Breakfast and Lounge Access: The Benefits Worth Having

Hotel elite tiers advertise a long list of benefits. Two of them hold nearly all the value, and neither is the one the marketing leads with.

Upgrades

Upgrades depend on availability, so you get them on quiet nights when you were comfortable anyway and rarely on the busy nights when a better room would have mattered. A one-category upgrade is often only a slightly higher floor or a marginally better view. It is not worth structuring your travel around.

Breakfast

Complimentary breakfast, especially for two, is where hotel status turns into money. Hotel breakfast is expensive almost everywhere and very expensive in major Asian business cities. Two people over several mornings can cover a meaningful share of the room. You also use it on every day of the stay, which no other perk can claim.

You can buy it outright instead of earning it. Accor Plus and its equivalents put breakfast for two at the centre of the membership, so they are worth pricing against a year of paid breakfasts.

The detail varies. Some programmes give a full buffet, some a credit toward it, some a restricted continental option. Some let the property choose between breakfast and points, and the points are usually worth less than the meal.

Radisson Rewards shows how much sits behind the word. Its tier table lists “Free Breakfast for two” at VIP, the tier that takes “30 nights/20 stays”. Its terms make it available “only for the VIP member and 1 companion”, and for this region they add: “In Asia Pacific, the Free Breakfast for two is only applicable for buffet breakfast.” The table also says it is “Not guaranteed for long stay rates.” In Radisson’s own table, then, the benefit this article ranks first is a reward for thirty nights or twenty separate stays in a year. Do not count on it for a two-week trip without that status.

Lounge access

A good executive lounge with an evening service can replace dinner. Where hotel dinners are expensive, that covers a second meal a day, and the lounges at Asia’s better business hotels are often good enough for it to be a real substitute.

Some properties run the lounge as a token: a small room, limited hours, a plate of biscuits. Do not chase a tier for that.

Before a stay, ask whether this property has a lounge worth using and whether it is open when you will be there. Weekend and holiday closures are common in business-oriented hotels.

Brand carve-outs

Benefits vary by brand within a chain, and the most expensive brands often give the least. Luxury and resort brands in the same group frequently exclude complimentary breakfast, substitute a credit that does not cover it, or restrict lounge access. At a resort where food and beverage is a major revenue line, breakfast for two costs the hotel far more than at an airport business hotel.

The carve-out does not always sit at the luxury end. Radisson’s VIP tier offers “Access exclusive VIP areas in selected hotels”, its terms add that this is “according to hotel occupancy”, and the benefit table says “This benefit does not apply to Prize by Radisson Hotels.” At Prize, its budget brand, the food and beverage discount covers soft drinks only and stays earn half the points they would elsewhere in the group. The programme’s benefit comparison names these exceptions brand by brand. Look for that level of detail in any programme before trusting a tier name.

What you get depends on the tier, the brand and the individual property. Check before booking if the benefit is part of why you are booking.

At the hotel

• Confirm at check-in, pleasantly. Ask what your benefits are at this property. It is easier to sort out a misunderstanding at the desk than at a restaurant door the next morning.
• Ask what happens if the lounge is closed. Good properties substitute something, but you will not be offered it unless you ask.

With no status

Several chains sell a paid membership that bundles dining benefits across Asia-Pacific. Accor Plus has the widest Asia-Pacific footprint and is built around breakfast and dining. Weigh the fee against what you would use in a realistic year. If it only works with more travel than you did last year, it does not work.

We have affiliate arrangements with Accor Plus and Radisson Hotel Group and earn a commission if you buy a membership or book a stay through our links.