Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

That this does not constitute stealing?

349 replies

6079SmithW · 19/08/2021 16:03

We recently enjoyed a self catering holiday. On the way we decided to break up the journey by stopping for breakfast at a well known chain pub/restaurant/hotel.
The menu was very complicated with only certain things being available to hotel guests rather than others.
My partner and I ordered a cooked breakfast, the DC just wanted something simple so I ordered them a bacon sandwich. I enquired about the small boxes of cereal on display as that was what the DC really wanted. I was told it was part of the hotel guests only breakfast and if DC wanted it it would br £6 each (£12). I ordered that too. My bill was over £30!
The hotel guests additional breakfast was basically the small boxes of cereals plus bread/crumpets to toast. The DC ate a box of cereal and one crumpet each.
Feeling aggrieved that I had spent over £30 on breakfast, and mindful that we were going on a self catering break, I decided to get my monies worth by taking with us a few additional individual portions of jam and Nutella (about 10-12) total. My partner accused me of stealing! WIBU?

OP posts:
Libraryghost · 19/08/2021 22:37

It’s stealing. I don’t know how you could think otherwise.

chesirecat99 · 19/08/2021 22:59

No, I didn't couch it in moral terms @Iamthewombat, even if you interpreted it that way. Two sentences, two separate points, one about the morality and one about the legality. They are both relevant.

Actually, the hotel will most definitely be pricing it on the assumption that some people will take something extra away, and the assumptions that some people will stuff themselves silly or take food that they won't eat that will go straight from their plate to the bin. My in-laws were in the hotel trade.

Based on your own calculations of whether the business will ‘lose money’, which you couldn’t possibly know.

I can know. The OP paid £6 for a box of cereal (24p each in catering packs) and a crumpet (4.5p each) so her DC ate 28.5p worth of food. The other "all you can eat" options were bread (about 6p a slice), jam (10p a sachet) and Nutella (15p a sachet). That's a pretty huge profit margin. If they can offer a full English for £9, overheads can't be that high.

Userg1234 · 19/08/2021 23:00

Fuck em. It wasn't nailed down or cctv. You paid a fortune for fuck all....delight it was Jack shit. I was a senior manager in an insurance company....but my dad was......well Arthur Daileys successful brother !

longwayoff · 19/08/2021 23:19

Given the prices you quote, you're stealing from thieves, so you're probably quits.

SofiaMichelle · 19/08/2021 23:25

@myheartskippedabeat

I have never understood the need to take extra stuff from buffet restaurants it's such a bizarre thing to do
This!

I used to wonder about the signs you often see saying that no food can be removed from the restaurant/breakfast room and think, "nah, nobody would do that - why do they need a sign?"

And then I found this thread. Shock

SheldonesqueTheBstard · 19/08/2021 23:26

Bandits but not thieves. OP was given the choice whether or not to have the extra cost.

The hotel did not have any say in OP making merry with their provisions.

The argument that ‘if it is on the table it is fair game’ would be met with cries of CF if she also spirited away the cutlery, crockery, tablecloth and everything else on there.

She had a choice to pay the additional cost and chose to do so.

FortniteBoysMum · 19/08/2021 23:27

Depends if its one of those all you can eat breakfasts like brewersfayre for example. I've known my kids to grab a muffin, yoghurt or some fruit for later. Technically we paid for the breakfast and it doesn't say all you can eat right now. On the other hand one of our children has an eating disorder and will only eat specific things. Some places still try to charge us for him despite him not eating any of the things on offer.

Iamthewombat · 19/08/2021 23:37

@chesirecat99

No, I didn't couch it in moral terms *@Iamthewombat*, even if you interpreted it that way. Two sentences, two separate points, one about the morality and one about the legality. They are both relevant.

Actually, the hotel will most definitely be pricing it on the assumption that some people will take something extra away, and the assumptions that some people will stuff themselves silly or take food that they won't eat that will go straight from their plate to the bin. My in-laws were in the hotel trade.

Based on your own calculations of whether the business will ‘lose money’, which you couldn’t possibly know.

I can know. The OP paid £6 for a box of cereal (24p each in catering packs) and a crumpet (4.5p each) so her DC ate 28.5p worth of food. The other "all you can eat" options were bread (about 6p a slice), jam (10p a sachet) and Nutella (15p a sachet). That's a pretty huge profit margin. If they can offer a full English for £9, overheads can't be that high.

Oh well, if your in laws were in the hotel trade you’ll know all about Premier Inn’s business model, won’t you?

Do you get that the fact that the hotel expects different people to eat different amounts at a buffet breakfast doesn’t equate to “it’s ok to fill your boots with food to eat later”? The hospitality industry prices in some wastage but it doesn’t welcome or expect a load of CFs taking food for later.

Or that hotels and restaurants are allowed to, you know, apply different profit margins to different things? So the fact that they are charging £9 for a full English doesn’t mean that ‘overheads are low’. The full English might be a loss leader. How much do you think it costs to put on breakfast at a hotel excluding the cost of the food? Staff have to be paid, food has to be heated, plates have to be washed, rooms need to be lit and cleaned. £6 a head for continental breakfast sounds pretty reasonable.

