Free hotel breakfasts are getting bigger and better
Kimberly Button normally skips breakfast. But on vacation, the hotel breakfast buffet is a highlight.
Kimberly Button normally skips breakfast. But on vacation, the hotel breakfast buffet is a highlight.
She’s drawn to the oatmeal bar, where she transforms bland grains with an array of toppings — chocolate chips, coconut flakes and berries. Sometimes she grabs fruit to take with her and nosh on throughout the day.
At Disney World, the star of breakfast is Mickey-shaped waffles. When dining at the cafe inside Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa (which does not offer free breakfast), waffles cost $15 a pop. But for stays at non-Disney properties such as the Fairfield Inn & Suites in Kissimmee, you can indulge in as many Mickey-shaped waffles as you want as part of its complimentary breakfast buffet.
“I’ve eaten at hotel breakfasts around the world, but the breakfasts in Orlando hotels are the busiest I’ve ever seen,” says Button, who runs the Wanderful World of Travel blog. “When you can get a Mickey-shaped waffle for free, wouldn’t you?”
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SAVING MONEY, TIME AND ENERGY
Complimentary breakfast is the most frequently used search filter on Hilton’s website, according to the Hilton 2023 Trends Report.
Free breakfast can be a money-saver, especially for families or larger groups. A $100 room that includes food for four can feel practically free if you’d otherwise pay $25 per person at brunch.
And then there’s the time savings and convenience. Gone is the anxiety of researching the perfect cafe, only to meet a waitlist after a pricey cab ride there. No debating which restaurant to patronize or which entree to order, as you can try it all at the buffet. And you won’t starve while waiting for your jet-lagged companions to wake up, as you can munch on your own schedule.
WHEN FREE BREAKFAST ISN’T ALL IT’S CRACKED UP TO BE
But at some hotels, free breakfast can be mediocre. At others, it’s downright gross.
Vered DeLeeuw, who worked for seven years as a flight attendant and now runs a healthy recipes blog, has experienced many hotel buffets. She eats low-carb, so she skips pastries. And she’s sworn off bland eggs and greasy sausages. But once she went for a hard-boiled egg, only to find fuzzy green mold all over the bottom.
“As you can imagine, that incident turned me off for good,” she says.
But many big hotel brands are making changes to improve their breakfast appeal.
FILE – Hector Perez prepares to wrap a bacon, egg and cheese sandwich at a bodega in the Bronx section of New York, Friday, July 22, 2022. While some travelers cringe at the thought of greasy sausages and bland eggs served at the free hotel breakfast buffet, others say free breakfast ranks among their favorite aspects of travel. Hilton says “free breakfast” is the most used search filter on its website. In 2023, some hotels are revamping their offerings to try to change the minds of even the most skeptical travelers, offering healthier, customizable choices that include DIY yogurt bowls and higher-protein dishes, plus more flexible eating hours.
MORE FLEXIBILITY
More hotels are doing away with breakfast buffets that have been sitting out too long. Instead, they’re giving travelers credits toward made-to-order food.
That’s the case for Hilton elite status members. As of last year, Hilton elites who were previously entitled to free breakfast now receive a food and beverage credit at some properties. Hilton says it has received positive feedback from customers who appreciate greater flexibility, choice and control of their food choices. Carb-free folks can swap a pastry for protein, and intermittent fasters can eat on their schedule.
“Plus, the quality is typically elevated,” says Annie Jones , who owns luxury travel agency Telos Travel. “It also usually means multiple options such as sit-down or grab-and-go.”
MORE OPTIONS FOR PEOPLE WITH DIETARY RESTRICTIONS
A 2023 Hilton trend survey cited increasing demand for healthier and animal-free options, such as alternative milks.
At the end of 2021, some Marriott brands that already offered free breakfast catered to trends like keto and gluten-free diets with new offerings such as a spinach-and-cheese crustless quiche.
It also started embracing customization, which makes it easier for people with certain diet restrictions. For example, some properties offer build-your-own breakfast bowls consisting of a base (yogurt, oatmeal or cereal) plus toppings, including granola, pumpkin seeds or coconut.
DISCOUNTS ON DINING
Hotel prices are significantly higher in 2023 than they were pre-pandemic. Travelers seeking savings on lodging may be able to look beyond sticker price and find deals that save on food — even at hotels that don’t generally offer free breakfast.
For example, Walt Disney World is offering a rare deal where guests at Disney-owned hotels for certain dates this summer can receive credits ranging from $35 to $150 per room per night, for up to five nights (depending on the dates and room type). Travelers receive credits on a physical card that can be used at participating restaurants within the Walt Disney World Resort.
$35 could easily cover breakfast for two at a counter service-style restaurant. $150 just about covers a buffet meal for two at Ohana in Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort. There, options include all-you-can-eat pineapple-coconut bread, Hawaiian-style ham with pineapple compote and, yes, Mickey-shaped waffles.
Americans are known for being bad at taking time off: Are work vacations the solution?
Americans are known for being bad at taking time off: Are work vacations the solution?
