A free breakfast that costs $3 sounds like a joke, but it's the standing arrangement at the Holiday Inn Tampa Westshore–Airport Area. Guests holding IHG One Rewards Diamond status can pick breakfast as their welcome amenity, and this property hands them a voucher stamped "This one's on us." Flip it over, though, and the small print says it: a mandatory $3.00 service fee applied to the bill, per person, for the supposedly complimentary buffet.
What makes this especially grating is that the voucher frames the $3 as a tip for the server. It isn't optional, so it's really a surcharge — a cash copay on a benefit that IHG promises at no cost. The voucher also limits drinks to coffee or juice, which is narrower than IHG's published terms. Those terms cover a main menu item or full buffet plus unlimited nonalcoholic beverages for the member and one registered guest in the same room.
This isn't a one-off glitch. Complaining guests have documented the fee since mid-2023. A July 2023 Tripadvisor review mentioned the charge, and an IHG customer service rep said managers would fix it — they didn't. A May 2026 reviewer said a manager promised to write it off, and it was only removed at checkout. An October 2025 guest got hit with $12 for a family of four and only recovered the money after escalating to IHG itself.
There's a broader wrinkle too. Since December 2025, IHG has barred Holiday Inn properties from offering à la carte breakfast, so Diamond members' buffet-or-main-choice benefit has effectively shrunk — meaning guests are getting less than when they first complained about the fee, while still being asked to pay it.
The contrast with Hyatt is instructive. Hyatt's Globalist restaurant breakfast explicitly includes tax, gratuity and service charges, and at some properties — like the Hyatt Regency Vancouver — staff stamp the check to make clear no tip is needed. Marriott properties have played similar games: the Delta Hotel Daytona Beach Oceanfront altered vouchers to exclude gratuity, and the Royal Palm South Beach did the same while also capping drinks at coffee or juice.
For anyone chasing hotel elite status, the takeaway is practical: read the back of your breakfast voucher, question any added "service fee" at checkout, and know that IHG's terms say the benefit covers the meal and nonalcoholic drinks for you plus one registered guest — nothing about a mandatory charge. If a hotel balks, escalating through IHG customer service has worked for other guests. And if guaranteed, all-in breakfast pricing matters to you, Hyatt's benefit language currently offers more protection than IHG's.
Story via View from the Wing.
