Hyatt Appears To Have Abandoned Their Test Of Charging For Breakfast At Hyatt Place

Just a couple of months ago we learned that Hyatt was testing a plan at a few hotels to roll out a fee for breakfast.  Free breakfast has been a benefit for all guests since the inception of the Hyatt Place brand.  As far as limited service hotels go, it’s a pretty solid breakfast.  There are rotating hot items, plenty of healthy stuff and a good overall variety. I visit at least a dozen different Hyatt Place properties each year and find the free breakfast benefit consistently satisfied my needs.

Mommy Points is now reporting that the language about free breakfasts is gone from the test properties.  She even called one of the hotels to confirm that free breakfast is, in fact, back.  This is good news!

The Final Two Pennies

I was baffled when we learned about this test by Hyatt.  They’ve consistently represented themselves as “best in class” in each vertical.  Hyatt Place properties (especially new construction) are my preferred limited service brand, and not just because of the loyalty program.  Some folks disagreed with me, but I just didn’t see the justification here.  If Hyatt felt like they needed to charge more to offer breakfast, they do appear to command a rate premium in certain markets.  Maybe that wasn’t enough, or they weren’t able to command the premium.  In a down market, I could see that.  But, hotels are pretty full nowadays.

At any rate, a change to charging for breakfast feels almost like a “resort fee”, in a very un-resort setting.  I can imagine many customers who would be pretty surprised when they arrived on property to find out about this charge if it had stuck around.  Glad to see this go away for now.  Hope it stays that way.

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