When Marriott merged Marriott Rewards and Starwood Preferred Guest, they came up with a unified set of elite benefits across all properties. One of the addressed benefits was breakfast, and for the majority of properties, breakfast is now either included or available as an elite amenity. Properties have been implementing this in a variety of ways. Some give full breakfasts. Others give continental breakfasts. When we checked in at the Westin Los Cabos a few days ago, we were told that as Platinum Premier members, we would get continental breakfast in the restaurant with an option to upgrade to a full breakfast for $11 USD per person. I didn’t take issue with the policy, as I figured I’d rather have a small continental breakfast anyways so we could pay for awesome tacos at the pool for lunch.
The first morning, I paid to upgrade. I wanted the omelette station. I noticed there were a lot of good looking pastries and cereal. I figured that we’d go with the continental breakfast the next morning.
We went to breakfast the next morning, I handed in our voucher and asked for the continental breakfast. I was looking forward to some cereal, pastries, and fruit. I was shocked that for two of us, we each got a bowl of fruit and two pieces of toast. After we sat down at the table, I asked the waitress what was included in the continental breakfast. She told me, “bread and fruit.” I asked about the cereal, yogurt, pastries, and cold cuts that were out on the table near the buffet. She told me those were off limits.
Wait… Seriously? You’re telling me that our free breakfast is literally some fruit and a piece of toast. Most definitions of continental breakfast that I can find seem to indicate that it includes way more than a piece of toast and fruit.
After our meager breakfast, I took another look at the voucher. It doesn’t say continental on it, and neither does the Marriott policy.
While I found the implementation of the breakfast policy questionable, I wondered… Does this even save the property money? I would have taken less fruit. I just wanted a bowl of cereal, and I didn’t really want toast. So here are some questions…
- Am I being over entitled?
- Have you seen WORSE continental breakfast? If so, please share in the comments!
- At what point should Marriott step in and define what breakfast actually is? It feels like they shouldn’t have to baby their properties, but it’s annoying when something designed to award an ELITE traveler makes that traveler feel like some kind of over entitled penny pincher.
- Any other thoughts?
