When booking hotels, we choose different types of food. How are such designations deciphered? Which option should you choose? We talk about the features of food in hotels in different countries.
RO (Room Only)
This symbol is assigned to hotels where there is no food. The tourist uses the cheapest option - lodging for the night, or room only. Housing without meals is sometimes referred to by other letters - RR, OB, EP, BO, AO and NO.
BB (Bed and Breakfast)
Type of food BB in hotels stands for "bed and breakfast", or bed & breakfast. It provides accommodation for the night and meals in the morning. Breakfast is served differently. During the buffet, you yourself choose food from a set of dishes on offer. Hotel restaurants usually serve scrambled eggs, scrambled eggs, sausages, meats, sausages, cheese, fruit, butter, bread, coffee or tea. Sometimes national dishes are exhibited: in Thailand - Pad Thai noodles, and in Spain - jamon and tortilla.
Continental breakfast (CB/CBF), consists of three or four dishes. Baking, honey, butter and coffee. Omelet, bread and coffee. Scrambled eggs, bun and tea. Flakes or muesli, yogurt, cheese or ham are added to the extended CBF. All lovers of a light snack like this food.
English or American breakfast (AB/ABF) includes scrambled eggs or scrambled eggs, strips of fried bacon or sausage, fresh or canned tomatoes. They add a few mushrooms, white beans, jam, a couple of toasts with butter, a glass of orange juice and a cup of coffee. Hearty and high-calorie food that energizes for a long time!
Photo: Inside Weather | unsplash.com.HB (Half Board)
Half board is popular all over the world, or half board - meals twice a day. This is usually breakfast and dinner, but sometimes they offer breakfast and lunch. At the same time, drinks are served only for breakfast - at other times they must be purchased separately. There is a variation of HB+ with pre-paid drinks.
HB is a profitable option for outdoor enthusiasts. It will suit you if you spend most of the day on excursions, by the sea or on the ski slope.
FB (Full Board)
Tourists who rest in a hotel or on the nearest beach love full board - three meals a day. Standard FB only serves free drinks at breakfast. Sometimes guests are offered FB + with free local alcohol.
AI (All Inclusive)
All-inclusive meals are common in 4 * and 5 * hotels. If you chose Al, then in addition to breakfast, lunch and dinner, you will get snacks and barbecue, which include any drinks. Sometimes meals are provided around the clock, or 24 hours.
There are two service options: buffet style and a la carte restaurants. The buffet is the most democratic model, and it is actively used in beach hotels. All food is in plain sight, so guests can easily and quickly find dishes to their liking.
4* and 5* hotels often offer guests a-la carte. Tourists choose dishes, and they are served by waiters. The menu includes two or three types of soups, a couple of appetizers and salads, hot dishes and a limited number of soft drinks and alcohol. You can order anything. In luxury hotels there are several a la carte restaurants with different types of cuisine - Italian, Mexican, Chinese, and others.
Photo: Toa Heftiba | unsplash.com. UAI (Ultra All Inclusive)
The "ultra all inclusive" includes any alcohol, including imported - like Scotch whiskey or French cognac. With this type of food in the hotel, you can count on a second breakfast and afternoon tea. Meals are served when it is convenient for the guest. The guest can eat around the clock. Even when the cooks are not working, he will be served a meat, cheese plate and bread so that he can kill the worm.
Photo: Amy Shamblen | unsplash.com. Meals for children in hotels
What will the child eat during the holidays? This topic worries all parents. The restaurants of 4 * and 5 * hotels offer a children's menu, but this does not mean that among the dishes there will be many healthy salads and cereals. Often, to the delight of the little tourist, the hotel serves various fast food.
The problem is solved by a buffet or ordering an individual menu. In addition, fresh fruits and vegetables are easy to find in shops and markets.
Photo: Heather Ford | unsplash.com. Food in Turkey
In Turkish hotels, all types of food are used, except for RO. There are few hotels with only breakfast, and all inclusive service is very widespread. However, according to tourists, the food is not varied enough. Hotels serve crayfish - apricot vodka and local wine, but their quality is slightly worse than that of real strong alcohol from Europe.
Dining in UAE hotels
In the hotels of the United Arab Emirates, Al and UAl meals are common, but due to Muslim traditions, there is no alcohol or it is very limited. Some hotels make an exception, but staying there is expensive.
If the hotel is far from the main building, it is better to choose all-inclusive meals. For a large excursion program and long walks, stay on half board or BB, because food in the city is 1.5-2 times cheaper than in a hotel restaurant.
Photo: Mae Mu | unsplash.com. Dining in hotels in Egypt
In Egyptian hotels, the all inclusive system works well. Tourists are offered a menu close to European. Restaurant menus include fish, chicken, lamb and beef, but no pork. There is little national food in hotels, so be sure to try Egyptian tea, grilled squid, lamb ribs and other exotics that are sold on the streets.
Especially if you are leaving for distant overseas countries, where you don’t really want to eat at local eateries. Any trip, business, tourist or recreational, implies the choice of a comfortable hotel. So that you don’t have a question about HB power supply - what it is, we suggest that you deal with the system in more detail.
All famous and not so famous hotels have special designations for rooms and meals. You are going to rest in an unfamiliar country, choose a hotel according to the stars and then stumble upon a strange abbreviation near the "Food" column: HB. the question is asked by thousands of tourists choosing a tour for the first time.
Types of food
Most often they are indicated in English (international) language or in an abbreviated version. All hotels adjust to generally accepted standards, so memorize the abbreviations in advance, and you will be able to navigate them as an avid traveler, and what HB, BB food means, you will tell beginners who want to go to one or another hotel.
