We do breakfast delivery for all rooms. This is a
HUGE draw for us. We are a romantic getaway b&b, so people are here for special occasions and we get a lot of honeymooners.
An hour before breakfast, we deliver their beverage tray outside their door. We do not knock. We do a 4 course hot breakfast delivered at either 9:00 or 9:30, again outside their door, knock and then leave. I know it sounds like a late breakfast, but remember, they are here to relax and since we are located in the country we don't get those folks who want an early breakfast to get up and out. For those folks who need an earlier breakfast, we place a continental (yogurt, homemade granola, muffins, fruit) in their in-room fridge the night before when they are out for dinner.
Depending on their rooms location, we use either a breakfast tray or a basket to pack up all the food. Upstairs and our separate cottage get a basket since it's easier to handle and can be transported with one hand.
Even though it's delivered, we still use beautiful china (Royal Doulton Old Country Rose), beautiful silverware, linen napkins, etc. Their beverage tray is a beautiful silver tray and when I check them in they give me their hot beverage of choice. Their beverage is in a caraffe which stays hot, and there is also cream, sugar, juice, etc all without our beautiful china cups.
We don't charge for delivery because it's part of who we are. There is no choice for a communal breakfast. Now, if I were doing both types of breakfast (communal & delivery) and in the middle of serving guests in a dining room I would probably consider charging for delivery service. At that point, it would make it a lot more work.
Because we deliver breakfast our demographics seem to be different than most b&bs
- More 1st time b&b guests. You draw from the population who were "afraid" to try a b&b.
- Younger - our average age is probably early 30s. They will return over and over for more years than older guests
- Women can talk their partners into coming because they don't have to interact with others.
- Gay/Lesbian couples. Again because of the privacy. They don't have to worry about any discrimation or looks from other guests.
Delivery is not for every inn. The room needs to be set up to eat. We have good sized tables and have put glass tops on them over the tablecloth. That way, you just need to wash the glass top. There are more crumbs in the rooms. Robes will get more stained, especially from coffee. We don't buy the really expensive robes because we go through them more quickly than most places. We use the waffle weave cotton kimono spa robe.
We also do a personalized menu for each tray. At the bottom of the menu, it asks them to please have their tray back outside their door by 10:30am.
It works great for us. I will try to find a picture of how we pack it up..