Feast or Famine | Why, after coronavirus, I am never eating at a hotel buffet again or taking a cruise, even if both survive the months of bad headlines
- There’s no escape from other people on a cruise or at a buffet
- Still, buffets and cruises will probably continue to make money after the pandemic – they’re just too popular, and people have short memories
I recently received a press release about a staycation promotion at a Hong Kong hotel that I hadn’t heard of before, the Hyatt Centric Victoria Harbour Hong Kong, in North Point on Hong Kong Island.
The staycation package includes the room, plus a breakfast buffet in the hotel’s The Farmhouse restaurant (nothing to do with local favourite, Farm House, which serves Cantonese food), and a lunch buffet there or afternoon tea at Cruise, the Hyatt Centric’s other option for diners, inspired, it says, “by the cruise ships channelling through Hong Kong to the Asian ports of call”.
Buffets and cruises. Could there be a worse food and beverage concept right now?
It’s not the hotel’s fault, of course; it opened two years ago, and nobody could have anticipated the coronavirus or how it would affect certain industries. But does anyone want to evoke the feelings of cruises in this day and age?
When I hear “cruise” I think of being stuck for days in proximity to strangers, with no way to escape and definitely no way to practise social distancing, and all those poor passengers who were stuck in their rooms on the Diamond Princess, Ruby Princess and others. And buffets – they’re the places where the guests hover over the food, trying to decide what to eat, then use the same communal utensils to help themselves. (Buffets on cruises don’t even bear contemplating.)
Still, I don’t predict the demise of buffets or cruises, because I’m sure experts in both industries will introduce changes that make them safer. They’re just too popular, and people have short memories.