Billionaire Outraged By $85 Room Service, Blames Biden

A story went viral several months ago, whereby a man complained about a $78 meal at Newark Airport. He posted a picture of a not-great looking burger, and tried to make a bigger economic point about this being why Americans think the economy isn’t good. What he failed to disclose is that nearly 80% of his tab was a bar bill, rather than the food, and that wasn’t pictured.

Well, this travel industry food complaint might be even more ridiculous…

Man complains about New York City room service prices

Billionaire hedge-fund founder Kyle Bass took to Twitter/X on Wednesday, writing “terrible inflation milestone reached,” as he had his “first $85 breakfast for one at a NYC hotel.” Enough is enough, and apparently he has now decided “never again.”

He uses the hashtags “#Biden” and “#Inflation,” and shares a picture of the bill. He also tags Janet Yellen, the Secretary of the Treasury, because she definitely doesn’t have bigger things to worry about than this guy’s room service.

This post has now been viewed over seven million times, so suffice it to say that it has had quite some reach. Interestingly he doesn’t explicitly mention that this was room service, but rather just states that it’s breakfast at a hotel (but it’s obviously room service). Let’s take a closer look at the receipt:

• He spent $22 on drinks, including $14 on an orange juice and $8 on a Diet Coke (an interesting combination of breakfast drinks, but whatever…)
• He spent $38 on food, including $26 on waffles and $12 on bacon
• The bill came with a $9 cover charge for in-room dining, plus an automatic gratuity of ~14.8% (which seems kind of random, unless I’m missing something)
• He left an additional $15 tip, bringing the total to $100.32; I have to commend him for at least being very generous with tipping

Yes, room service prices can be ridiculous…

Let me acknowledge that room service at hotels does tend to be very expensive:

• Despite the high prices and service fees, hotels don’t generally make money on room service, as it’s quite labor intensive, compared to people dining in a restaurant; this is why many hotels have cut room service, while luxury hotels continue to offer it, typically at a loss, as it’s an amenity that people expect
• It’s much cheaper to get breakfast outside the hotel, as breakfast in hotels is often intentionally marked up, since people with expense accounts can often expense these purchase; on top of that, there are many people who are eligible for free breakfast, based on how they booked
• Presumably Bass was staying at a five star hotel in New York City, which would probably have among the highest room service prices of anywhere in the world

Now, here’s the part that I’m confused about. How many hotels has Bass stayed at if these prices really caught him off guard? These look like the prices I’d expect to pay at a New York City luxury property. Not just in 2024, but in years prior as well. Now, I’d prefer not to actually pay them, but if I did order room service at these prices, it would be because I had some hotel credit to spend.

I can assure you that prices like this are nothing new, regardless of who the president is. While we’ve seen a lot of inflation in recent years, I’m not sure room service at luxury hotels is really where that inflation has been most evident? These kinds of prices have been around for a long time. If anything, the inflation at hotels has come in the form of room rates increasing at luxury leisure properties.

I’m honestly confused by his confusion? When he stayed at luxury hotels in New York City in 2019 and ordered room service, what was he paying? $3 for orange juice and $9 for waffles?

I’m also rather puzzled by the point at which he was outraged. After signing the bill, he decided never again? Did he not look at the prices when he ordered the food?

Bottom line

For all you confused billionaires out there, this is a very important PSA to remind you that room service can be expensive. That’s especially true at luxury hotels in New York City. Not only are the food and drinks expensive, but there are extra fees. That will be the case regardless of who is president. You might end up spending 0.000000085% of your net worth on one breakfast. You’ve been warned.