Taking food from a hotel breakfast buffet- cheeky??

[Nannyogg134]

Was chatting with Brother and SIL about their upcoming holiday. They've got a long drive with 2 young DCs, so they've booked a chain hotel with free buffet breakfast part way along (to break up the drive.) DM said "Oh good, don't forget to make sandwiches for the drive later.".
This led to a whole family breakdown of what it is/isn't cheeky to do at a breakfast buffet 😂...

• DM would happily take tupperware with her and fill up because 'it's been paid for' (I don't think she does take tupperware, I think it was a figure of speech!)
• DH said he's too embarrassed to take anything more than a banana for later.
• DSIL confessed that she can't resist taking pots of jam

I just wondered what everyone thought- Is it unreasonable to take from the buffet breakfast for 'later'?

She is saying he drinks their prosecco.

This is only ok if you look European though so please bear that in mind.

This reminds me of a sweet B and B I stayed in once in Dungeness. In the room was a fridge with bottled water and a jug of proper milk. There was also a slice of home made cake, a little bowl of fruit and a bowl of sweeties. All replenished every day. As you finished breakfast ( delicious) she would bring round an elevensies snack to take out with you, brownies, or flap Jack, I don’t know how she did it for the price she charged ( less than the B and B down the road with no extras). She just loved feeding people and looking after them I think.

Why would the staff care it's not like it's their personal food

I assume some people on staff care about the bottom line and how expenses determine that. It's the reason that staff police random folks dropping in to the buffet who are not staying at the hotel, even though it's not the staff's personal food.

I have a friend who works at a hotel and she would rather people take the food because otherwise it literally goes in the bin. They cook up loads of toast eggs etc and it's all laid out in the morning for a buffet style breakfast. Then before lunchtime it's all scraped into the bin. You can even get bags to take away on certain food saving apps for a couple of pounds because the hotel would rather see people eat it than the food go in a landfill.

Anybody advocating for wasting food is living in the past. If it effected the hotels bottom line they would simply have breakfasts made to order but they don't. The food doesn't magically saving the company money by going in the bin, that is some very old fashioned thinking. These are large corporations with very carefully balanced books. They don't care and they don't lose money for you take some toast with you.

And are charming😁

I presume the staff follow whatever guidelines are set for them at the hotel.
We stayed in a 5* at Dubrovnik and I was surprised to see a sign at the breakfast entrance saying that taking away food would not be tolerated. That was an amazing breakfast buffet as well, they even had a smoothie bar where they would make up your personal choice for you. I guess people making up their pack lunch would ruin the feel of the place.

But I suspect most of the moderate chain hotels are told to turn a blind eye to food taking provided it's not too blatant. I guess hotels have to work on a maximum average consumption, rather than a moderate one as there would be complaints if they ran out of food.

Some hotels don’t always replenish the pastries and croissants once they’ve run out. So taking them for later might result in someone else not getting one.

I don’t normally but did take a couple of sachets of gluten free cereal from the Premier Inn at the airport when we went away recently - always worried about finding gluten free stuff for intolerant dd2

But those are the moral items apparently, taking bread rolls, cheese and deli meat, which are 99% of the time bountiful, have lots to spare and often go to waste, is scruffy, immoral and theft.

Well I'm still entitled to eat one - whether I sit down and eat it there and then, or eat it later I am still taking one from the later risers.

And if hotels don't have enough food for everyone, that's the fault of the hotel.

Many people are quite small and don't eat large quantities. It's not for the size 8 women to effectively subsidise the very large men who eat loads!

That is very different to staying in the hotel, paying for breakfast, having something to eat while you are there, and taking something else to have later on.

I wonder what people think of people who don't actually want to eat breakfast in the hotel at all (but have paid for it) so go in and take a pastry and apple to eat on the go?

I really don't see how the timing of when you eat something is remotely relevant.

I wouldn't have any moral or ethical issue with taking extra. I don't eat much breakfast and I've paid the same as people with plates piled high. Also there is always lots of waste which gets binned so taking perishables saves that. However, I'd be a bit embarrassed to do it in reality because of the judgement.

