Author Topic: Hotel stay and picky eating  (Read 452 times)

Offline Airelenaren

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Hotel stay and picky eating
« on: May 17, 2019, 05:46:37 pm »
Hey everyone, I finally have a question that I hope you can help me with.
This autumn, I'm going to visit a friend in the UK. Unfortunately, I can't sleep at her place, so I booked a few nights at a hotel.
This will be my first hotel stay ever, so I have no experience with the situation.
When you book a night at this hotel, breakfast is included in the price, and you can also buy snacks and drinks throughout the day.
Here is where the problem lies.
I am a rather picky eater, and after checking their breakfast options, I can tell that they don't appeal to me.
But since breakfast is included in the price, I wonder if they will notice if I don't eat it.
So my first question is: What is the proper thing to do in this situation?

Also, since it is a smallish hotel that probably earns most of its money through the drinks they sell, I have another question.
I don't drink much alcohol, and might not want to drink any at all while I'm there. Should I leave a tip at the end of my stay to make up for this?

Oh, and while we're at it: If I get food from somewhere else, would it be acceptable or inappropriate to eat it in my room?

Thanks in advance!

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Offline Free Range Hippy Chick

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Re: Hotel stay and picky eating
« Reply #1 on: May 18, 2019, 07:45:23 am »
They won't care whether you eat the breakfast or not. After all, why should they? You've paid for it so they aren't out of pocket. If you don't fancy their breakfast, you can go and just have coffee, or coffee and toast and ignore any cooked breakfast options, or not go at all. You're the customer; you get to decide what you want to do. There isn't really a 'proper' thing.

You certainly don't need to leave a tip to 'make up' for not using the bar. If you want to leave a tip, it would be for whoever cleans your room, and the hotel management, as a general rule, would never see the money. You don't owe the hotel anything for not using a facility you don't want. Oh, and in general we don't tip bar staff, and although we would probably tip at dinner, we don't tip at breakfast if you've stayed the night, only if you've come in specifically to get breakfast, without staying (and that's not a common thing to do).

Bringing your own food back: most hotels ask you not to eat food from outside in their public rooms - so don't pick up a takeaway and eat it in the bar or lounge. In your own room is usually fine but many hotels object to anything that leaves a smell. This really means that you're OK to pick up cold food such as salads or sandwiches, but not fish and chips or a Chinese or Indian.
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Offline Kiwi Cupcake

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Re: Hotel stay and picky eating
« Reply #2 on: May 18, 2019, 04:02:50 pm »
They won't care or notice if you eat their breakfast or not. This is a business, not a home where they will feel insulted.

You don't need to tip a bar that you're not visiting. The UK is not as much of a tipping country like the US anyway. It would be pretty strange to walk inside a bar and hand over a tip for nothing.

You're allowed to eat in your room.
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Offline Poesie

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Re: Hotel stay and picky eating
« Reply #3 on: May 19, 2019, 09:43:10 am »
Agree the hotel won’t care whether you eat breakfast or have food in your room (durian being a possible exception). I would want to get something from their breakfast but that’s more about me getting my money’s worth than anything else.

Can’t comment on tipping culture in UK and i come from a non-tipping culture. As a traveller there, i mostly tipped cabs and one lot of tour guides who did a great job. We might’ve tipped at some restaurants but not sure if a percentage or Oz style rounding up the bill (memory is fuzzy now). Didn’t tip any hotel staff (no one was carrying bags or anything extra-ish).

Didn’t get any bad vibes about it. Though maybe the Brits were being polite while mentally consigning us to the level of hell assigned to oblivious non-tippers.
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Offline corgiqueen

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Re: Hotel stay and picky eating
« Reply #4 on: May 29, 2019, 10:15:05 am »
don't worry about not eating breakfast; when I was there a couple of years back, my hotel had a "full English breakfast" included in the room rate. I ate there pretty much every day but one or two, due to timing. I doubt very much whether they noticed or not that I missed a couple of days. And as far as not drinking or using th bar, again, they won't notice or care. 
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Offline Airelenaren

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Re: Hotel stay and picky eating
« Reply #5 on: May 29, 2019, 03:52:28 pm »
Thank you for your help, everyone. I feel much more confident about this now.  :)