The Importance of Offering Breakfast

CNN Travel just released an article about hotels and their inclusion of free breakfast. Being an avid traveler and a very enthusiastic breakfast fan I was immediately drawn in.

According to the article, I’m not alone.

Seventy percent of leisure travelers think included breakfast is extremely important and 65 percent of business travelers think the same. Unfortunately this trend is only open to some sections of the market. These free breakfasts are really only offered on mid level hotels, the more you pay it seems the less you get. Upscale hotels have restaurants in them, but to eat at them you must pay. Only four percent of luxury hotels offer this free hot breakfast, which seems a bit backwards.

The hot breakfast trend has developed from competing chains trying to outdo one another. Hotels offer a new item to draw in customers so the other hotels start carrying it, be it hot waffles, eggs or custom made omelets. For example, Embassy Suites has marketed their custom made omletes so strongly that it has become "such a powerful part of the brand" according to Scott Smith a former Embassy Suites employee and professor at the University of Central Florida's Rosen College of Hospitality Management. Customers have come to really appreciate these breakfasts; it can often be the deciding factor between one hotel and a comparable one. With decisions forming based on breakfast, it’s a cheaper way for hotels to draw in guests after all its easier to make somebody an omelet then drop room prices.

Having traveled around a lot, I would have to agree that complimentary breakfast is pretty important. When traveling the last thing you want to do is wake up in the morning in a strange place and have to search around for food. While the food search has gotten easier with location based phone applications, those don’t always work when abroad and you never know exactly what you’ll get. I was a notoriously picky eater as a child and knowing that my cereal and eggs would be the same at the hotel as they were at home was not only reassuring to me, but a life saver for my parents.

The bottom line is that the development of breakfast in the hotel industry has hit full force in mid value hotels but luxury hotels are still holding out and patrons will have to look elsewhere for a relaxing morning bite.