"Coffee tax" creeping into IHG hotels

[Mattg]

A pet peeve at many Hilton hotels in Australia & New Zealand is the extra charge for barista coffee when having breakfast. You can get filter/machine coffee for free but get slugged $5 for a barista-made flat white, latte or cappuccino.

I mostly stay with IHG, Accor and Radisson hotels and rarely recall having to pay extra for proper coffee with breakfast when it's otherwise included for free with your status (or room rate). But this morning at the Holiday Inn Melbourne Bourke St Mall, I was told that there's an extra charge for barista coffee. (Breakfast was otherwise complimentary for me as I chose it as my Diamond welcome amenity).

Machine coffee was available for free, but it seems like a shame to be drinking machine coffee in Melbourne!

FWIW, this is a new IHG hotel that opened this year. At other IHG hotels I've stayed at in Melbourne, barista coffee has pretty much always been included with breakfast - as it should be.

I have seen this policy at a few Holiday Inn Express hotels in Sydney and Melbourne. At these hotels, a basic breakfast is free for everyone so I don't find it too unreasonable. But not at more "premium" brands.

I hope this isn't the start of a new trend at IHG hotels.

 

[elanshin]

Personal opinion, but i rate most hotel "barista" coffee on par with McCafe so I generally either just get free machine coffee or pay $5 from an actual coffee shop.

As to your main point though, this does seem like a trend in recent times.

 

[kerfuffle]

voco Brisbane City Centre used to not include barista coffee as part of their complimentary breakfast for Diamond Elite members, but now they do (unless they've changed again since I last stayed there)

 

[dajop]

Ah, religion always has a cost. Even if it is, or perhaps because it is, now the predominant religion in Australia, offerings and/or tithes are required like other religions

(Said as a coffee atheist who never touches the stuff).

 

[NM]

A pet peeve at many Hilton hotels in Australia & New Zealand is the extra charge for barista coffee when having breakfast. You can get filter/machine coffee for free but get slugged $5 for a barista-made flat white, latte or cappuccino.

I mostly stay with IHG, Accor and Radisson hotels and rarely recall having to pay extra for proper coffee with breakfast when it's otherwise included for free with your status (or room rate). But this morning at the Holiday Inn Melbourne Bourke St Mall, I was told that there's an extra charge for barista coffee. (Breakfast was otherwise complimentary for me as I chose it as my Diamond welcome amenity).

Machine coffee was available for free, but it seems like a shame to be drinking machine coffee in Melbourne!

FWIW, this is a new IHG hotel that opened this year. At other IHG hotels I've stayed at in Melbourne, barista coffee has pretty much always been included with breakfast - as it should be.

I have seen this policy at a few Holiday Inn Express hotels in Sydney and Melbourne. At these hotels, a basic breakfast is free for everyone so I don't find it too unreasonable. But not at more "premium" brands.

I hope this isn't the start of a new trend at IHG hotels.

Did you try the free machine coffee? I was pleasantly surprised by it. It was probably the best automatic machine coffee I have found, and went back for a second on both days of my stay. I normally greatly dislike automatic machine coffee, but they seemed to get it right. I did only try the machine on the right, so not sure if the one on the lest was similarly tuned.

And note that when making my coffee at home, I have a very specific routine which starts with weighing out 18.6g of beans, sourced from a local roaster, to run through my grinder and then weighing the grounds to ensure I have 18.6g of ground coffee before dosing the basket, spreading with a weighted distributor, tamping with a calibrated double-spring loaded tamper, adding a 0.7mm distribution filter and extracting ~38-39g of liquid gold. Steaming the measured amount of Maleny Dairies Full Cream Milk and painting myself a nice heart-shaped late art on top. The biggest problem with the machine coffee at this hotel is the lack of late art delivered

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Well… the cost of a barista is going to be how much a year? $75k (assuming a half day of four hours, employment costs and overheads, holidays and sick leave or the casual equivalent, and backfill for holidays or leave).

Should that cost be absorbed by the hotel?

 

[Aeryn]

Well… the cost of a barista is going to be how much a year? $75k (assuming a half day of four hours, employment costs and overheads, holidays and sick leave or the casual equivalent, and backfill for holidays or leave).

Should that cost be absorbed by the hotel?

Moot point as the cost for the barista would be incurred anyway, as majority who are staying are not eligible for the freebie and are paying for their coffee, so they need that staff member anyway. If 1 in x coffees they make is a freebie so what?

For example at the Movenpick in Auckland its the bar tender who makes all the coffees/hot chocolates as well as poring wines, beers, spirits and making coughtails.

At the Voco in Brisbane existing wait staff who would other wise be delivering al a carte orders who just jump behind the machine and make the coffee not a dedicated barista.