Earlier this year Hilton announced it would no longer be offering free breakfast and would be replaced with a food and beverage credit as follows:
- Luxury $25
- Full Service $12 (or $15 in high-cost markets)
- Lifestyle $12 (or $15 in high-cost markets)
- and Hilton Garden Inn $10.
This was supposed to be until the end of 2021, but as predicted Hilton has announced that this change will be through 2022 (assuming until at least the end of 2022 but let’s be real this is going to be permanent). The upside is the credit amounts are being increased as follows:
- Luxury $25
- Full Service & Lifestyle $15 (or $18 in high-cost markets)
- and Hilton Garden Inn $10.
Disappointing to see Hilton make this change more permanent.
Hat tip to OMaaT
The free breakfast at the Garden Inn in Kauai is now but a wonderful memory…..the $10 allowance will buy one egg and a cup of coffee.
which you already have in the room by using the coffee machine
I’ve never tried putting a raw egg in a coffee machine before. Thanks for the tip!
Thank goodness I’ve steered away from Hilton. Stayed at a Hyatt in Miami Beach recently where they actually value your status. Breakfast costs a whopping $45+ tip daily (while obsurdly expensive, because SoBe is SoBe), but all waived at checkout for being Globalist. With Hilton I’d still be on the hook for $30+.
The biggest benefit was that taxes were included and tips were optional since the service is free.
Now they don’t even cover the price of buffet, and you have to pay extra for taxes out of pocket? What’s exactly the point of the elite status then?
For me the solution is very simple. If I care about breakfast, just don’t stay at a Hilton. I will stay at a HI Express, Hampton, Fairfield, etc. If I am leaving too early to have breakfast anyway, I’ll stay at a Hilton and use the credit the night before. Sometimes the only way to win is to just not play.
I don’t know how it is in Canada, but you go anywhere else in the world and you get these immaculate INCLUDED breakfasts even at the most basic of hotels that cost under $100/night. I can’t think of one country I’ve visited where this isn’t the case. Only in the US is breakfast treated as a luxury that hotels can’t afford, and if they can afford it all you get are eggs made from a carton, rubber sausage patties, crappy sugar filled yogurt, processed juices, and white bread.
So let’s see…
“Breakfast” – nixed
Daily cleaning service – nixed
What’s next? Hot water?
It’s whatever the market demands… some locations have rubber bacon in addition to rubber sausage
Interestingly this only applies to properties in the US. International properties may still offer free full breakfasts for 2 at least. I was anyway rarely impressed by the breakfast offerings in US properties even before 2020.
I thought they were going to do this for cost savings.
Both me and my spouse are Gold Status and last month had experiences with the newer gold Benefit at Signa at Bonnet Creek and Hilton Orlando.
At Bonnet creek staff did not even look at their computer when I asked about an upgrade (even mentioned me and my spouse are Gold). The credit barely covered a coffee and bagel at their online shop.
At Hilton Orlando, got an upgraded room, but the breakfast credit doesn’t cover much. The breakfast buffet is over $30 per person with tax, so the daily $30 did not cover even one meal. I was also surprised that the kids were going to be charged the full $30 rate (no kid rate), though the kind waiter (who we have had on previous trips) gave us a reduced rate for both kids. It sure was different from previous times.
Seems they are trying to nickel and dime everyone
I did lodge a comment on every stay this year on my disappointment on the status benefits being devalued.
For LXR hotels, that’s a rip-off. We just spent a week at Roku Kyoto LXR and those breakfasts were $44 per person.
Ugh, i’m moving to Japan soon… was the free breakfast still applied or were they charging the $25 credit? I missed out on the Conrad Osaka because it was 3 of us in a room. Really hope it still varies per property
That $10 at Hilton Garden Inn will really go far to feed my family of 4!!!! 😉
Right? Let alone one person with $7 coffees
The problem is the amounts are NOT INCREASED for Hilton Garden Inn! Why not????? Do they want no elites to stay at HGI???