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Breakfast - what time, did you say?


cassis
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I recently read a comment on another site where a French couple who had stayed at a chambre d'hôte enthused about having breakfast at MIDDAY following a late night (they had been guests at a wedding).

I would never do this - am I being "trop sevère"?  Would you serve breakfast at midday?

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I heard of a French couple that asked for breakfast at midday, having had a late night the night before. Their B&B hosts were less than pleased as they had planned to go out for lunch ! It rather goes with the territory of accepting wedding or party guests. As GP says, the ground rules need to be set on arrival !
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I have an Australian friend who runs a CDH in Perpignan with her French hubby - she has lived here for 23 years.  She told me that once she had a couple stay for a week who, for the first three days, wandered in looking for breakfast around 11.30am. She got fed up and informed them that they were staying in a 'bed and breakfast' not a 'bed and lunch' - problem solved after that.

We have extended breakfast time to 10.30am on certain occasion's - on request - but never till midday.

"Trop severe" is preferable to being "trop facile"...

 

 

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My normal breakfast is between 08:00 and 09:00. I ask people when they want breakfast as I like to serve everything fresh, cold coffee and hot orange juice is no fun. I am quite happy to serve breakfast when a person wants providing they turn up for it at the time they specified. It is a sevice industry after all and unless your CDH is a very small proportion of your income and you can afford to upset the guests then as a owner the customer rules.

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Not normally BUT if a wedding party book the whole house (4 rooms) and request it then I will.  Saves me getting up att he crack of dawn.

Wouldn't do it for just one couple if the rest were having breakfast at 9.00.  Also if they are leaving on that day they need to be out at 10.00 so no exceptions.

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Cerise - I quite agree.  A wedding party is one thing.  But for one couple, absolutely not.  We are CdH, not a hotel, and we do not charge hotel prices.    In fact, I've just remembered - we stayed at an extremely nice 4* spa hotel in St Malo and even they don't serve breakfast after 10 o'clock !

I'm afraid we, the owners****, set the rules here, though special requests in advance may be catered for.  When there is a wedding in the area, there is such a shortage of B&Bs that we find people are only too happy to accept what we offer ! 

**** I hasten to add that B&B is not our main source of income.  However, we have never had anyone turn us down on account of our breakfast times (8h - 9h)

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If you were staying in a hotel & dandered down hours after breakfast had been served you'd probably find the restaurant closed & staff in cleaning it or preparing for lunch – so why should anyone expect a B&B to be any different?  Maybe I'm too polite when staying somewhere – but I'd never ask owners of a B&B to serve me outside normal hours .... if I slept in, I'd go hungry!!
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[quote user="cassis"]So you WOULD serve breakfast at midday?   It may be a "service industry" but there have to be some ground rules.  Ours is breakfast between 7.00am and 9.00am and we don't make exceptions.  Breakfast times are stated at time of booking.

[/quote]

Yes, but having said that it has only happened once (12:00 breakfast) in 7 years so it's no big deal, not something I wouldn't loose any sleep over it. Most of our guests seem to want breakfast about 08:30 and then leave quickly to go and visit whatever. As most places shut from 12:00 to 14:00 even in peak season having a really late breakfast means you effectively loose half a day. We always mention this when asking guests what time they want breakfast, it helps them decide [;-)] .

I think the more common 'late breakfast' request is for 10:30 although we don't get many of these either. The people who ask for these late breakfasts are typically Brits that have driven down in one go from the northern ferry ports (12hrs drive) or Spanish that have driven up from the south of Spain (about 10 hrs drive) and its normally for the morning after arrival.

I can't really see the problem, we get our bread etc every day at 07:30 which can be left out with a cover over, the coffee machine can be left 'charged' so they just switch it on, we have a 5ltr water boiler on all the time for tea, the butter and other cold stuff is in the fridge which is under 2M from the table. If I am not there to put the stuff out from the fridge they can help themselves.

I do know of others (not members of this forum as far as I know) who serve breakfast at 08:00, if you are not there you don't eat. These are the same people who only take English speaking guests and the rooms are sold on a weekly basis, Saturday to Saturday. Sure you can stay for one night but you pay for the week which I don't think is even legal but they claim to get away with it.

At the end of the day it's personal choice for the owner I guess, for me, well I don't mind, others obviously do, to each his (or her) own.

