Originally Posted by
Horace
The good news is that plenty of Marriott Bonvoy full-service and luxury properties provide excellent breakfasts to Platinum Elite and above. My wife and I recently stayed at five properties in Italy -- one Westin, one Renaissance, two Autograph Collection, and one St. Regis -- which all had well-stocked breakfast buffets with plenty of choices and no extra charges for anything.
Depending on the brand and property type (hotel or resort), the daily breakfast benefit rules (for member + 1) at full-service and luxury properties fall into three categories: (1) breakfast through "Guaranteed Lounge Access," (2) breakfast in the restaurant as a Welcome Gift choice, and (3) no breakfast benefit at all. See the
Marriott Bonvoy Loyalty Program Terms & Conditions for all the details.
When there's no lounge or the lounge is closed, hotels of Marriott legacy brands that provide restaurant breakfast through "Guaranteed Lounge Access" can limit the free elite breakfast to a "continental breakfast." In such cases, the hotel can offer a more complete breakfast for an additional charge. Most hotels realize this is petty, so they provide a full buffet or traditional hotel breakfast. But they're not in violation of the T&Cs if they only provide "continental breakfast" and offer a credit toward other breakfasts.
The benefit should never ONLY be a discount or credit. If there's only a credit -- insufficient for breakfast food, coffee, and juice -- then the hotel is in violation, and the member should invoke the guarantee.
If a full-service hotel only wants to provide daily USD $10 credits for member + 1, then the hotel should rebrand to Courtyard, AC Hotels, or Moxy.
and I’ve staid at two StR in Mexico over the past year that charged $25 extra, per person to get something beyond a plate of fruit and a piece of bread while also charging >$1000 a night. I think this can be repeated for plenty of hotels across the board. For every great example, like the StR in Bali, there’s a StR that’s doing the bare minimum.
Is it bad that a guest wants a consistent experience? If you’re telling me I get “breakfast in the restaurant” and then serve me a plate of fruit and a piece of bread that’s not even on the menu, I’m not too thrilled.