I was at my favorite Seattle area full service Marriott today. They, per corporate directive, have discontinued bacon/sausage from the morning lounge fare.

According to the assistant manager, this directive is expected to save Marriott International six million dollars a year.

At this same property, all of the managers and many other service personnel have been put on four day week schedules - due to this mandatory "furlough," their wages have been proportionately reduced.

As I remember, lounges didn't always include hot dishes. I recall they popped up a few years ago seemingly so a sign acknowledging "low carb" could be attached somewhere.

So these are bad economic times. Many of you want Marriott to make some other cuts but not to reduce any "bennies" to elites. Marriott seems to have "scrubbed" operations and - in light of the economic realities - are making any number of meaningful cuts to minimize losses. I have observed many room rates - this weekend's rate included - also go down.

I was at the Reaissance Chancery in London last weekend. I don't recall any hot dishes during breakfast in the lounge either - but no one seemed to mind. It was very nice.

Without perfect knowledge, please don't throw "Starwood" out as what Marriott should be doing. For all we know, to continue to cater to the "us's" over there, they've gone beyond "furloughs" and have actually "fired." If not, maybe they've made a short term decision which will lead to more extreme cuts to elites in the future.

I don't believe that Marriott has engaged in any recent decisions without careful attention to consequences. If any of you can come up with a way for Marriott to save six million dollars painlessly, maybe we'll get our bacon back. If not, I believe that Marriott has engaged in the kind of priority budgeting that we would want from business - not to mention government.