Originally Posted by
HadesNL
Last saturday at the Indigo The Hague, the breakfast room couldn't cope with a full hotel with every guest coming at breakfast at 9 at once.
It is only that someone from guest relations reached out to me 4 days in advance per email noting that as an appreciated guest the advise was to get in before 08,30 to be sure of getting a table.
Why?
Citing weekend high occupancy:
Guests normally book a rate with breakfast = hotel can anticipate crowds in advance
Now Diamonds book a stay without breakfast,
let reception know only at day of checkin that they want breakfast for the next day = hotel knows only 24H in advance the strain on breakfast room occupancy => crowds appear and not enough tables free
hence the hotel's need to warn their preferred guests
(or even better they should instate reservering slots for breakfast in general)
Hotels should assume all diamonds will take breakfast for now. After some months of data gathering they can work out what proportion of diamonds won't take the breakfast and plan accordingly.
I agree Indigos tend to have small restaurants so booking an approximate time would be useful on busy mornings. But they should be flexible about it, on the understanding that if you are a lot later than your approximate time slot you may have to wait until there's a free table. (This has been my experience at Indigos so far.)