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Breakfast upgrades are on the menu at US hotels
Breakfast is hot these days. And getting hotter.
Following a hotel-industry trend to upgrade the morning meal, SpringHill Suites has improved its free breakfast offering to include more healthy choices. And more unhealthy ones, too.
In addition to the standard breakfast fare, it now will offer fresh spinach, whole strawberries, Kashi® cereal and Dannon Oikos® Greek yogurt, as well as deli ham, cheddar and Havarti cheeses, sweet breads and croissants.
There’s also a toppings bar with dried fruit and nuts, chocolate chips, and coconut flakes.
It’s not just the outrageous prices some hotels charge that make travelers yearn for a free egg-white omelet; it’s also the convenience of not having to run outside or spend an hour in a diner before starting the day.
In a recent survey by Hotels.com, almost a third of respondents named free breakfast as the number-one non-tech-related item they hoped to see in 2013.
Marriott’s Fairfield Inn & Suites brand in April augmented the cold breakfast it has been serving with scrambled eggs, sausage and bacon, waffles, and oatmeal.
Hyatt, meanwhile, last month upgraded the Morning Spread at Hyatt House properties to include a build-your-own Omelet Bar, oatmeal, yogurts, and fresh fruit, plus vegetarian and gluten-free options.
And Marriott beginning June 22 extending its complimentary continental breakfast program to include weekends for Marriott Rewards Gold and Platinum Elite members and a guest at participating JW Marriott, Autograph Collection, Renaissance, and Marriott Hotels (though not at Resorts). Previously, free breakfast was only offered midweek.
(At a limited number of properties where no breakfast is available, Marriott will give points instead.)
Corporate travel buyers are eyeing that first meal, too. Walt Disney Co. vice president of global travel Alda Garone told Business Travel News that she has negotiated free breakfast at about 70% of the properties in the travel program she has put together for Disney employees.
By Cheryl Rosen
Cheryl
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