During the pandemic we’ve seen hotels largely cut back service to minimize contact and save money. Most limited service hotel brands have historically offered a complimentary hot breakfast for all guests, though during the pandemic that has largely been scaled back. Well, it looks like this will soon be changing at four Marriott brands… hopefully these changes are as good as they sound.
In this post:
Marriott brands getting free full breakfast back
Marriott has unveiled that it will be rolling out a new complimentary hot breakfast program across four brands:
- Residence Inn by Marriott
- SpringHill Suites by Marriott
- Fairfield by Marriott
- TownePlace Suites by Marriott
Starting in October 2021, a limited number of hotels will feature this new breakfast offering. Then over the course of the winter, this will be widely rolled out across nearly 3,000 hotels in the United States.
As Diane Mayer, VP & Global Brand Manager for Classic Select Brands, describes this:
“Breakfast has long been a celebrated experience during a hotel stay – a moment to gather before exploring a destination or a reliable grab-and-go kickstart to the day. Through extensive consumer insights, we recognize that our guests want to wake up to a nutritious and energizing breakfast made with quality ingredients. We are pleased to introduce our new complimentary breakfast that offers mouthwatering, customizable options with an eye towards sustainability.”
What kind of breakfast should we expect?
The new complimentary breakfast at these four Marriott brands is described as offering a menu that “caters to consumers’ tastes for highly customizable breakfast items.” Marriott emphasizes that the new food offerings will feature quality ingredients and customization options.
Potential menu items include the following:
- Breakfast sandwiches
- Spinach and cheese crustless quiche
- Sausage, egg, and cheese on a whole wheat bagel
- Jalapeño cheddar baked soufflé
- Fresh fruit
- Build-your-own breakfast bowls with a base of yogurt, oatmeal, or cereal, and options to layer that with granola, pumpkin seeds, coconut flakes, and more
- Customizable hot sandwiches with a variety of toppings and sauces, from relish and salsa to Sriracha and Cholula
Below are some pictures that Marriott has provided of the new breakfast menu items.
Bottom line
Marriott will be bringing back a full, hot complimentary breakfast buffet at four limited service brands. This will start to be rolled out in October, and in the winter we should see this expanded on a widespread basis at properties throughout the United States.
With hotels increasingly using the pandemic to justify permanent cost cutting, it’s nice to see that a full breakfast will once again be returning to these hotels. While I doubt the food will actually look as good as in the above pictures, I’d consider this to be a very positive development.
What do you make of Marriott restoring hot breakfast buffets at four brands?
Stayed at Courtyard Marriott East Portland 1st day of our road trip: No breakfast, no lobby coffee. One of the most expensive rooms in the area, AND charged $10 parking! We've been on the road 21 days now, and we have shelved our Bonvoy card in favor of Hilton Honors. Hampton Inn rooms are comparable to Marriott, rates are much lower, and they always have hot breakfast, and 24/7 fresh hot lobby coffee. Will likely...
Stayed at Courtyard Marriott East Portland 1st day of our road trip: No breakfast, no lobby coffee. One of the most expensive rooms in the area, AND charged $10 parking! We've been on the road 21 days now, and we have shelved our Bonvoy card in favor of Hilton Honors. Hampton Inn rooms are comparable to Marriott, rates are much lower, and they always have hot breakfast, and 24/7 fresh hot lobby coffee. Will likely cancel our Bonvoy card....deeply dissapointed in Marriott.
Why is it that we have hot breakfasts during the week but not on weekends ??
IHG knows how to give a full, hit breakfast. They are getting my business from now on.
I'm at a Residence Inn right now. They consider breakfast bars, muffins, juice, and coffee a breakfast. The night before, we stayed at a Holiday Inn Express where I had an excellent hot breakfast with lots of choices.
Marriott will no longer be my go-to, even though my husband is a lifetime Titanium Elite member. They lost me. (I'm the one who makes the reservations.)
This is amazing
Marriott Bonvoy is the best
Generous
Come stay #FFI Sandston, VA..we will serve you hot buffet breakfast ❤️
This is the same Marriott that has zero control over its brands and hotel owners (the real customers) - right?
Wasn't there a magic date this summer when they were supposed to honor benefits again? Didn't exactly happen.
Are you blind?
Marriott Bonvoy is the best!
I love their it!
Over the Labor Day long weekend I stayed at the Springhill in Springdale UT (Next to Zion) and they did their standard hot breakfast every morning.
I've stayed at roughly 60 lower to mid tier Marriotts/Hiltons (mostly Fairfield Inn, Residence Inn, Hampton Inn, Garden Inn) across 15 states since early June -21, and every single one has offered breakfast, more or less as usual.
