I saw a Facebook reel the other day that got me to thinking about a particular travel-related topic. I don’t know how long this particular reel will stay up on Facebook (sometimes they only seem to last for a limited time), but there’s not much too the reel other than the screenshot below

The Background – How Hotel Breakfasts Work

In the United States, at hotels that offer complimentary breakfast, I have found that usually the breakfast is just open and available in the lobby. In most cases, there isn’t a breakfast “attendant” that is checking to see if you are a hotel guest before providing access to the breakfast area. So I think that in most cases, if you occasionally tried to do this, it would work. I have seen stories of people who did this “habitually” that were caught and/or got in trouble. But I think that if you only went into a hotel very infrequently and especially if you “looked like you belonged”, you could get away with this.

When we stayed at the Holiday Inn Express London Hammersmith, there was an attendant in the lobby who checked your name and room number before allowing you into the breakfast area.

What Stops People From Eating Hotel Breakfast When They’re Not Staying There?

Here were a few of the comments on the reel – first from people telling stories on how/they did this:

• A buddy of mine used to keep pajama pants in his car. And when he was running low on money he would change into them and walk into the lobby and grab breakfast. And to really send it home ,ask the front desk if they had complimentary news papers to read while eating breakfast. Said it worked every single time.
• When I was with FedEx and had morning deliveries at a hotel that served breakfast, they always said help yourself
• Great idea. And if they ask if you’re a guest just say yes. And if they ask what room, just say 205. And if they want to see a key card, show them. I keep every expired key card from every hotel I’ve ever stayed in.
• We stay a couple times a year at a hotel a few blocks from my daughter’s. A couple times over the years, she’s eaten breakfast with us. I’ve let the desk know and told them to add the charge to our room, we’ve never been charged
  We do always tip the hostesses

Then there were a few people that talked about why this wouldn’t or shouldn’t work:

• Good morals? I stayed in a hotel once that required you to have a breakfast pass
• I’m a teacher and one of my students came back from college to visit his high school teachers. He bragged that he and his room mate hit up a different hotel each weekend that served the breakfast buffet for free to see if they’d get caught. I told him that’s not something to be proud of.
• A lot of honor, morals, integrity, and common decency, it would seem if the aforementioned was true then no one would have to sneak in for food in the first place, just saying
• Our food was great and per guest food cost was also about 8$ each per guest before covid. This is theft plain and simple!

My Thoughts On Hotel Breakfast Thieves

My general thought is that eating a hotel breakfast when you aren’t staying there is theft, and something that “shouldn’t” be done. Having said that, as a hotel guest, I am not going to be the “breakfast police” and “report” someone that I think is taking advantage of the breakfast. I personally would not have a problem with someone who is truly in need eating breakfast at a hotel. Again, I know it’s not my money so it’s easy for me to be generous, but I would imagine that many hotel staff or even owners might feel the same way for someone who is truly in need that is not making a habit of it, especially given the amount of leftover breakfast food that they likely throw away each day.

One of the commenters on the post said something along the lines of “If my brother is poor and starving he is welcome to sit at my table”, which is a nice platitude to say, but the fact is, it isn’t YOUR table. It’s easy to be generous with someone else’s money.

One situation that I might think of as a gray area is that (at least at most hotels in the U.S.), there is no difference in your room rate whether you say you have 1 person staying or 4. A few years ago, my wife and I were picking up my son from a weeklong camp. Because it was about 3 hours away and we had to pick him up early on a Saturday morning, we drove up Friday night and stayed at a hotel. After we picked him up, we drove back to the hotel and the 3 of us had breakfast, even though technically he had not stayed there the night before. Was this wrong or stealing? Would it make a difference if we had put down 2 people staying or 3 on the reservation (no change in price)? I didn’t have a problem with that, but maybe others would.

The Bottom Line

A recent Facebook reel posed the question about what stops someone from strolling into any hotel in America and just acting like they’re supposed to be there for the “free” continental breakfast. I don’t think that there is anything that actually stops people (at most hotels), other than a person’s sense of character or morals, but I personally do not think this is appropriate (I would consider it stealing in most cases).

What do you think? Do you see people eating hotel breakfast when they’re not staying there? Have you ever done it? Leave your thoughts in the comments below

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