To have assumed this about breakfast?

[YouWhatLove]

Staying in a country pub with rooms for a couple of nights away with my dc. We went down for breakfast this morning and the waitress asked if we wanted the continental breakfast for £7.95 or the cooked breakfast for £10.95 (slightly cheaper for dc but can’t remember the price). We all had the cooked breakfast, she took our orders and went off.

I then went to the continental buffet bit and got juice for dc, a cup of tea for myself and 2 slices of toast to go with our cooked breakfast. She delivered the cooked breakfast, it was all very nice and then she presented us with the bill that charged us for 3 x continental breakfast and 3 x cooked breakfast. I said she’d charged us twice and she said that she’d seen me go to the buffet so had to charge me. After a bit of a fuss she agreed to only charge for the cooked breakfast but said to not do it tomorrow and that if I wanted tea/ juice/ toast I had to order it with my breakfast.

I haven’t stayed in that many places that offered a continental and cooked breakfast at a separate price but was I being cheeky to assume the cost of a cooked breakfast included juice and toast from the buffet bit? I’m sure when I’ve stayed in Premier Inn or similar that’s been the case or maybe I’ve just been nicking stuff without realising it 😬

She's done it twice now.

If this is a place that is part of a chain, you need to ask to speak to the manager (whoever is on duty) and clarify that for two mornings your breakfast order hasn't been taken correctly and on the first morning you were going to be charged for the two types of breakfast because your server didn't ask about hot drinks/juice/toast options at the time of taking your order and she didn't ask again this morning.
If you get a satisfactory response, I'd say thanks and I might mention that you'll reference this interaction in your Trip Advisor post, to alert other potential guests.
If you don't get a satisfactory response, say thanks and take it to the next level in the chain looking for clarification and saying that you're dissatisfied with X branch of their establishment and you think it would be useful to guests to know what is and isn't included in the breakfasts and can they do anything to help.

Keep reporting up the food chain so to speak.

I hate poor service in hotel/b&b accommodation. There really isn't any genuine reasons for it except the managers/staff aren't able to do the job!

I’ve mostly only ever had the buffet breakfast which included the cooked breakfast when abroad. Even with my stays at PI just after the virus it was the same. They’re trying to make a fast buck here, who would want both, or even want to pay for both?

How can people be SO categorical and SO passionate about someone else’s breakfast.

FWIW, I’ve had it both ways - but would in any case have asked

I would have expexted the cooked breakfast to include tea/coffee/juice but I wouldn't have expected it to come from the Buffet from what she said to you as you entered.

If you’re still there tomorrow I’d ask the waitress if it’s easier for you to go and get your own coffee and juice rather than her needing to get it for you!

Can you have as much coffee, tea and juice as you like?

Given the waitress didn't ask if you wanted toast or drinks, totally reasonable to assume that you would get that yourself from the buffet.

Definitely not CF to get toast and drinks. Maybe if you'd filled a plate with goodies from the continental breakfast then it may have been wise to ask first given that hotels differ. But you didn't take anything that you wouldn't reasonably expect in a cooked breakfast anyway. I'd have done exactly the same.

YABU

Surely if you could have both then you wouldn’t been asked which one you wanted.

Although I wouldn’t have been as cheeky to go and help myself to toast.
I could have thought I needed to get my own tea and coffee if it wasn’t properly signposted.

So you were a bit of a CF to try and have both for one price but they need to make it perfectly clear so others aren’t confused in future.

Were you not asked if you wanted any drinks with it?

I think its weird if the continental breakfast came with drinks but not the cooked. Also odd that theres no toast with cooked breakfast. Id say the hotel were being tight

I can see that about drinks, but toast?

You need to get out more.

Toast is so basic! Of course a cooked breakfast should come with toast in the UK! If a server hadn't asked me what kind of toast i want, i would assume it's helpf yourself. It's not CF at all but a very reasonable assumption.

Also toast would be such a weird item to be tight about. It's probably the cheapest item in the breakfast. What IS CFery is the hotel tryign to charge the OP for a second breakfast for a few slices of toast and then acting like it was a favour taking it off. Outrageous.

We usually stay at a Premier Inn if we go away and if you have the full breakfast it includes the buffet. It is about the same price but the children (if we have GC with us) get a free breakfast.

Don't think you were being cheeky.

Oh come on literally every hotel I have stayed in does it like the op described.

Apparently many posters don't stay in many hotels. The vast majority YK and abroad include the buffet if you order a cooked. They would ask 'would you like continental or cooked' to ascertain if you want cooked in addition to. Not instead of.

I stay in a lot of hotels, pubs with rooms etc and in literally every place I’ve ever stayed, the price for a cooked breakfast includes items from the continental buffet. Essentially the breakfast price is invariably either for the continental buffet alone, or for the cooked breakfast and the continental. (The continental-only price has a much bigger mark-up on it.)

A cooked breakfast is an extension of a continental not as well as. Bonkers she charged you twice

In premier inns you can go up for the extras at breakfast if you order the cooked breakfast. I've not stayed in one for a little while , but this was the case last time I did.
I would have assumed the same as you. It wasn't made clear to you what were paying for or allowed to eat for each price quoted.

I would expect toast to be amongst the options offered for a cooked breakfast, but I would expect to order (and pay) for my drink of choice; not take anything from the buffet.

I've stayed in lots of hotels and inns and if you have the cooked breakfast it always includes the continental. Since when does tea, juice and toast between 3 make 3 continental breakfasts?

The bottom line is that the waitress handled it very badly. She should have taken a drinks and toast order. If she had done that she wouldn't have needed to try to charge you twice and then tick you off like a child and say 'don't do it again!'.
The whole process is unclear. Very bad customer service..

This. I would have a word with the manager, explain what happened, and suggest they train their staff to explain to guests how the breakfast works when they take their order.

I would absolutely expect tea, coffee and juice to come with my booked breakfast. And to be fair the set up is a bit confusing. Most hotels I've stayed in give you all the breakfast choices in one cost so you can have tea/coffee and fruit and the cooked bits.

Surely if you could have both then you wouldn’t been asked which one you wanted

But they have to ask which you want, don’t they, because they have to make it to order if you want a cooked breakfast? The question still doesn’t imply either/or!

Nonsense. I've never seen a hotel where it's not continental (cold buffet etc) or full, meaning the former plus the cooked breakfast food.

Baffling how you could come on Mumsnet and write four posts yet couldn’t send a simple text - ‘Hey x, something seems to have gone amiss with my pay going through, not sure whose end the technical gremlins are at but can’t see any obvious issues at mine. Could you try and push it through again please and sms so I can look out and I will confirm it’s been received. Thx and have a great weekend’.

I couldn’t imagine anything less awkward or friendship limiting and find it quite worrying that you have sole responsibility for kids and can’t manage something so simple to be frank. Realise that sounds harsh but it’s true.