That the items the OP’s kids ate would have cost the hotel 28.5p per head against a price of £6 per head is irrelevant. The kids could have eaten more whilst at the hotel. They chose not to, because they were full. More fool the OP for paying for a second breakfast when she must have known that her kids wouldn’t have eaten much after a bacon sandwich. You don’t get to decide that because you are full, you deserve to carry off a sack load of food from a buffet because it’s somehow unfair that you couldn’t eat more.

Iamthewombat · 19/08/2021 23:40

Technically we paid for the breakfast and it doesn't say all you can eat right now

This is a joke, right? So you’d pay £x for an all you can eat buffet and think, “well it doesn’t technically say all you can eat RIGHT NOW so I choose to interpret that as all you can eat for the rest of your life, this I will show up daily and expect to eat for free”?

Iamthewombat · 19/08/2021 23:40

Thus, not this!

Bananarama21 · 20/08/2021 00:00

Shameful behaviour you chose to pay for the continental on top of the bacon sandwichs 30 quid is pretty standard for a family of 4 when you consider drinks aswell. I'd be absolutely embrassed 1 or 2 but not 12. I wonder if the pp saw you getting your dc to fill their pockets.

fiveminustwocats · 20/08/2021 00:05

Of course it's stealing. Only minor, and yes the establishment probably do know it's happening, but your partner is correct. As for the price you paid for breakfast - did anyone force you to buy anything?? Don't like the cost, don't buy - pretty simple really Confused

chesirecat99 · 20/08/2021 01:54

Why would the full English be a loss leader, @Iamthewombat? Loss leaders are to entice people in to spend more money on other items. No one is going to spend money on sides or desserts after a huge breakfast and they aren't going to be spending much on drinks early in the morning.

The main rationale behind the hugely marked up £6 price for the continental breakfast will be to make guests who are getting a free breakfast feel like they have got something of value.

It's a bit morally dubious but it's not worth the level of moral indignation of some posters. I've never taken anything extra from a hotel buffet without asking but when I've asked, the hotel has always obliged eg a piece of fruit or a sandwich for a child that didn't eat their breakfast.

GreyhoundG1rl · 20/08/2021 01:56

They made a sandwich for a child who didn't eat their breakfast?

user64325 · 20/08/2021 02:04

I think you paid for it when you paid £12 for two bowls of cereal and two crumpets. There is an Adam Buxton/Louis Theroux podcast about this topic Grin.

Saoirse82 · 20/08/2021 02:22

I'm sure the cops will be on your tail OP! Grin. I'm sure a few extras are factored in. I wouldn't give it a second thought. I sometimes take a few of the sweetener sachets as a lot places don't have them. Never have I ever considered it to be stealing, I can't see anywhere getting annoyed by this.

chesirecat99 · 20/08/2021 02:24

No @GreyhoundG1rl. They let me make a sandwich from a slice of bread and some cheese from the buffet to take with us.

GreyhoundG1rl · 20/08/2021 02:27

Ah, I see.

Siepie · 20/08/2021 02:40

@memberofthewedding

In the USA they offer to box up anything you havnt eaten. You dont have to ask! Its only in ripoff Britain that people are so precious about a few rolls or bits of fruit.
Huh? I’ve stayed in several hotels in the US, and no they don’t offer to box up random items from the buffet table Confused

In both the US and UK they may box up things already on your plate, because otherwise they’d have to go in the bin. Items still on the buffet could be used by other guests.

WaspRelatedEmergency · 20/08/2021 06:00

You're basically a criminal mastermind. You should change your username to stickyfingers. Grin

FakingMemories · 20/08/2021 06:04

Well if everyone did that then it’s no wonder their prices are so high.

BritWifeInUSA · 20/08/2021 06:10

@memberofthewedding

In the USA they offer to box up anything you havnt eaten. You dont have to ask! Its only in ripoff Britain that people are so precious about a few rolls or bits of fruit.
Not from a buffet they don’t. I live in the US. A restaurant will box up what you ordered from the menu and was served to you but you didn’t eat. They won’t give you a box to do another round of the buffet to make your own lunchbox.
ChurchlightJane · 20/08/2021 06:17

You knew the price and you agreed to pay it for the agreed breakfast offer.
It's stealing and it's really tacky and cheap to do this.

Bluntness100 · 20/08/2021 07:00

Lol at the people not reading the thread, applying no critical thinking and actually believing their pricing was actually six quid for a box of cereal and a crumpet.

For those who struggle, it looks like it was a premier inn, six quid odd cor the continental, nine quid for the full English.

The continental includes drinks, yoghurt, cereals, granola, full bakery, pancakes, toast etc the fact the ops kids only had a box of cereal and a crumpet doesn’t change the fact their pricing is good, it’s a premier inn, and they don’t sell individual boxes of cereal or charge by the crumpet. Like most hotels.

So the op got her kids to fill their pockets as some form of vengeance for having to pay for the continental rather than be able to buy jist a box of cereal.

mogsrus · 20/08/2021 07:23

you knew what price you were going to pay,so why do you feel aggrieved? am prices .com under the invitation to treat! you should have gone somewhere e!we & yes of course it's stealing