lifestyle that is better for the environment.
“Focusing on sustainability is what we do,” Petter Stordalen, owner of Nordic Choice, told the Norwegian-language website Hegnar. “Guests will appreciate a good, healthy start to the day.”
Stordalen decided to change the menus based on the World Health Organization’s recent study showing that processed meat products can cause colon cancer.
According to Swedish news website Vasterbottens Kuriren, though, not all customers are pleased with the decision. There’s been a mixed reaction overall, with one worker going so far as to say, “Personally, I think bacon and scrambled eggs should be the standard in a hotel breakfast.”
The negative reactions are even making their way to TripAdvisor reviews, where some travelers clearly state that they miss their breakfast meats. Luckily, the new menu, which was created by Stordalen’s wife, Dr. Gunhild Stordalen, is only in a trial phase. The hotel group will decide for sure whether it wants to continue with the menu after hearing customer feedback.
[Photo: Getty]
If a hotel wants to do breakfast on the cheap, let 'em. People will vote with their feet. You would catch me in a hotel that doesn't serve bacon. Ever. My cash, my choice.
http://www.vg.no/nyheter/innenriks/helse/stordalen-hotellene-faar-bacon-til-frokost-likevel/a/23566251/ According to the above link (sorry, in Norwegian) the test in 18 hotels of dropping bacon on the breakfast buffet has been reversed. The CEO is quoted as follows: "I hotellbransjen er det gjesten som er sjefen. Og når gjestene våre vil ha bacon, skal de få bacon. Over og ut for Bacongate!", which translates as: In the hotel business, the guest is the boss. When our guests want bacon, they shall have bacon. Over and out for Bacongate!" Probably not a PR stunt, but certainly not bad publicity for them! Now Nordic Choice have demonstrated that they listen to their customers!
First of all: Nordic Choice, as other have mentioned, has little to do with the Choice Hotels in the US and the rest of the world. Nordic Choice has several subbrands, similar to the international Choice Chain: Clarion, Clarion Collection, Quality, Comfort and Comfort XPress. There are also some non-branded luxury Choice hotels, The Thief in Oslo and Copperhill in Åre, Sweden. Nordic Choice is a major operator in Sweden and Norway, and has some properties in other Nordic/Baltic countries as well As all other major hotels in Scandinavia, Nordic Choice offers a huge buffet breakfast which is included in the room rate. The Clarion Collection subbrand even offers a similar evening buffet included in the price. Comfort Xpress is a no-frills subbrand that is the exception to the buffet breakfast rule. The point about dropping some cooked breakfast items and some foods containing palm oil is about health. This will only be for the Comfort subbrand (i.e. the "second-lowest"). As a typical Scandinavian usually eats bread with meat, cheese or jam for breakfast, and this still will be abundantly available, the change will not be that large. It probably also is a way to differentiate the differnt subbrands from each other: the cheaper gets a simpler breakfast included than the top level brand. Myself I stay at Nordic Choice hotels in Norway around twenty nights a year, and this change will not affect my choice of hotels a iota!
Well I am glad to hear the news. Now I know for sure what hotel to avoid at all costs. It is probably the case that I would not order bacon at breakfast, but one thing I cannot abide is "preachy" self satisfied liberals deciding what is best for me. Thanks for the heads up so I am warned where not to take my business.
This reminds me of the time my bank sent me a letter informing me that for my convenience, they are closing my branch and setting me up at another branch 3 miles further and not even close to a route I would take, ever. I replied and thanked them for their consideration, but I had determined that for their convenience, less paperwork for me would be better. I closed out my accounts and took my business elsewhere. My Federal, Provincial and Municipal Gov'ts are already my nannies. I don't need corporations taking on that role as well.