Or is this CFery?

[SerenDippitty]

DH and I have been staying in a hotel in a northern city for a few days. At breakfast DH saw a lad about 12-13 filling up his water bottle from the orange juice dispenser while his mother stood and watched. She was obviously a bit embarrassed but not enough to say anything!

Fascinating thread, always nabbed the odd bit of fruit for later but always felt quite guilty about it - it's changed my outlook somewhat & will now happily grab a snack for later

I sincerely hope you logged this with the police, social services and the hotel board of directors...

I can see this thread becoming the subject of a Jeremy Vine phone-in

@JoanMavisIcecreamGirl
surely it averages out though because not everyone will eat breakfast, or eat much of it.

Yes, I said in my post that you only quoted part of I am fairly relaxed about people taking a bit more away as there will be others who under eat.

Most people who pay for breakfast in a hotel will eat something though I imagine. Perhaps less so if you’re staying for a whole week and have a lie in on a few days of your holiday.

Wouldn't bother me in the slightest. Perhaps the lad preferred drinking from his own bottle rather than a manky glass who knows how many people have previously had their mouths on? Honestly, I'd probably have felt inspired to fill my own bottle. Solidarity and all that.

It is cheeky and the mum is bringing her kid up wrongly.
Over the years we have seen so much .
One family always made a picnic and packed in tbeir large bags .( deat knows how they did not get food poisoning because it was hot and they took hams and cheeses and such .) But they were stopped by the resturane manager and as we left saw them in reception with the police .

I presume for an unrelated matter because it sure as hell wasn't about the food from the breakfast Buffett.

Also packing it in their large bags, is the bag size relevant, surely it's the size of the picnic that mattered.

Why is it ok to eat loads at the breakfast table but not ok to take something with you to eat later? I've paid for it, I'll decide when I am going to eat it.

exactly.

if I am paying x amount for unlimited buffet breakfast, it would be ridiculous to eat my piece of toast and not be allowed to grab a few bits to eat later.

The food is bought much cheaper than it would for a menu breakfast.

As long as you don't take Tupperware and empty the entire buffet, making your own small lunch is perfectly ok. The hotel is not going to lose money, or they wouldn't serve a buffet!

Perhaps the family that Cryalot2 witnessed being stopped by the police had murdered someone in the swimming pool? After all, if you are the type to help yourself to extra breakfast you are -almost certainly capable of all sorts of depraved criminal behaviour...

What are the hygiene issues?

Genuine question.

As for taking the juice – meh. I suspect the waste from those kinds of hotel breakfasts is appalling, so anyone taking a bit extra is OK with me if the alternative is that it gets binned.

It wouldn't bother me, no. I don't do it, but I don't see it as a big deal if people take stuff with them for later. I don't mean people filling a shopping bag of stuff but a piece of fruit or a bread roll, they have paid for it. I don't think it matters that they are going to eat it later.

a manky glass who knows how many people have previously had their mouths on?

@BishopofBathandWells there are these things called dishwashers......do you take your own crockery and cutlery to all restaurants?!

A bottle of orange juice is not something I could get worked up about, I'm afraid.

Well, if it’s nearly breakfast time over then anything left won’t be re-used. You never know, they could have asked first?

I don’t do it myself though, I try not to be greedy.

@Notcopingwellhere Not at all, I go in with my boots on at a buffet breakfast, it's all I can do not to lick the plate sometimes. Just giving an alternative view as to why the lad might have preferred using his own bottle. Some people do have issues with germs.

I've seen a table of 4 affluent-looking adults slipping fruit, pastries, rolls (pre buttered with ham etc.) yoghurts, you name it, into bags for later. They did it furtively, always looking around to see no waiter was looking. Only me. 😲
This was at a hotel in Prague, and they weren't Brits, thank goodness.

At a hotel in Cuba there were actually signs up to prohibit this - a hand going into a bag with a big red line through it. So I dare say it had been rife.

Though what bothers me more at buffets is people taking a load of food and then leaving much of it - just to be thrown away. Waste of food really winds me up.

We often take our children’s drinking bottles with us because the juice glasses are tiny and we dilute with water. Plus they still knock glasses over all the time. Never considered it stealing if they aren’t empty when we leave.

We relocated and stayed in a hotel for 3 weeks whilst our house exchange went through. The manager used to literally drag me back to the buffet table when we finished eating breakfast, open up a napkin and tell me to fill it up with pastries for later for the children. Plus fruit as I had a child in nursery who came back to the hotel half way through the day and a 6 year old at school.

Also at a Premier Inn, Dh had a blinding headache one morning and so we were booked as 4 but obviously 1 adult missing, they told me to go and take him a coffee and a pastry to see if that would help, they would refund me 1 adult breakfast if he didn't show.

Having worked in hotels, really this is such a small matter. Obviously the occasional person will take the piss, but most people just take a coffee (decanted into a thermal cup) or a couple of small pastries/mini muffins. It is expected and priced accordingly.

Lots of hotels have takeaway cups and paper bags or don’t blink an eye if you carry out to the foyer, the pool or even your room.

We are vegan so don’t really eat any high ticket items (smoked salmon, meat, cheese for example) and don’t have huge breakfasts. I tend to have some coffee, fruit and toast and carry some more fruit out with me. I don’t feel at all guilty, nor do I do it in a subtle manner. Surely the hotel is doing better out of us than those who pile plates high with cooked food and then go back for dessert?

And the juice probably costs them pence at catering rates.

I think making whole packed lunches after a good feed is probably CFery but I doubt it’s something hotels who make good margins get too worked up about.

My reason for thinking it was a bit cheeky was that if everyone did the same there might not be enough to go round. But I suppose if the breakfast buffet is supplied on an all you can eat/drink basis it's ok to treat it as such

It's not something I would do - I genuinely have never taken an apple for later, @whothedaddy, nor would dh or I let the children do so. I think it's a bit cheeky, but not the crime of the century.

what bothers me more at buffets is people taking a load of food and then leaving much of it - just to be thrown away. Waste of food really winds me up.

I completely agree!

Fair enough someone takes a bit of something, doesn't like it and leaves it, but the number of people piling their plate and not bothering eating half. It's a buffet, no one cares if you go 4 o5 times, just take small portions.

With the people allegedly stopped by police. Perhaps they weren't resident in the hotel? Although I still can't see it being a police matter.
We stayed in a hotel a few weeks ago where there was no-one checking who was coming in to breakfast, so any tom dick or harry could have come in off the street and had a free meal.

A breakfast buffet is to help yourself to and sit at the table and eat. Taking extra food out of the breakfast room is theft
No, it isn't. Guests pay for breakfast. I've never stayed in a hotel where they say breakfast buffet has to be eaten in the room. In fact, we've often taken plates upstairs poorly DH and the hotels have always said it was fine.

I wouldn't take food out of the dining room unless I was going to eat breakfast in my room or outdoors; I'd be a bit judgey of anyone who ate breakfast and then took food. But ...

I wouldn't begrudge that reconstituted squash a lot of hotels pass off as orange juice, which is so cheap it should be free anyway.

Not something I would worry about. You'd actually annoy me more because I hate people watching me.