I for one really enjoy a bagel with cream cheese, accompanied by some milk and sugary cereals :) Will this continue to be available with the "new" breakfast offerings from Marriott, or is that replaced by...
I've stayed at roughly 60 lower to mid tier Marriotts/Hiltons (mostly Fairfield Inn, Residence Inn, Hampton Inn, Garden Inn) across 15 states since early June -21, and every single one has offered breakfast, more or less as usual.
I for one really enjoy a bagel with cream cheese, accompanied by some milk and sugary cereals :) Will this continue to be available with the "new" breakfast offerings from Marriott, or is that replaced by these ready-made dishes (that sound terrible)?
recent stay at Residence Inn, downtown Houston and they had a full scrambled eggs. pork sausage and scrambled egg whites plus an oatmeal bar and yogurt/fruit grab and go options. Nicely done. Weekend before the Springhills Inn, downtown Chicago was doing their best to keep up with the crowd -scrambled eggs and sausage bar with toppings, yougurt and granola bar and fruit. Thanks Marriott.
I've been at a couple of the hotels where these items were being tested - specifically the Fairfield Inn at Arundel Mills in Maryland. They're just ghastly. The bagel sandwich, for example, is dry & chewy. These items are cooked before delivery and get overcooked when heated.
No entitlement to be seen above…none!
This garbage is nothing more than pre-made packaged gas station food you microwave I've just finished a 159 night's in 3 locations and this stuff is not what we used to get at all
Yeah this is simply because their competitors in this segment offer breakfast, they have no choice.
Speaking of - what about holistically looking at when hotels will bring club lounges back on a larger scale? Very tired of seeing a Residence Inn for $40-50 less per night and trying to compare it to a “full” service Marriott or Sheraton that has no amenities open.
Totally in agreement I worked for Marriott for 16 years and breakfast has been the mainstay for all my guests great idea please bring it back,
Nice gesture considering the CEO's luke warms remarks in regards to bringing back lost customer amenities...
"Through extensive consumer insights, we recognize that our guests want to wake up to a nutritious and energizing breakfast made with quality ingredients."
Translation: "We have long known that guests value breakfast included with their stay, and have belatedly and grudgingly concluded that we must offer it again to stay competitive."
There is no such thing as a “crustless” quiche….. that would be a frittata LOL
They will find d a way to Bonvoy you.
What kind of yuppie menu is this? Can't we have a normal breakfast buffet? More reason to dump Marriott and go with Hilton.
Good Luck..I Worked the Breakfast under Joe Habbie at Haggerty/Ford in Michigan(Canton., Michigan)...He Cheep Out before Covid-19. ..I Walked Out Due to Poor Managed And He A Nassty Man..
Ugh. I am so glad I gave on on the Marriott family of hotels and became a Globalist with Hyatt.
I'm Lifetime Titanium Elite with Marriott and it means absolutely nothing to them. At least Hyatt treats me almost as well as Starwood did.
Damn spell check! Make that "I gave up on..."
To be fair, this doesn’t sound that different from the current (sad) breakfasts being served at Hyatt Places
Ditto. Had Titanium Elite status for one year with Marriott, but used up all my points at end of 2019 and haven't gone back.
This year's accelerated Globalist promotion got me all aboard the Hyatt train. Am over 60 nights now (including CC spend) on the year and enjoyed a points stay at Ventana Big Sur last week. Let's hope Hyatt maintains their winning approach.
It’s amazing you have accepted the take by Marriott’s spin doctors. Many properties with these brands already have their pre-pandemic hot buffets. So, this is actually a downgrade—not a restoration.
Not even sure what bring back means. I stayed at a Residence Inn for a week last month and they had a full hot buffet spread every morning.
I think it depends on management, but I guess it was optional and now it has to resume.
Springhill Suites last week. Hot breakfast available with scrambled eggs that doesn't look like it was frozen.
Will be staying at the Springhill Suites in Montreal in a few weeks. Hope they’re on the list !
Prepackaged everything. I'll pass. Still waiting on Capuano to come out and clarify that this will all be in the original plastic packaging, in order to save hotel owners the cost/labor of having to unpackage it for guests.
I'm with you. I'll pass too.
Can we just get the old waffle maker, sausages, bacon, a powdered egg mix?
In other words, microwaved sandwiches that do not require any kind of cook. Technically, a buffet full of frozen sandwiches that a guest has to warm themselves in a microwave would qualify as hot.
Ding ding ding! We have a winner. This is pretty much what I would expect. Cook your sandwich in the nuker
This is what Hitlon's Home2 Suites brand does for breakfast when I Stayed at one in May 2021.
Yup. And Hyatt Place too. I'm not opposed to it really. Can always have toast!