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 😬

Completely wrong thread sorry, thought I was on the one where nanny pay was late. No idea how to delete? Also probably voted incorrectly if there was voting, doing between several other distractions …….

The price is the wrong way around for the buffet + cooked breakfast idea to make sense. It's only £3 more expensive, surely you wouldn't expect to only pay £3 for a cooked breakfast? If it was £7.95 for cooked breakfast or £10.95 for cooked + continental, that would make sense.

She should have offered you tea, coffee, juice, toast etc

That's ridiculous.

I would assume that a cooked breakfast came with toast, juice and a hot drink.

But this way doesn't give the option of continental only. It's very usual for the hot option to only cost a few pounds more, I guess the assumption is that if you are having a full hot breakfast, you won't eat as much of the buffet as you would if you were having the buffet only.

Everywhere I have been has had tea and coffee included in breakfast - cooked or continental. Plus toast.

Looking forward to any updates

But this way doesn't give the option of continental only. It's very usual for the hot option to only cost a few pounds more, I guess the assumption is that if you are having a full hot breakfast, you won't eat as much of the buffet as you would if you were having the buffet only.

Yes I would expect a continental only option too, but my experience of these scenarios where you are getting both is always that the cooked breakfast is the bigger proportion of the price.

That's not how it works.

In places were they have a continental buffet plus a cooked buffet, the prices are

Small price for continental only
Or
Small price plus a few pounds for continental plus cooked.

Using premier inn as an example; its £7.50 for continental only or £9.50 for full buffet (hot plus continental).

I live in a very touristy area. We have lots of inns and B&Bs. The places that do the buffet breakfast have the continental for around £10 and the cooked plus continental for around £12.50.

That's how it works.

If she didn't ask what drinks you wanted when taking your order I would have thought the drinks should be taken from those out but I think I would have asked at the point of ordering. Taking the toast sounds a bit odd to me.

Yes I would expect a continental only option too, but my experience of these scenarios where you are getting both is always that the cooked breakfast is the bigger proportion of the price

This hasn't been my experience at all. Although the hot breakfast is charged at only a few pounds more, in reality it's making up the bulk of the price, as customer will likely only have tea/coffee/juice, perhaps a pastry, from the continental.

This is from one of the Marstons

marstons-menu.azureedge.netmedia/pxybn1fs/minnssrbreakm0322a5-digital.pdf

Clearly states that cooked includes items from continental plus tea / coffee
Continental includes tea and coffee

@WeAreBob Fair enough. That's not been my experience which is a sentiment that's been echoed a fair bit on this thread, so I'm guessing it's not as uniform as we all thought!

This is another one

marstons-menu.azureedge.netmedia/s2ljteap/minnsbreakrmp0322a5-digital.pdf

If you look at the price for the Cooked, it says it includes continental

This is besides the point but I'm feeling mugged right now as I paid £5 for the "continental" breakfast in a shitty 3 star B and B that turned out to be a choice of make your own toast or pour some rice crispies, paired with awful make your own instant coffee 🤢

Whenever I travelled for work it was always cooked breakfast was more but included continental or as a minimum you got a drink and toast! If they didn’t take an order for those then you help yourself.

Well, you usually sit down and they take your order for tea, coffee etc and your cooked breakfast. Sometimes they ask about toast, sometimes they tell you that you can make your own. Then you get up and go help yourself to some juice, cereals, fruit etc from the table while you wait. It's all included in the full breakfast price. Continental only is cheaper.
The thing is, you're not going to eat loads from the table when you've got a fry up coming are you? So the difference between the two breakfast options isn't usually that high.
Or you are at a posh hotel where everything you could possibly want is included and is served to you at the table.

In my experience, cooked breakfast is charged as a supplement to the continental. You pay the extra but can pick from both. I've never heard of a cooked breakfast not coming with a tea or coffee either.

Most places I've stayed there is a breakfast included, usually the continental with a supplement for cooked.

If it was just a cooked breakfast I would still expect juice and toast.

BUT they usually do tell you to 'help yourself'.

Some places it's a hot and cold buffet.

I would expect cooked breakfast to include cereal, toast and hot drinks. Often the buffet has extras like fruit and juices

very unusual and once again not taking a drinks order is weird-if they want to keep it seprate theyve got to state that

ive always had toast and drinks included if there was a continental buffet thats also included

Quite honestly, OP, I'd go along to reception and just ask in a friendly way if I could clarify how the breakfast situation works. Because the waitress seems not very well trained and if she’s not aware that guests will need tea and coffee with breakfast as an absolute minimum, isn’t offering it unless you ask, then tries to charge you double if you go and get it yourself, then they'll have a lot of confused and upset guests.

Just remembered it’s a pub so they probably don’t have a reception…..scrub that idea, then! 🤦‍♀️

ask for the manager they shold know how their breakfast works

My random sampling of 3 of the Marston pubs via their website seems to show that each of them have a breakfast menu, in the same style and they all show that cooked breakfast includes continental and that you also get tea, coffee and juice.

So I guess that there should be a breakfast menu for you to look at. And then have that discussion with the manager

I don’t recall ever staying in a hotel where the OP would not have been correct in her assumption about the breakfast.

To my mind a usual hotel breakfast goes - 1) they take your order for cooked breakfast (if it’s not a buffet) and bring you tea or coffee and maybe juice of that’s not “help yourself”; 2) you go and help yourself to cereal, fruit salad; 3) they bring you the cooked breakfast, hopefully with toast, but if you not make your own; 4) having eaten the cooked breakfast you then totally unnecessarily go and get mini croissants, Danish pastries, more toast to have with jam as a “breakfast pudding.”