ITravelElite

[QUOTE=CMK10;34504026]Obviously you don't stay at a FI expecting haute cuisine. But, like when you stay at a similar Hampton Inn or Holiday Inn Express, you figure you'll get a basic level of hot food options that can save you time and money and be convenient in the morning over having to go out. At least in the past you'd get the normal liquid eggs and sausage or similar options. Now, you get this:



What a joke. I am already done with a lower motels from Marriott and Hilton.

Adelphos

1) Have similar changes been made at Residence Inn properties? These tended to have decent buffets (sometimes including waffles and pancakes), and customer satisfaction (along with room rates) were higher. I would be surprised if the changes were as extensive there.

2) On the rest of the brands, hotel owners are dealing with food inflation, employee turnover, other issues. They have been fighting for this for a while. Unfortunately Marriott may have gone too far. I generally avoid most of the other brands for Courtyard/Residence Inn/AC or Hampton/Hilton Garden Inn anyway.

3) In the US, outside of maybe the Hilton breakfast benefit, and some free breakfast offered at the high end for elite members at Marriott/Hyatt, it is increasingly not worth it to worry about low quality, "free" breakfasts offered. Just choose hotels based on other criteria

Schnit

I have stayed at 2 Residence Inns this year.

Mystic had a great breakfast but no waffles iron/pancakes. I think they had packaged waffles rather than fresh. The yogurts were Chobani and the nice individual cereals and oatmeal containers. They had the other standard hot stuff too.

Philadelphia city center and everything you would expect from a free breakfast. The area was large and fully stocked.

diburning

Depends on the property. The last Hyatt Place I stayed at had complimentary hot breakfast for all guests with ample protein options (sausage, bacon, and sauteed mushrooms for those who don't eat meat)

JBa

I am surprised when avid travelers still hope they get decent breakfast at a mid to lower end hotel. There are so many alternatives breakfast places out there. I stopped years ago, eating breakfast at the hotels.

NBSPGMEMBER

To add to the breakfast discussion going on at Marriott lower level properties; I stayed at the Residence Inn Manchester, NH this spring and the breakfast was bleak. I have not seen bacon in years at Marriott or omelets, unless it's at their restaurant or maybe in the Concierge or Club lounges. In any event, dry eggs and grey sausage, it was awful, haven't stayed at a Fairfield Inn with their new breakfast yet. From the looks of it, I will stay away and if I do I will just go elsewhere to eat. Sad state of affairs indeed. Hampton and HIE are superior at this point, I hope they are listening...
Hampton Inn is the one to beat and the reference in this category, in every category and not just breakfast, so please don't ruin it.

Out of my Element

On a VACATION I do the same, unless the breakfast is special or the hotel is far away from alternatives (like Bahia Beach). On a packed weekend getaway where time is of the essence, being able to fill up onsite is a big plus for me. We have a long Road Trip coming up and getting breakfast on our way to the door each morning and hitting the road is a must for us. Stopping somewhere for breakfast will only add time to long days of driving.

Intl359Widget

The SeaTac Fairfield Inn was serving something similar but without the packaged goods.

TXJeepGuy

My mantra for years has been you get what you pay for with free breakfast.

I only ever grab it if I'm time crunched.

Jon Maiman

Unfortunately, yes Residence Inn is included in the new "enhanced" breakfast offering. It is a phased roll out but eventually all FI, RI, SHS, and TPS properties will have the same poor offering (unless Marriott decides to course correct during the rollout).

The better breakfast at RI was a major part of the value proposition for me. Even on business trips where I don't need a larger room, sometimes I would still chose RI for a better breakfast even though I only earned half the points. No longer have a reason to do that.

Foe leisure trips with my family, RI's typically larger rooms is still a benefit though SHS rooms are also larger. We just like the layout of most RI rooms better than SHS rooms.

Since there is now very minimal differentiation between the extended stay brands RI & TPS vs. FI & SHS, they should now increase the earning to 10 points per $ on RI & TPS to make them on par. Yes I know Element is another extended stay brand in the Marriott portfolio. I know less about them and haven't stayed at one yet. Also don't think they are included in the new "enhanced" breakfast rollout. At least not yet. So the value prop. for Element vs RI & TPS may be different. My two cents....

--Jon

Eujeanie

We stayed at our first Element recently and I don't know if this is par for all of them, but on our weeknight there was beer, wine, cheese and crackers and trail mix, and the breakfast was almost all baked goods and fruit, there was ONE hot item, cooked to order, and we thought it was terrible - it was a sweet potato hash, and had we had been as smart as some of the people we saw ordering after us we could have parsed out the ingredients like eggs and turkey sausage and just had that. But the hash itself was awful.

I now won't stay at any more SHS - never liked the opaque bathroom door shining light into the bedroom at night, now without a decent breakfast there's no reason to be there.

CorSter

I've generally sought out Residence Inn as my first preference, but then either Springhill or Fairfield as a backup because of the breakfast offering. No status so no perks for me from the full service hotels.

But honestly I may just stick with Hampton Inn going forward if this is what's on offer now.

Jon Maiman

While I also don't like the opaque bathroom door, I haven't totally eliminated SHS over it. I do give it the lowest ranking vs. FI, RI, and TPS. I liked the older SHS designs better (at least the bathroom). I don't mind the "West Elm" furniture in the sitting area. The lighting design in the SHS rooms has also gone downhill.
Since FI are more ubiquitous than SHS and many FI's have junior suites available, there is little reason to go SHS.

--Jon

pinniped

I've stayed in a lot of SHS's over the years - we like the layout that has two queens plus a sofabed, something that's harder to find at other brands. But I'm really growing to hate all of the prepackaged breakfast options. They may be reducing costs to the operator, but that isn't getting passed on in the form of reduced room rates to me. The rooms are getting more expensive, so I expect the product to at least not deteriorate.

But then again, I've seen the comments from the Marriott CEO, so I know this is part of the trend of commoditizing the product and prioritizing the owners above all else.

CIT85

We stayed at FI Durango last week. Breakfast did not have those packaged items. There were cheese omelets, sausage patties or bacon (rotating), biscuits and gravy (only 1 batch of gravy which tends to run out fast), waffle stuff, fruits, yogurts and packaged muffins. We found the selection to be adequate.

Dodge City TPS had those packaged items plus sausage patties and scrambled eggs. I just went with sausage patties and waffles and Greek yogurt.