Breakfast credit – can I use it the night before?

[janed9388]

Does anyone know how the breakfast credit works on a 1 night stay. I know it’s not cumulative but does the spend have to be on the day you would have had breakfast or can it carry forward from the evening before. I have a one night stay coming up and we are likely to be out before breakfast but will have dinner the evening before.

[NorthernLass]

Is this in the US? If so it seems that the credits are for general F & B spend, not just breakfast. It might depend on the hotel, but we stayed at the Boston airport Hilton in April and used our credit to buy a couple of rum and cokes in the evening as we had a very early flight the next day. That did use most of the $36!!

[janed9388]

Yes, US. Miami airport – and that was my plan too, a couple of rum and cokes before bed.

[NorthernLass]

It said in our booking that you get $XX pp for F & B, and not that it had to be a particular meal, so we just asked at the bar and it was fine. I was wary about the move to a credit rather than breakfast initially but it actually does have its uses.

[thehornets]

Can confirm that it’s 30/36USD per one night stay either on checking or checkout day. You can generally use it for any F&B – dinner, drinks, beers or even food in the shop.

[janed9388]

brilliant, thanks all.

[berneslai]

Make sure you check the bill/folio if you are using on checkout day. It shouldn’t be an issue for drinks the night before but I’ve had many stays where the hotel have attempted to charge full price for breakfast on the last day.

[degsy]

thehornets wrote:

Can confirm that it’s 30/36USD per one night stay either on checking or checkout day. You can generally use it for any F&B – dinner, drinks, beers or even food in the shop.

Yep, same experience here. Really flexible. Just depressing how tax & tips erode it though (not to mention the forex rate…..).

[RonnieB]

degsy wrote:

thehornets wrote:

Can confirm that it’s 30/36USD per one night stay either on checking or checkout day. You can generally use it for any F&B – dinner, drinks, beers or even food in the shop.

Yep, same experience here. Really flexible. Just depressing how tax & tips erode it though (not to mention the forex rate…..).

Well you can blame the Tories for that last bit, they have systematically dismantled the UK economy in the last 6 years. The market doesn’t lie, unlike most of them!

[JDB]

RonnieB wrote:

degsy wrote:

thehornets wrote:

Can confirm that it’s 30/36USD per one night stay either on checking or checkout day. You can generally use it for any F&B – dinner, drinks, beers or even food in the shop.

Yep, same experience here. Really flexible. Just depressing how tax & tips erode it though (not to mention the forex rate…..).

Well you can blame the Tories for that last bit, they have systematically dismantled the UK economy in the last 6 years. The market doesn’t lie, unlike most of them!

Always love the misplaced political jibe. What about the €uro – now at a 20 year low vs the dollar?

[RonnieB]

JDB wrote:

RonnieB wrote:

Well you can blame the Tories for that last bit, they have systematically dismantled the UK economy in the last 6 years. The market doesn’t lie, unlike most of them!

Always love the misplaced political jibe. What about the €uro – now at a 20 year low vs the dollar?

Nice observation but the pound is at a 40 year low !

[RonnieB]

As far as the breakfast thing is concerned – I’ve had a few US hotels still give me free breakfast rather than the F&B credit so I guess it depends on venue. That’s a much better arrangement in my view

[John]

RonnieB wrote:

JDB wrote:

RonnieB wrote:

Well you can blame the Tories for that last bit, they have systematically dismantled the UK economy in the last 6 years. The market doesn’t lie, unlike most of them!

Always love the misplaced political jibe. What about the €uro – now at a 20 year low vs the dollar?

Nice observation but the pound is at a 40 year low !

Not quite, it was lower than now in March 2020 (lowest was 1.144), but it’s probably heading that way

[JDB]

@John – my comment was re €uro/US$ and today they are at parity, a 20 year low for the €uro. Clearly the £ is weak partly for its own reasons many of which are similar to €uro weakness ones, but much of it is US$ strength as can be observed v ¥en, i.e. it’s not all about the Tories as @RonnieB suggested.

In fact, if Starmer wins the next election, £/$ parity is far from improbable.

[Lady London]

I agree @JDB the US is supporting the USD with interest rate rises is the stronger part of what’s going on.

I have a nasty feeling we could see 0.65 eur 1.00 gbp next 3-4 years though I hope not

[Mick S]

each hotel seems to be operating by its own rules when it comes to this.
Ive just completed 3 weeks in the US – started off in Vegas, $50 per day credit (2 adults) – reception said it didnt reset daily, and we could actually spend $250 on the final day if we wanted.

Others were strict about it resetting each day, typically around the time you originally checked in.

[John]

JDB wrote:

@John – my comment was re €uro/US$ and today they are at parity, a 20 year low for the €uro. Clearly the £ is weak partly for its own reasons many of which are similar to €uro weakness ones, but much of it is US$ strength as can be observed v ¥en, i.e. it’s not all about the Tories as @RonnieB suggested.

In fact, if Starmer wins the next election, £/$ parity is far from improbable.

I wasn’t responding to your previous comment, I was refuting the assertion that the “pound is at a 40-year low”. There’s some way to go before that, although I agree with your final statement here.

[John]

Mick S wrote:

each hotel seems to be operating by its own rules when it comes to this.
Ive just completed 3 weeks in the US – started off in Vegas, $50 per day credit (2 adults) – reception said it didnt reset daily, and we could actually spend $250 on the final day if we wanted.

Others were strict about it resetting each day, typically around the time you originally checked in.

According to the rules, it resets at midnight.

But what if you check in after midnight? Some properties claim that you don’t get anything (or they don’t offer anything you could get). If you have a 2 night stay and you use it at the bar on check-in day, some properties won’t let you use it for breakfast on the check-out day because that’s the third day.

This whole thing is badly thought out. It could be a positive as it does give you more flexibility to choose between breakfast or something else, if implemented well.

Now, instead of knowing that you’ll at least get some morning food for free, you need to waste time investigating how every property implements it, on every stay because they may have changed something in the meantime.

Some hotels will still just give you free breakfast, but some hotel restaurants are still closed for breakfast, particularly on weekends. Some hotels have increased their menu prices so you always have to pay something extra (albeit you kind of always have to pay something extra in the US anyway i.e. tip unless it’s entirely self-service); or “waste” part of the credit if you just want the most basic definition of “continental” being just a pastry and a drink – and some hotels don’t even offer that any more on certain days of the week, insisting that the more expensive paid buffet is the only option.

Many acquaintances travelling in the US always end up having to waste time arguing with front desk instead of just leaving and using app check-out. Their card statements get littered with random $10 or $15 or $18 refunds which may mess up claiming expenses, especially when the refund uses a different exchange rate from the final charge.

To implement this properly, it should just be as per the above quote, the daily amount multiplied by the number of nights, subtracted from the total F&B bill. Usable at all food outlets affiliated with the hotel at any time, and hotels must offer a continental breakfast for no more than the daily amount.

[ANNE]

We stayed at the Higgins Hotel in New Orleans in May, wonderful hotel and fabulous redemption option as well but getting the correct credits applied for our 5 night stay was painful. Rather than simply crediting $30 per night they credited back some transactions as soon as they hit the room tab – but this wasn’t applied consistently up to the daily amount and when I added it up on checking out we were about $40 overcharged. Cue a falling out with the desk agent, who insisted there was nothing wrong. Fortunately the manager ticked back the bill and agreed there was an issue.

We got there eventually and they admitted that the system was new and they didn’t really understand it! But not a great experience, no doubt complicated by the multi night stay and our large bar bill!