#FreeBreakfast #hotels #eggs #PriceofEggs #HowPeopleFeel
Free hot breakfast.
Many hotels offer that as a perk to their guests.
Most of them are buffet style, as guests come down to the lobby to serve themselves.
But some hotel chains, like Hyatt Place, are considering charging, say, $7 a head for breakfast.
That probably still beats what you would pay if you went out to a nearby restaurant for breakfast. But, will guests object to that idea?
It’s not a big deal to charge for breakfast. But, the psychology here is different. You don’t give people something, then take it away and expect them not to complain.
Perhaps, when the hotels try this, there will be some initial blowback from guests. Still, it’s imprudent to bet that the blowback eventually will subside and things will be normal again, albeit at a higher price for hotel guests.
The overall trend of raising prices on just about everything is having a real effect on people. In fact, it’s been said that the price of eggs, among other things, influenced whom people voted for in the recent election.
It’s not that the candidates(s) can really do much about the price of eggs. It was the feeling people had about whom they thought would be more likely to make their lives better.
Apparently, they were willing to overlook the bad things about a candidate, if that candidate gave them a good feeling that things were going to improve.
Let’s hope these gut feelings were not misplaced.
As political analyst Matthew Dowd put it: “You can’t tell people how to feel.”
These feelings may have little to do with a candidate’s policies or ideas. They are not data points.
In fact, when candidates try to tell people that their feelings don’t match the data, the people really don’t care about the data.
They are worried more about how they are going to pay, say, $6 for a dozen eggs, when they probably paid $2 a few years ago.
You can talk to them about supply-chain issues, bird flu outbreaks and other things that may have affected egg prices. But that doesn’t solve THEIR problem.
In fact, it’s very likely that those egg prices are spurring hotel chains to consider charging for their “free” hot breakfasts.
Of course, the cost of almost all necessities has gone up. Most salaries have, too, but people are still hurting.
Is this really the time for hotel chains to, in relative terms, nickel and dime their guests?
In most cases, hotel stays are a luxury, unless people are homeless because of storms or other reasons.
Travelers will vote with their feet on free breakfasts. Those chains that keep their free hot breakfasts are likely to fare better than those who try to charge for them
On the other hand, some chains never went the free-breakfast route, and they don’t appear to be suffering for it.
Still, psychologically, it would have been better not to have offered free breakfast at all, than to offer it and later charge for it.
Peter