What I Hate the Most About Buffet Breakfasts

There are a couple of things about staying in a hotel that annoy me and both are about the guests, the inconsiderate ones. The first are the noisy ones who completely forget others are also staying in the same hotel. The second those with behavioural issues, mostly bad manners at breakfast. Of the two I detest the most the latter.

A person’s character can be determined in a few ways, how they speak, how they dress, how they act, whom they associate with, etc., but also how they behave in front of food and how they eat. In hotels you’ll see this especially at breakfast the first meal of the day when people are not fully awake; like zombies acting from their subconscious. You can pick up their habits and probably their personality if you study them long enough.

There are plenty of bad habits around food. What I cannot stand the most is when someone coughs or sneezes and doesn’t cover their mouth. Got to be the worst. After the COVID experience you would have thought people would cover up. I guess everyone has seen how to do this by putting nose and mouth inside the elbow. This frees up the hands so they don’t get sprayed on. Granted if you are holding something, a cup, a plate with food it’s going to be very hard not to tip something over. Luckily most of the time it is the other arm that is used for covering nose and mouth.

I’m not saying that these people that do this are ill, but if someone is they should stay in their room and ask for room service. If they are truly ill perhaps they should not have travelled. A decision that should have been made back home.

Other bad habits you might see at breakfast are: hogging food, using the wrong utensil to pick up food, mixing and contaminating foods, reaching over food (perhaps even touching food with a sleeve or the body), eating and talking over food, dressing inappropriately or coming from the pool or shower with wet hair, and lastly loud behaviour and being inconsiderate of others.

I’ve written about this before in an article about hotel etiquette. How to behave at breakfast is part of this.

I see it this way. Breakfast affects everyone not just a few—it’s not just a bit of noise in one corridor—it’s food we all consume. Same as the use of the pool, the water or the gym’s equipment. There are some written and unwritten rules that all should abide by. Be considerate and think about others not just yourself. Should always be in peoples’ minds first and foremost. Am I too critical?