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Check-in trend with floating breakfast
Floating breakfast is a service provided by high-end hotels or resorts and is used as a promotional tool to attract tourists. Instead of having breakfast in a restaurant or room, guests will be served a meal at the swimming pool. It is a breakfast of coffee, toast, fruit, cakes... placed on a large rattan basket and floating on the water. They are often decorated with bright tropical flowers to look more eye-catching and "photogenic".
According to CNN, this trend is very popular in the Asia-Pacific region, especially in isolated resorts in Thailand, Fiji or Maldives. Most people believe this trend originated in Bali - Indonesia, although it is not clear which specific resort or hotel came up with this idea.
Floating breakfasts have been on the menu at hotels and resorts for the past five years. However, the Covid-19 pandemic has made this trend more popular than ever as travelers tend to avoid buffets and communal dining rooms.
Of course, there is a reason for choosing a private pool for each floating breakfast, because for a beautiful photo, a quiet pool will be more effective than a public pool. No one wants to greet the new day next to mischievous children, splashing around, causing their food basket to topple at any moment.
However, not everyone has a great time with their floating breakfast, and many tourists have been "disillusioned" because the experience of having breakfast in the middle of a swimming pool is not what they imagined.
messy experiences
While the vibrant colors and buoyancy make floating breakfasts look picture-perfect for social media, getting a good shot requires being at the pool early in the morning or consuming caffeine to stay awake, which seems like a less-than-ideal experience. So, are floating breakfasts just for photo ops or do tourists actually enjoy them?
James Booth, a Sydney-based reporter who experienced a floating breakfast in Bali in 2019, admitted that... it wasn't a dream. According to him, meals like this almost only serve the need to "live virtual".
The idea of serving meals sounded novel and interesting. However, the reality was quite the opposite. Although Booth had scheduled the meal to arrive on time, he ended up falling asleep by 20 minutes.
The first reason is that to capture a beautiful scene with clear clouds, you have to pay attention to the weather. Next, you have to wake up on time because the tropical climate will make the experience of having breakfast by the pool quite difficult with the harsh sunlight. "I realized that serving meals in such a humid environment is not ideal at all," Booth recounted.
Even though the food was cold, Booth was determined to take a photo to post on Instagram. The hotel had cleverly arranged the food basket beautifully, but Booth still had trouble because he was still… sleepy. In addition, the food basket kept drifting in many directions, making taking photos difficult.
"I was a bit shy about asking the hotel staff for help, so I tried to do it myself. As a result, I spilled food everywhere. Coffee was spilled on the pool and my bread was soggy."
After that experience, Booth realized that jumping into the water early in the morning just to get a good photo was not worth it. "If I could do it again, I would drink coffee to stay awake and not spill anything, find a place to stand in the pool instead of walking around awkwardly."
Jayne Gorman, a traveler, also wrote on ourtravelhome about her "failed" floating breakfast:
"I made Justin (my husband) take a million different pictures of me because the food kept getting swept away.
When we ate breakfast in the pool, my husband and I held the tray and the other cut the cake. Being in the water so early made us feel quite cold and a little... silly, while the pool water was spilling onto the salad on the tray. So we sat on the edge of the pool to warm up and finished our breakfast, using one leg to hold the tray so it wouldn't slide away.
free advertising tools
Despite the less-than-perfect experience, the fact that a series of celebrities and young people have taken stunning check-in photos has promoted the spread of the floating breakfast trend. Like afternoon tea or dinner parties, floating breakfast has now become a luxurious and expensive service in high-end hotels.
In the context of the pandemic, budget resorts also opened this service at affordable prices to attract guests.
Timo Kuenzli, general manager of Cape Fahn Hotel on Koh Samui, says that nearly 100% of their guests over the past year have opted for the floating breakfast, and he says the Asian market is definitely more Instagrammable than other markets.
In addition to making for great photos, floating breakfasts also act as a free marketing tool. People see the moments online, look up the check-in location, and then want to experience it for themselves.
And because of its increasing saturation, resorts have to continue to improve the quality of their services to make themselves stand out. Many unique ideas have been born: Six Senses Uluwatu in Bali serves meals in a red heart-shaped basket; Anantara in Koh Phangan, Thailand has added "sunset sushi" to its floating menu; and Cape Fahn is piloting a "floating afternoon tea" model.
Regardless of whether guests actually eat the floating breakfasts or if they're just there for "virtual living" purposes, these hotels just need to know that their images are being advertised for free on social media.
However, visitors should prepare mentally in advance, because the floating breakfast experience may not be as beautiful as a dream.
