Why breakfast rarely appears online – and why that must change.

Hotels invest millions refining their breakfast offer – yet most fail to show it online. It’s the equivalent of building your best stage set and never raising the curtain.

Daniel Alderson-Smith, Craster

Fewer than 10% of 5-star hotels display breakfast imagery in their top photo sets.

This finding echoes Leite-Pereira et al. (2022), who discovered that while 45% of guests seek breakfast information via booking platform photos and 23% via online reviews, hotel managers consistently under-prioritise showcasing it online.

67% of managers agreed breakfast was important to guests, but few actively promoted it as a differentiator. The implication is clear: breakfast is one of the most powerful soft motivators for booking, but it remains largely invisible in hotel brand storytelling.

The Craster whitepaper, The Power of Breakfast, which is on their website here, explores how hotels can elevate this vital service moment, moving beyond oversized buffets toward curated, intentional offerings.