At Hampton's, I'll usually just get a coffee and bagel. At the other properties, I'd sometimes take the free breakfast benefit and then use the meal allowance for snacks. I'm not a big breakfast person so I'm not all that picky and more often than not, I'll just skip it entirely and won't use the allowance either. I've eaten the dinner at a handful of Homewood Suites and then used my dinner allowance for drinks. Company didn't need an itemized receipt so as long as I came in under the limit and it was a place that served food, it was fine.

At my last company, our dinner limit was ~$40 but most of us went over. Most of mine were closer to or a little over $50. But my day's total would come in the same as someone who did all the meals. My reports were always approved, but a few guys who typically got breakfast would have their requests denied. So even though we weren't per diem, I think our manager looked at the total expenditures.

Hampton free breakfasts are pretty terrible. But a lot of the places I had to go, they were the only property in town.