America’s free hotel breakfast is facing K-shaped economy threat

At some point in the 1980s and 90s, the free hot breakfast became a staple of the hospitality industry. At many a Holiday Inn or Hampton Inn, the lobby at 8 a.m. is a pinwheel of pajama-clad kids, frazzled parents, and solo business travelers jockeying for position in front of the waffle maker. Meanwhile, self-serve cereal bars dispense Froot Loops and Lucky Charms, and hot platters of endless eggs and turkey sausage steam under heat lamps. For many, this breakfast spread is part of the appeal of travel. It endures to this day, but it is facing new economic threats and evolving hotel business models.

At hotels, which have been ditching items like free soaps and even bathroom doors to economize, the free breakfast is a sacred cow that some worry will not survive, increasingly seen by hotel operators as an money pit eating into the thin margins of the business. Last year, Hyatt Hotels‘ Hyatt Place brand removed free breakfast from 40 of its properties. Holiday Inn, owned by IHG, eliminated a la carte breakfast items in favor of a buffet-only model — a cost-cutting measure that preserves the breakfast buffet offering while reducing labor and food waste. 

Gary Leff, who runs the travel blog View from the Wing and first reported on Holiday Inn’s breakfast changes, said that the threat to the free breakfast should be viewed within the broader trend in the lodging industry to look for ways to cut costs for owners. “That goes far beyond breakfasts, to things like housekeeping — less often during a stay, less extensive when it’s done during a stay — to bulk toiletries rather than individual mini-bottles to eliminating products like alarm clocks in rooms,” Leff said.

Despite the free breakfast’s staying power, the math never added up for the business, according to Curtis Crimmins, the CEO and founder of boutique hotel concept Roomza. “It was a loyalty play — a loss leader meant to drive signups, repeat bookings, and extended brand loyalty. I would argue that once free breakfast makes the shift from being a ‘surprise and delight’ endearing moment to an expectation, then its days are numbered,” Crimmins said. “Looking for proof of this slow demise in your average Holiday Inn Express breakfast area? Look no further than the recent explosion of ‘Grab and Go’ options. That’s not a coincidence,” he said. 

Leff says that catering to a more affluent customer, as in the case of Hyatt Hotels, may offer operators more latitude to eliminate breakfast.

A Hyatt spokesperson said while the company has “tested breakfast options at select Hyatt Place hotels that offer guests the ability to book rates that do not include breakfast … Most Hyatt Place hotels in the U.S. continue to offer complimentary breakfast to all guests.”

Evaluations are ongoing. “As part of our ongoing commitment to delivering value to our guests, including World of Hyatt members, we are continually…