I am actually fine with that - the "breakfast included" brands like HIExpress and Hampton have a hard time providing a good breakfast at their room rates - I used to do a bit of sales in F&B, and their F&B managers are always quite close to a nervous breakdown knowing how little they can afford and how guests are going to respond to their cost-cutting. So if the hotel needs a breakfast-excluded rate to drive business, so be it.

Thx to Ibis Styles, we get a number of inexpensive options and hotels in less popular locations, that are not cookie-cutter red-pillow Ibises and often provide an upgrade over the wooden-flooring-and-prefab-bathroom standard.