Optional Breakfast?

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NRV Runner

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Has anyone here experimented with an optional breakfast booking (i.e. no breakfast option)? Or charging people per guest for the breakfast vs. doing it per room?
 
Lots of places are doing that in order to have their rooms look cheaper on OTA sites. I have no idea how you would track that in the morning during the breakfast scrum. Do you forbid them tea and coffee as well?
We have a lot of self serve items out all the time. I doubt we'd save money not including breakfast in the room price.
 
You may want to check the rules in your area, would you become a hotel and restaurant under those rules if items were offered on an individual basis?
 
Lots of places are doing that in order to have their rooms look cheaper on OTA sites. I have no idea how you would track that in the morning during the breakfast scrum. Do you forbid them tea and coffee as well?
We have a lot of self serve items out all the time. I doubt we'd save money not including breakfast in the room price..
Have you ever run the cost of breakfast per room/person, or has that not been a need? When I did a rough calculation, the cost of food + labor help on busy mornings works out to more than $10/person.
 
We tried that with Air... we were clear about it, we spelled out that they didn't get breakfast (just coffee and toast, and maybe even that was our error... maybe we should have excluded it altogether) and they ended up stealing other parts of breakfast and then complaining on Air that they didn't get breakfast.

Then there is the other side... it's cheaper to feed everyone than to sell individual breakfasts because instead of breakfast costs like labour split over 5 rooms, you have only 1 room and comparable labour. In the end, it's one of the reasons that people stay here... they talk about our breakfasts and how pretty the table is, how unusual the dishes are, etc.
 
Breakfast is what they remember here. I do breakfast and do mini-muffins rather than the big jobbies so I can give them a 6x6 pastry box of muffins when they leave, a care package which is an extra that did not cost them something! THAT goes over extremely well and does not cost me any extra (it was $68 plus shipping for 250 boxes - big whoop). I seal the boxes with labels that say, A gift of the Gillum House Bed & Breakfast and include my web address.
I do not use OTAs.
 
We offer 6% discount for "no breakfast" option and charge $15+ tax/per person/per day for extra breakfast. Most of our guests choose breakfast in. From time to time we get opt outs if they have to be somewhere early. Our earliest breakfast is at 8 am and I rather give them few $ off to get some sleep. We are also in a very large city with lots of options so some think they can have a hot breakfast for the amount they save (fat chance). Some just want the coffee - self serve is available here 24/7. After 15 years of cooking breakfast I would love if all choose "no breakfast" options - I could have my coffee in peace.
 
We have thought about that, but since we don't have a commercial kitchen, we cannot sell food. Since we are a bed and breakfast and breakfast is provided with the stay, we are exempt from the requirement. We are thinking about making the conversion eventually to a commercial kitchen. However, I don't want to open up a can of worms. More research is needed.
 
Some innkeepers in my town tried that a few years ago. On an OTA. The guests didn't read the information, reserved the cheaper priced option and complained about no food. Places has been for sale for a couple of years now.
 
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