Hyatt Place’s Ongoing Breakfast Test: Will $14 Charges Replace Free Morning Meals? – View from the Wing

Hyatt ended free, full breakfast at Hyatt Place properties as a brand standard guarantee during the pandemic.

They dropped the requirement that you book direct to get breakfast, but also started charging non-elite guests for breakfast at some properties as a test. I hadn’t realized until recently that – four years later – this test continues, with the future of free Hyatt Place breakfast still uncertain.

This sign was posted in the elevator at the Hyatt Place Sacramento / Roseville: new reservations by non-elite guests are charged $11 for breakfast:

At some properties that are part of this test it’s only $8, while I’ve seen it reported that in Portland it’s $14.

In fall 2020 Hyatt launched a test at 20 properties. I asked Hyatt about their plan for Hyatt Place breakfast going forward and they shared,

[O]ver the last few years, we have continually evolved the Hyatt Place breakfast experience to care for our most valued guests.

Leading with a test and learn approach, and with care and creativity in mind, we are embracing the Hyatt Place brand spirit of experimentation and responding to guest and member feedback, as well as evolving global market considerations as we test around Hyatt Place breakfast.

As we focus to reward our elite World of Hyatt loyalty members and aspire to offer additional quality breakfast options, we are working to test rate options that include and don’t include breakfast at a limited number of Hyatt Place hotels in the U.S. ranging from urban, suburban and airport hotels.

Following the pilot, we plan to analyze guest feedback, among other considerations, to identify an evolved Hyatt Place breakfast offering at U.S. hotels moving forward.

The test continues, and we don’t know what the “evolved Hyatt Place breakfast offering” at U.S. properties will look like yet – better or worse, bundled in the rate or charged a la carte. The answer depends, it seems, on what the marketplace will bear.

However I’m not sure what kind of data they’re really getting in this test because people book Hyatt Place properties today believing they will get included breakfast because… it is… a Hyatt Place. So we probably don’t see the test hotels losing bookings, though it’s possible that other hotels lose bookings after a test hotel stay. Will be interesting to watch.

The breakfast itself, of course, has gone through many iterations. Recently I’ve had better breakfasts than in the most recent five years, though still not as good as a decade ago.