Chasing Hotel Buffets

You know what is happening more and more in American hotels and motels? Partly because of the bad economic times today, more and more people are stealing breakfast and lunches, dining for free at the hotels by pretending to be paying hotel guests. They simply walk into the free breakfast or lunch buffets at the hotel and chow down, sometimes also even taking doggie bags of food home with them. Forget wedding crashing! Now it is hotel free buffet crashing.

Many U.S. hotels do not ask the guests to show their hotel key or key card before sitting down to the buffet. It is at those that most of the buffet crashings occur. In the past this "don't ask " policy has been effective, given most people are not dishonest. The theory of the hotel that doesn't ask for proof before feeding has always been not to "offend" the guest by requiring he or she show that they are registered and paying guests of the hotel.

In the past in most hotels that offer free breakfast buffets, this has been only a small problem for years. But economic times are tougher now, people in the U.S are used to getting freebies from the government, and the people who buffet crash are hungry and sometimes too lazy to work to support and feed themselves. They're trying to beat the system and save a buck because most hotel policy about buffet crashers is to not cause a scene when they are discover non guests stealing hotel food. The first time the hotel will generally look the other way, but now with the problem growing and cheaters dining regularly on the buffet crash circuit, the second and third time they are asked to leave or the police are called to arrest them.

Bizarre stories of people wandering in off the streets to gorge on free food and then filling Tupperware dishes with leftovers is not uncommon now. Also some genuine hotel guests from other nearby hotels who prefer the buffet of a second hotel, can now be found eating at the other hotel's buffet instead of their own hotel's. Some hotel buffets are beginning to resemble food kitchens for the homeless.

But I think the bad economy isn't really the fault. Instead, it is probably the excuse people use to steal, a way of lessening guilt about what they are doing when taking the food. In fact, they may be too lazy, too cheap or too dishonest to not buffet crash until forced to stop. Hmmmm This is making me hungry....I wonder which hotels near me have a free buffet with blueberry pancakes..