Hypothetically speaking, you’ve got an overseas holiday booked at a great hotel that includes breakfast. You never leave the hotel during the day, preferring to stay poolside to keep cool.
Can one take a few extra rolls, butter and some pastries from the buffet, place them in a bag kept strategically out of sight under the table, to consume at lunch without feeling like a POS?
lol Have you seen that episode of fresh off the boat, where the main family find another family they identify as their people, and watch them outside an AYCE restaurant? The mom bought her own container to get takeaway from the buffet.
pastry yes? a buffet no
Sounds like a killer holiday eating leftover breakfast for lunch
and posting on ozbargain at the breakfast table :D
And not leaving the hotel
European hotels with their hams, cheeses, eggs and salads are great for this. But I would only ever make like one sandwich/roll, not a whole platter.
Many hotels now have signs that request guests don’t do this. I don’t in those cases.
everyone does it..
to consume at lunch without feeling like a POS?
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I usually just grab another peice of toast or drink or something I can casually stroll out with.
I've never had a holiday overseas where I've never left the hotel during the day. Might as well just book into a local hotel at home.
Anyway, my routine is to fill up big-time on the buffet breakfast; multiple courses is the key.
And after that I probably won't even feel like eating anything else until late afternoon anyway. Time then for a quick local snack (not a soggy smashed pastry that has been in my bag for 6 hours) and drink, and then head out for dinner later.
Same. Sounds like a terrible holiday.
I normally just book cheap crappy accom and only use it to sleep. I spend the money saved on great places to eat instead. Getting out, exploring and enjoying a new city/country is what it's all about!
I only stay in nice hotels and empty the buffet for work trips lol.
except when you go to a resort for a holiday and it's all there is,
like bora bora, or a mountain retreat.. actually hold on ozbargainers don't go on holidays like that
Well, each to their own. Definitely not neg-worthy.
I'd never go somewhere where the hotel is the only thing there to do or see.
hehe been to Bora Bora twice and Maldives three times yet I am still here on OzB :p
Most of my holidays are on the 'rougher' end, including backpacking solo across India on a shoestring budget and living in roach hostels. But every now and then, I like a holiday where I can sleep in, park myself at the pool with a book, and get drinks brought to me.
Neither is better or worse, it just depends on what you feel like that break. And it's often much cheaper to have the latter sort of resort holiday in SEA than Australia.
If you like the “do nothing” holidays I recommend a cruise. Three meals a day, built in, and there are a few places you can investigate on the way.
Not only can you, its your moral obligation.
I find it's best to set morals aside or have flexible morals.
If you're not taking a larger than average empty bag to the breakfast buffet, you're doing it wrong.
Moral dilemma? It's your moral OBLIGATION to eat and consume as much of that buffet as possible to get value for money.
Half the fun of holidays is going out and finding interesting local places for lunch and dinner. No problem with keeping an extra snack from the breakfast buffet too though.
Yeah bring a Tupperware container with you! LOL!
Most places don’t mind you taking a couple of rolls or a pastry but if you wandering off with the waffle mixture, and waffle iron, they might be upset.
We’ve started looking at places that have kitchenette facilities and buying premade stuff from the supermarkets. In France you can do extremely well with stuff from the Boulanger /Patisserie and wine/cheese from the supermarkets. Elsewhere soup/pasta/dessert, etc.
Did these heaps in Scandinavian countries to save $
ex-hotel employee here: I use to work the breakfast shift. My advise is that as long as you don't get caught, no one is the wiser.
Places I've been I just ask and they've been happy for me to take some lunch. Even given me napkins and a paper bag
Judging by how popular, while banal, the softserve forum post was, I judge that this post will be inducted into the ozbargain forum hall of fame at some point in the next week.
even if you do get caught, who cares. Surrender the food then be more discreet the next day :)
The fact that you are asking the question means you already know the answer.
Comments above has covered practicality - "it's going to be thrown out", etc. That's not morality.
The morality in this scenario is very simple. The rules stipulate clearly that breakfast is served and I presume as per many hotels I have stayed in, to be consumed in the dining hall.
The purpose of the rules is irrelevant to the morality. You know the rules and voluntarily entered into a contract where these rules exist.
Furthermore, if you are in disagreement on a moral basis, the ethical course of action is to take the food and challenge the "immoral" rule, not sneak around it.
Anyway, it's a hypothetical and I don't think anyone cares enough anyway to enforce anything. Enjoy your holidays.
I appreciate your clear-set morality on this.
I would also thoughtfully propose a counterpoint - gleaning…
"…the act of collecting leftover crops from farmers' fields after they have been commercially harvested or on fields where it is not economically profitable to harvest. It is a practice described in the Hebrew Bible that became a legally enforced entitlement of the poor."
