I ran downstairs for breakfast this morning. What a disappointment. You have to wait in line to be seated, which is a colossal waste of time. You can choose only cold items, which were fruit and industrial muffins/breads. Hot items cost extra. Not only is this nickel and diming, but the explanation the woman in the restaurant gave me was that this brings the hotel to the Marriott standard. Please, don't pee on my leg and tell me it's raining. I've been in many CLs for breakfast over the past year, and every other hotel must be violating the standard. She kept insisting it was Marriott that made them take away the hot item in the CL, although her wording was along the lines of, "I've only been here a couple weeks, but what they tell me is..."

The hotel also insisted this was better because GM/PM want to be able to have access to breakfast until 11:00 am. Isn't the purpose of the CL primarily to be a convenience for business travelers? Heck, If I'm still going to be in the hotel that late, I'll either just come in to town that morning or be doing work in the room all morning. There couldn't possibly be a swell of business travelers wanting late breakfast.

At a minimum, if this hotel is going to do something chintzy and unexpected, they should let us know ahead of time. Having this sprung on me as a surprise at check-in was uncool.

This trip downstairs took about thirty minutes. Who has that kind of time in the morning while on a work trip? If I want to wait in line and pay for breakfast, why not just stay in a Courtyard? Other than having a CL, there isn't much difference between this hotel and a CY. It's not as though it's one of the nicer Rens. It's in a good location, but the hotel itself is just ordinary.

I stopped staying in the BHM AL FS in part because of their downgrades to the CL. It was no longer worth paying a premium when a less expensive, nicer SHS is virtually across the street. The Asheville Ren may be added to that list.