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[quote user="Quillan"]

I do know of others (not members of this forum as far as I know) who serve breakfast at 08:00, if you are not there you don't eat. These are the same people who only take English speaking guests and the rooms are sold on a weekly basis, Saturday to Saturday. Sure you can stay for one night but you pay for the week which I don't think is even legal but they claim to get away with it.

[/quote]

[blink] [blink] [blink] And people go for that? [blink] [blink] [blink]
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I can't answer that because I don't know for sure. The only thing I can say is that we tried several times to send people to them that were passing looking for a room. The first people had a child and we were told they didn't take children although there was no information to the contrary. The next time we were asked if the people were English speaking and were told they didn't take foreigners (thats includes French!!!!). The third time they said we only take people for one weeks stays, Saturday to Saturday, if they stayed for part of the week, be it one or more nights they still got charged for the week. All I can say is the people left in the opposite direction to where we know the B&B is. I also know from a guest that stayed here who was house hunting that their house has been for sale since the beginning of the year as the owners want to move to somewhere smaller. Of course they could be 'monied' and were doing B&B for something to do, you can draw your own conclusions [;-)] . I have to say that my wife, when booking a B&B in the Auvergne, came across a B&B that did the week only bookings, we didn't stay there, they were English speaking as well.

Strange old world out there.

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To get back to the original posting - we frequently accommodate wedding parties in conjunction with a nearby chateau during the season - if a 'French' wedding (last 2 years have mainly been English weddings) & they are not expecting to return to bed till 4 or 5 am we offer a late breakfast between 10.30 & midday.....the first wedding group we accommodated 4 yrs ago turned up at 1pm for breakfast & after asking around we decided that this seemed to be the norm, but  no-one has ever been that late since.  Normally there is a second 'do' on the Sunday afternoon - hog roast or BBQ, so they usually leave us straight after breakfast - no problem as far as we are concerned as it means we get a lie-in & as a rule all rooms are booked by the bride several months in advance - as they invariably stay with us for at least 2 nights its all part of the package....  Interestingly Brit wedding guests seem to come back much earlier & tend to fly back to UK on the Sunday, so our normal Sunday breakfast hours of 9-10.30am apply.  Rest of the week its 8.15-9.45 or if long staying guests we just ask them what time they'd like it each day.  We want them to enjoy their stay after all & come back the following year - you can't apply too many rules if you want to stay in business......I know of several B&Bs who insist on guests leaving the house between 8.30 & 6pm.....we like our guests to stay around to relax & enjoy themselves.....would never stay somewhere myself where I didn't feel 'at home' & free to do as I please
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I'm with you, Betoulle.We have tried for 4 years to have no rules and so far it's worked. Nobody has taken advantage and we're quite happy for our wedding guests to lie-in and have a late breakfast.

I've been to too many British B&B's as a wedding guest and had to rise at an ungodly hour to get out of the premises on time.

We want our guests to come back.

W Rat

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[quote user="water rat"]

I'm with you, Betoulle.We have tried for 4 years to have no rules and so far it's worked. Nobody has taken advantage and we're quite happy for our wedding guests to lie-in and have a late breakfast.

I've been to too many British B&B's as a wedding guest and had to rise at an ungodly hour to get out of the premises on time.

[/quote]

I prefer to have some rules/guidelines so people know where they stand - like a

time by which people should aim to arrive/leave. 

Otherwise it's a bit

of a bummer when the new guests arrive wanting to get in to their room

at midday and the previous night are still having breakfast! [:)]

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I just wanted to know what time they'd have liked their breakfast (not being over-enthusiastic on early rising myself)(and don't do it any more)(early rising or B&B).

Between 8 and 10 were our suggested times. I can't count the times we heard "Oh, we're early birds, us, can we have it at 6.30?" - well, no. The boulangerie doesn't open until 7.30. They reluctantly agree to 8am. We make the effort. They appear at 10. "Eeh, we've never slept so well!" Yes, we'd have liked to, as well[:(].

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Our baker opens early so I don't mind OCCASIONALLY getting up for a 6.30 breakfast if someone's got to leave early for a ferry, work or something as it means we can (hopefully) start their room while waiting for the next to come down.  As you say, it's when you get up for an early then end up twiddling your thumbs for a couple of hours that it becomes a little trying. [:(]

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