Any Way for Breakfast © Mark Peacock
Recent surveys by TripAdvisor and Hotels.com report that the most popular hotel amenity is free WiFi. If they both didn’t misplace a decimal point, then they surveyed the wrong travelers. Experienced travelers know that the most important amenity is the free hotel breakfast.
Now I’m not denying that the growth of mobile devices — smartphones, tablets, laptops — has made network access vital. And with everyone posting experiences and photos on Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, Instagram, TripAdvisor,… network access is important to every guest — business travelers and vacationing families. But frequent travelers have learned that free hotel WiFi is a tease — reasonably fast at 1pm when no one is in the hotel; an exercise in frustration at 9pm when you’re trying to Skype with your kids or download tomorrow’s presentation. Most of us long ago ponied up the extra $40-50/month to tether our laptops to our smartphones or bought a separate mobile WiFI hotspot (preferably from someone other than our smartphone carrier). So free WiFi as the most important hotel amenity? Not so much. For me, a good breakfast is much more important.
Growing up, we all heard that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, but it’s also is the easiest to skip when you’re on the road. A 2011 survey estmated that 31 million Americans skipped breakfast while two university studies found that eating breakfast reduced overeating throughout the day and subsequent weight gain.
Which is all well and good, but for me the free hotel breakfast is about convenience. Unless you’re in a dense urban area like Manhattan or the Chicago Loop or Central London, your hotel is likely centered in a large parking lot off a busy intersection. Running around the corner for a quick breakfast sandwich probably isn’t an option. And I’m not interested in dropping $20 on the breakfast buffet, not for a 10-minute bite. I typically just want an egg, a couple of slices of bacon and a cup of coffee while I cool down from 30 minutes on the elliptical trainer. Grabbing that in the hotel makes it easy; saves one stop on the drive into the office. And it let’s me brush my teeth after breakfast for a fresh start to the day.
2 comments on “Best Hotel Amenity? Free Breakfast”
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I disagree. I would prefer to have good Internet access that I pay for or a good breakfast that I pay for than something free, which will inevitably be of lower quality. After all, on a business trip, sustenance and network access are reasonable business expenses. That being said, I think the best “amenity” I want at a hotel is a fantastic concierge. A superb concierge is much better than a quick search on yelp.com and will help make your stay in a city far more fulfilling.
Nothing stretches your per diem dollar better than the free breakfast. Can’t beat it on value, although you have to get quite creative when it comes to those reconstituted eggs. Various combinations of cheese, ham, and hot sauce make them much more palatable. That, some yogurt, a cup of oatmeal and a piece of fruit, and I’m good until lunch without snacking. Just have to avoid the biscuits and gravy at all costs!