Americans have a fraught relationship with work-life balance. And it’s not just a trope in films depicting harried New Yorkers and San Franciscans, either.
Before the COVID-19 pandemic, U.S. workers took 17.4 vacation days per year, according to the Travel Association. That meant workers across the country left 768 million vacation days unused in 2019. A poll conducted by Ipsos and Eagle Hill Consulting found that nearly 2 in 5 (36%) government workers didn’t take a vacation between August 2021 and 2022; just over half (51%) said they fully unplugged from work during time off. Seven percent responded that they continued working while on vacation.
Americans are less likely to consider mental health a legitimate health concern to dedicate time toward upkeeping. Consequently, vacation time lags in the U.S. compared to its European counterparts. It seems that the biggest driver behind this difference is cultural attitudes about work and health.
The solution, paradoxically, could be to expand how and how often Americans work. Combining remote work capabilities with vacation time could give workers the push they need to use their days off, even if it means further blending work and play. Such “workcations,” remaining available to be contacted and complete tasks while out of the office on break, are growing increasingly popular.
Using research from across the internet, Bounce dug into the details behind America’s cultural struggles with taking time off from work—and whether or not work vacations are the answer.
Government-mandated paid time off in the US lags well behind other countries
Compared to other countries, American culture doesn’t encourage taking vacation time. As seen above, government-mandated paid vacations and holidays exist in many other countries but are absent in the U.S.; in the EU, the Working Time Directive is to thank. The WTD is a European mandate introduced in 1993 that gives workers a right to a minimum of four weeks paid vacation per year, in addition to other laws on working hours the directive mandates.
Many northern European nations, including Denmark, Netherlands, and Norway, ensure extensive holiday pay. Neighbors to the U.S., Canada and Mexico, also grant more guaranteed time off. In fact, the Mexican senate passed a bill in December 2022 to double the paid time off for workers to 12 days per year. Nordic countries generally tend to lead with the amount of time off mandated for workers, averaging around 35 or more paid days annually.
The pandemic boosted work vacations
The COVID-19 pandemic didn’t do Americans any favors regarding work-life balance, making it all too easy to blur the boundaries between work and personal time.
Workers are increasingly working around the clock and not completely signing off during weekends or vacations as remote work technology enables a near-constant communication channel with the office. But the flipside of this means that when planning vacations, many with remote or hybrid schedules are taking advantage of telecommuting on a “workcation,” which combines leisure days with remote work.
About 3 in 4 Americans surveyed by Harris Poll said they planned to partake in a workcation last year. Workcations allow more flexibility for some workers who don’t have to use as many vacation days—while on their trip to Hawaii they could add on a few days and work during daytime hours and not count it as time off. They can also save money by choosing less busy travel days or midday weekday flights since they can work from airports or planes. Similar is the “bleisure” trend, in which companies or individuals elect to bundle together vacation trips with the ability to work from anywhere. These “digital nomads” might choose to work from different cities so that they work during the day but have evenings and weekends to explore a new location. Or maybe they add on a few days to a work trip so that they can relax and explore a city before or after their conference. The key to blending work and leisure though is making sure that work doesn’t overtake your vacation time, and that you protect your time for relaxing.
Not taking time off—and working on vacation—can affect health
As the line between work and play blurs, feeling overworked can interfere with someone’s ability to balance their routines, leading to poor sleep, eating habits, and exercising routines. Chronic conditions—including heart disease and stroke—and everyday illnesses like the cold or flu are linked with experiencing job stress.
A nine-year study examining the health of those who used their allotted vacation time versus those who didn’t found that the former were less likely to die from heart disease. Additionally, their ability to perform well when working also takes a hit, according to the Harvard Business Review, which found that those who spend some of their time on the weekends working lose motivation to work proficiently overall.
If employers want their workers to be more present, focused, and creative, they might want to consider upping their vacation days.
What can be done about Americans not taking enough vacations?
Understandably, however, it is quite difficult to change the work culture in the U.S. About 1 in 4 workers in the U.S. don’t get paid vacation from their employers. But for the rest of Americans who do, workers can start by considering time off less of an indulgence and more of a necessity to ensure good work performance. Taking those vacation days and actually unplugging will pay off with increased productivity when back in the office.
Additionally, employers can reframe vacation time as a health requirement akin to taking a day for an annual checkup. If planned properly, even a workcation can be an exercise in maintaining personal priorities.
According to a 2022 Deloitte survey on holiday travel, more Americans took time off to relax and be with family through holiday workcations: The survey found that people were able to add an average of eight days of travel across the 2022 holiday season because of the flexibility to work remotely.
While nearly half of these travelers reported that they would be unplugging during their longest trip, 26% intended to work remotely while still traveling. These workcation travelers were also increasing the average number of holiday trips from 1.8 to 2.6, showing that many planned not only for more journeys away from home but also longer ones.
This story originally appeared on Bounce and was produced and distributed in partnership with Stacker Studio.
Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
This article was provided to The Associated Press by the personal finance website NerdWallet. Sally French is a writer at NerdWallet. Email: [email protected]