I'm sure they will be able to get plenty of bookings from people who can actually afford the holiday without expecting the hotel to subsidise their lunch

Actually it was in the news headlines last week that Disney shares have fallen, specifically because they’re not getting enough visitors to their parks. So I’m pretty sure they’d be happy to accept the 3-4k it is to holiday there for the sake of 12 croissants they would have legally had to throw away….

Anybody advocating for wasting food is living in the past. If it effected the hotels bottom line they would simply have breakfasts made to order but they don't. The food doesn't magically saving the company money by going in the bin, that is some very old fashioned thinking. These are large corporations with very carefully balanced books. They don't care and they don't lose money for you take some toast with you

well said @Anotherparkingthread there are a significant number of posters that worry WAY too much about massive billion dollar corporations…..

"Well I'm still entitled to eat one - whether I sit down and eat it there and then, or eat it later I am still taking one from the later risers."

Yes, 1, not taking extra for later, which is what the OP is about.

"And if hotels don't have enough food for everyone, that's the fault of the hotel."

But they do have enough for everyone - it's just that some people take extra so that's not the fault of the hotel.

No food should leave breakfast room outside the body. But years ago we robbed Disney Paris hotel and stuffed our rucksack with croissants because the park food was so unhealthy and unbelievably expensive. But in normal circumstances, its wrong and a bit embarrassing if caught

Another thing to consider is that the carb elements of breakfast are usually the cheapest- so cheap sliced bread, croissants/pastries which they presumably buy in part baked to control food waste and fluctuating volumes and say things like hash browns.

Your sliced ham and cheese and sometimes smoked salmon if lucky are going to be much more expensive per portion, ditto a hand chopped fruit salad. Therefore someone tucking into a big breakfast is not necessarily costing the hotel the most.

DH and I don't eat loads at breakfast ( despite my not being a teeny weeny size 8 with the appetite of a bird) but as we try to follow a low carb diet we will be eating the more expensive things on offer, particularly if there is an omelette bar available.

Most of them are not worth taking - low cost food dressed up to look like a spread. I avoid buffet food wherever possible due to the poor quality.

Personally I wouldn’t. Yes, a piece of fruit/muffin, maybe some mini Nutellas for DC 😂 but not a packed lunch! My mum & dad would think nothing of it though; they’d definitely do it. In Disneyland Paris last year, I saw numerous families sitting at breakfast tables merrily making piles of sandwiches from the cooked meat & cheese! Maybe it’s acceptable there to counter the extortionate on-site food prices? I couldn’t bring myself to do it!

If you do it on the sly.

On my final breakfast before I leave the hotel to go to airport to fly back home, I have made myself a cooked meat and cheese roll, wrap it in a paper napkin and slip into my bag. Sometimes I do this with a pastry or cake - not flaky pastry like a croissant. As from my experience, some foreign airports' choice of foods is piss poor. Rhodes Airport is a classic example. One poxy cafe with horrible looking burgers for €10 - that was 10 years ago. I was glad to do this as my flight was delayed by 1.5 hours and the cafe had ran out of food.

Have done this on tour holidays - I travel alone but on a tour with fellow singles and if got a lot of traveling to do to the next place we are staying and if the country has limited places for coaches to stop. I remember going on a Latvia and Lithuania holiday and the coach driver knew a farm shop with cafe about 20 mins drive from the motorway that had coach parking and more importantly, loads of toilets. Couldn't remember which of the two countries this farm shop place was. Sometimes, on these coach tours, we can only stop at petrol stations with ONE female loo. From my experience of these holidays there has never been more than 20% of the touring party who are male. Out of a tour of 25-28, 4-5 are men and the rest are ladies. 20-24 ladies using one loo takes time. I always visit the loo when we have a loo stop as no idea when the next opportunity will be.

I’m quite happy to take some fruit and pastry for later, if I know I’m going to eat them. And normally at least two visits to the buffet…

I also work in a hotel where any breakfast that isn’t eaten just goes straight in the bin, so may as well eat what you can.

🙄🤣

For me I'd maybe keep a condiment, but that's it.

On the other hand, I recently went on holiday with my baby & did take a wee bowl with me to fill with fruit for her to snack on later.

I find it very grabby and tasteless tbh. It's not the deal, it feels like stealing.

I feel the same about people who take sachets etc. It's just this attitude of "I want more". I feel like it's entitled, selfish and greedy. I'd be a nightmare if I worked in a place this happened.