A Former Hotel Employee Shared This Gross Breakfast Buffet Experience

As any traveler could tell you, either on vacation or business-related affairs, a hotel can make or break a trip. There's good hotels, there's bad hotels, and places where you would rather sleep in your car than risk stepping inside. It's just a matter of doing your research before planning a trip. You can get a bed of linens fresh from the dryer with mints on the pillows, or find an unexpected insect roommate under the covers. You can get a cozy room with cable TV for a surprisingly good price, or find yourself overpaying for a dingy hovel sandwiched between rowdy, inconsiderate guests. But one of the key signifiers of a hospitable haven or a roach motel is the complimentary breakfast. 

Having been introduced in the 1990s (via The Post and Courier), these hot — and free — breakfasts have long been enjoyed by hotel guests. From fresh hot coffee to a do-it-yourself waffle maker to those delicious little muffins, a good breakfast always seems to hit the spot. There are times, however, that the complimentary breakfast isn't worth it at all, no matter how free it is. Hotel employees sometimes have horror stories about their complimentary breakfast, from kids and parents abusing the waffle-maker to guests literally fighting over bagels and juice (via Reddit). But none have been so eye-opening to the public, so disgustingly shocking, as a certain former hotel employee's "public service announcement" that may leave you running to the trash can instead of the free muffins.

"I don't know how to say this without, like, being attacked by people in the industry, but if y'all hotel offers a hot complimentary breakfast — eggs, waffles, stuff like that — don't eat that s**t."

Brandi Augustus, a 15-year-veteran of the hotel industry, began her TikTok video with these jarring words. Having worked multiple positions such as front desk clerk and night auditor across multiple brand hotels, Augustus bluntly warns the viewer that those hotels really "don't give a s**t about that breakfast." Augustus describes the shocking advice a night auditor who was training her gave: When cleaning the hotel breakfast area, use only one paper towel for so-called "environmental reasons." With only one paper towel, Augustus cleaned everything from bowls, spatulas, and even the tables. Even as the filthy, soaked paper towel fell apart, Augustus says she was chastised for being "too aggressive." Another warning Augustus gives is to steer clear of the waffle-maker. Often times, she says, it's not cleaned –  and worse still, the waffle batter isn't prepared fresh each day. "That waffle batter gets re-used every day until it starts to smell like beer," Augustus claims. "I'm just trying to save y'all a headache."

Augustus's claims, shockingly, may not be false. A commentator on her video, also a night auditor at a hotel, says that everything Brandi has stated is true, advising people to stick to the pre-packaged foods. Other commentators continued these disgusting revelations, from saying how stale the croissants are to claiming that all eggs are bagged and microwaved.