Do you consider yourself lower-class? Are you staying there on holidays, or because you are attending the nearest medical specialist within 600km of your hometown? Are you in a luxury suite cleaning out the minibar, or the cheapest room that has a microwave for an Aldi meal?
Possibly not applicable to the OP, but the further down the socio-economic ladder you go, the blurrier the lines can get.
"…the act of collecting leftover crops from farmers' fields after they have been commercially harvested or on fields where it is not economically profitable to harvest. It is a practice described in the Hebrew Bible that became a legally enforced entitlement of the poor."
Unless specified they one should not do it or has been told after the fact, one can assume the crop is unwanted.
the further down the socio-economic ladder you go, the blurrier the lines can get.
The lines are always sharp but it will be harder to live up the the ideals one may wish to uphold.
The lines are always sharp
No, they definitely aren't. Defining between 'right' and 'wrong' varys according to culture, law, circumstance, intent etc. 'Greed' here, as per common Western thinking, is diametrically opposite to 'wastefulness', where many cultures abhor the idea of throwing out perfectly good food.
it will be harder to live up the the ideals one may wish to uphold
Ah, but who's ideals are we referring to? You've expained your ideals very well above. However, at last check, the OzBargain democracy are 4 to 1 in favour to the alternative… however, our demographic makeup may perhaps have some inherent biases lol
In closing:
I don't think anyone cares enough anyway to enforce anything. Enjoy your holidays
Perfect point!
Ah, but who's ideals are we referring to?
The ideals of the individual.
One's morality is not be dependant on their station in life nor popular opinion.
No matter how rich or poor, causing harm to a perfect stranger is against my morality. If I'm hungry and destitute, I can accept that I need to do what I need to do to survive.
One can recognise one's shortcomings and still believe in the same ideals. Altering/suspending one's morals to suit one's circumstance just so happens to be universally immoral.
Go to buffet eat years worth of food
Wait
????
Death
I think the ???? is, take a massive dump.
Once you get scammed at a Delhi booking agency owned by Muslims you can be happy to get anything decent let alone at the right time. Apart from limited toilet paper you have to fight hard to get something to keep you going till lunch. You will learn quickly to behave like a local and use some magic tricks to make hard to find food walk…
Once you get scammed at a Delhi booking agency owned by Muslims
Um, what?
Great hotel and only taking rolls and butter. I hope it's local hotel and not a 10 hour flight.
I don't have much for breakfast so usually grab some fruit and make some meat & cheese rolls for later. The price premium for an included breakfast is minimum $20 so I think it's only fair you get your moneys worth.
I used to know a lady who used to book a holiday at Hamilton Island each year (herself and 4 children) and there would always be a breakfast buffet for free, but you had to pay for lunch. She taught all her children to take extra from breakfast to have for lunch and get them through the day till dinner (which was also free).
I just though she was being clever, not being a thief. She was a pensioner/single mum with not much money. She would always find a really good deal for this holiday over winter and pay it off, and they would go in the summer school holiday. Then they would get the train up there (free as she was a pensioner).
She found a way to get a good holiday for her kids on a very limited income, so I admired her for that.
Why not….. even take the entire basket
I do this occasionally if I have a long train trip or something similar coming up. I’ve never seen any signs to say you can’t do this? I wouldn’t if it was expressly forbidden. I always make a takeaway sandwich for lunch later in airline lounges… I don’t make a secret of it, I don’t think anyone cares! It’s more convenience than being a cheapskate.
At the Hilton Queenstown, they even have a special table at the entrance with takeaway paper bags, coffee cups and fruit for you to leave with ! They ENCOURAGE you to do this! One of the only hotels I will actually go back to :)
are you sure that for the guests in the restaurant?
i use to work for Hilton Melbourne Airport and we never did that.
mind you that back then there were a couple of options for breakfast:
either having it delivered to your room:
the continental breakfast was charged ~$27.5 per head which included only cold stuff and toast.
full breakfast option which included egg on toast and a additional hot option like pancakes or waffles.
if you went to the restaurant, you got charged the full rate. So considering how much your paying there always going to be someone consider taking something extra.
Yep!! There was a sign and everything! Sure, maybe the bags were only for the fruit but you can bet I slipped many pastries into bags from the main buffet ;)
The buffet was great, as a diamond member I got that plus any cooked ala carte for free (and for my partner too). Gold you just get free buffet but it was definitely enough. Just ordered eggs benedict once because why not… otherwise the buffet was fine. They even had a special kids buffet section!!
as long as you don't get caught.