It seems most client sites I go to are Hampton Inn, so it's hard to avoid them. It's free breakfast, so I can't really complain about it. I usually eat a really small breakfast and stop by Waffle House on the way out.

I have never seen Nutella in a breakfast lineup before - it would also get a +1 from me.

1000% This.

Indulge me for a moment. I have a 7 year old son. We found out the hard way, when he was just barely 2 years old, that he has a life threatening peanut/tree nut allergy. When we travel, or go anywhere for that matter other than our own home, we have to carry Epi Pens. We are the ones asking for the manager at restaurants about their cooking/kitchen procedures, asking if they can show us the ingredients panel on mixes/batters, and what not.

The waffle batter is safe for my son. Eating a waffle made on that iron after you have been hacking ingredients onto the iron there would not be.

It's nice to be able to let my son eat out in places where we know (or at least expect) normally safe food to still be safe.

You have no idea how bad of an idea this is.

Honestly, most of the people on this forum aren't buying their own meals anyways, so why not just head over to the Waffle House or Denny's and get exactly what you want, and it's still under $10? Are people that hard up for a $10 breakfast these days?

I have only seen it at Home2Suites, never at any other brand.

If you or your child have such a severe allergy, I would imagine you wouldn't allow them to eat off any buffet style spread anyway. People could have peanut butter on their hands, serving utensils, etc. Why should other hotel guests be expected to accommodate your or your child? You should be bringing your own food or sticking to prepackaged food if you're that concerned. I'm so annoyed by the epidemic of people who think complete strangers should bend over backwards to accommodate their problems. You're the only with the problem. YOU deal with it.

:confused:

About a decade ago (before the "new" Hampton breakfast standards), I stayed at a Hampton in small-down Texas where the bagels were weird colors that looked like either mold or someone spilled coloring all over them. I did not want to figure out which. Are you saying you would not have complained about that just because it was free??? :confused:

There are brands which much worse free breafkasts than Hampton. Have you stayed at a Super 8? A Days Inn? I've seen all too many of those in which the free breakfast consists of nothing more than kids-type juice cartons, donuts, and coffee. You would never complain about that just because it's free? :confused:

Remember, "free" isn't really "free" here. It just means it's included in your room rate, rather than not included in your room rate. It's not free for you (at least not legally) if you didn't stay at the hotel (which you paid for in either money or points).

I avoid Hamptons as they really are not that nice. Saving money is important but I'd rather stay at a HGI and pay $10 for a real breakfast.

Well I think all hotels and restaurants use those liquified egg product for omelettes for speed purpose. (I have seen the same in ES, DT, and Hilton) And that's why for cook-to-order eggs I only order eggs that are sunny side up or over easy, as they can't cheat on those, must use real eggs.

You are staying at the wrong Hamptons. Breakfast notwithstanding, some are quite nice.

Your profile says you are HHonors Diamond. If you are paying $10.00 for breakfast, you are not receiving a Diamond Benefit. @:-)

or maybe they are taking the 750 points in lieu?

True - we usually don't let him go to any buffet type establishments. When we are able to scout out the establishment and vet it by checking the food handling/storage procedures, ingredients used, etc, we can accurately assess the risk. Note what I say there: It's assessing the risk. Yes, going to a place with a buffet hits higher on the risk scale. Having someone put nuts into a machine that should not have nuts on it is just a bad idea.

You're annoyed by the epidemic of people who think complete strangers should bend over backwards to accommodate their problems? OK... let's trade places for a while. Think about it.

Doh! I thought about whether it would stick to the plates (and it didn't - it came off as clean as a plain waffle), but I never even considered nut allergies.

As clean as it came off, I would think it would need to be an extremely severe allergy for it to be a problem. For something so severe that even a stray sliver of almond might cause a problem, I would think that eating out (especially at a buffet) would be something to avoid.

In any case, I think I'll sprinkle almonds over the top rather than put them in the waffle mix in the future.

I always choose HGI if it's an option, but as I said in the original post, sometimes you have to stay somewhere that doesn't have an HGI. There are something like 3x as many Hamptons as there are HGIs.

As a Platinum (and also for Golds), the beauty of HGI to me is that you get a great (relatively to almost any other hotel) breakfast for free, that non-elites would have to pay for. Plus, the rooms are usually pretty consistently nice, and they have a decent business center, and are usually priced comparable to a Hampton Inn.

But this thread is all about those times where you end up in a Hampton Inn anyway, and you want to make the most of the free breakfast.

[QUOTE=sdsearch;21232773]:confused:

There are brands which much worse free breafkasts than Hampton. Have you stayed at a Super 8? A Days Inn? I've seen all too many of those in which the free breakfast consists of nothing more than kids-type juice cartons, donuts, and coffee.

[QUOTE]

You have described breakfast at DT in Livermore CA.