BB, or Bed & Breakfast
In fact, it translates as "bed and breakfast." It is understood that you will only be provided with the morning meal, which was originally included in the price of the tour. For the rest, you have to pay extra at the restaurant. As a rule, a buffet is offered. This implies that you yourself come to a large laid table on which dishes are laid out and lay them in the quantity you need.
The type of food, which implies only a morning meal and an overnight stay, is most often found in European small hotels and small resort towns, as well as in those places where the main emphasis is on sightseeing tourism. This is convenient if the excursion program is scheduled for the whole day, that is, you leave the hotel early and return only late in the evening.
What is offered for breakfast
Meals at the HB hotel are more complete, but if you want to save money, consider the BB menu in more detail. These are a variety of sandwiches, stewed and fried vegetables, snacks on tartlets and unleavened bread, canapé sandwiches, fried pieces of meat or chicken wings, various salads and desserts. Also tea, water or coffee are free drinks. Alcohol, cocktails and juices will have to be bought with your own money. NV nutrition - what is it? You will read about this further.
HB (Half Board), FB and AL
If you don't like the idea of just one breakfast and want to eat twice a day, then you should stick with a system called HB Meals. "What is it?" - you ask. The abbreviation translates as "half board". You eat twice for free. Most often, this includes only breakfast and dinner. Other hotels may offer breakfast and lunch, although this is not particularly encouraged. Hotels in the United Arab Emirates offer to replace dinner with lunch.
Drinks are offered free of charge only in the morning hours. Usually it is coffee, tea and water. You will have to pay for drinks at lunch or dinner. If you left a bottle of alcohol unfinished, it is served the next day at the evening meal. What else is convenient when choosing an HB system? You don't have to pay every time for drinks. It's simple - you tell the waiter the room number, and the bill is provided after check-out from the hotel.
Who likes HB? Most often, this type of food is found in 3 * or 4 * hotels. This is ideal for travelers who come to relax for a short while, and will also appeal to those who prefer to go to a restaurant for lunch. If you spend all day on the beach and enjoy sunbathing, choose an HB hotel. At lunch you can have a bite to eat on the beach, and at noon you don’t feel like eating much. A light salad in the afternoon or snacks, a glass of local beer will help save money and keep your figure, because usually more hearty and hearty dishes are served for lunch.
FB, AL are Full Board and What does HB power and BB mean, we have already figured it out. Full Board - this is which includes a full three meals a day (breakfast, lunch and dinner). Beverages served for lunch or evening dinner are not included in the price.
"All inclusive" has the same principle of nutrition as the full board. That is, breakfast, lunch and dinner are provided free of charge from the hotel. In addition to them, alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks are served, mainly from a local producer. It is known what HB, BB and AL meals mean, and you can choose your place of residence. But there is another category, more elite - UAL.
UAL or Ultra All Inclusive
It translates as "ultra all inclusive". It also includes breakfast, lunch and dinner. Locally produced alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks are also served with imported ones. Various free services may be provided at the discretion of the administration.
English and continental breakfast
After we figured out what BB, HB, AL and UAL nutrition means, let's move on to traditional breakfasts. In some hotels, the tourist may be offered English, American or continental.
1. English breakfast. Made in the ancient traditions of England. A full set of dishes includes juice (orange or any other fruit), scrambled eggs with slices of ham (in some hotels an omelet is used instead), fragrant toasts fried until crispy. They put butter and fruit jam. From drinks, of course, tea or coffee.
2. Continental breakfast. More simple and modest than English. Serve a bun with butter or jam for coffee, juice or tea.
3. Various types of sausages and cheeses (cuts), hot sausages, as well as scrambled eggs, coffee, tea, water or juice are brought to the table.
This meat has an elastic structure, so it can be fried several times in a row.
Instead of trout and other local fish, shark meat is served.
It is boiled in salt water to bring down the taste. Forgery is almost impossible to detect.
We don't throw away 50 - 60 kg of meat left over from yesterday's buffet. This is wastefulness.
We wash the sauce from the meat, and the next day we cook it with a new sauce.
Pike perch and squid in the kitchen are canned foods.
These are canned food pre-soaked in beer.
Dishes with potatoes dominate the menu, as they are very high-calorie and keep a feeling of satiety for a long time.
In the kitchen where I work, three people are busy all day peeling potatoes. I add potatoes to at least 3 meals a day.
There is no waste left in the meat department, all pieces of the carcass are used.
Usually veal brisket, brisket and a lot of things that you don’t like are put in cutlets, so try not to eat cutlets in hotels, but choose only whole pieces of meat. I repeat: cutlets are better not to eat.
Take your time to devour snacks on a Turkish night.
Let's figure it out. It takes 2 hours to cook 1 kg of “Turkish raw meatballs”. Depending on the number of guests, it is necessary to cook at least 20 kg of meatballs. All ingredients are mixed in a large cauldron. To do this, the younger ones in the kitchen put plastic bags on their feet and climb into this same cauldron. The consistency is excellent, the taste - I do not know, because I have not tried it. But guests love it.
Do not eat salads with mayonnaise.
It would be naive to believe that in a hotel where food is prepared for 2,000 people, everything is happening properly in terms of sanitary and hygienic standards. It is foolish to exacerbate the situation by choosing salads prepared with mayonnaise, which promotes the growth of bacteria.
And now for the sweet...
The stale cakes left over from yesterday are picked up from the windows, kneaded anew, decorated with pralines, chocolate drops, fruit, whipped cream, and sent back to the buffet.
Still, costs are inevitable.
In order to deceive customers, we prepare decorations from watermelons and pumpkins in abundance. According to my calculations, there are 50 decorations for 20 dishes. First, you need to saturate the eyes, and then the stomach. We know a lot about this.
Choose dishes prepared by chefs in front of you, accompanied by a gastronomic presentation.
I know I have to line up. I know it's not the tastiest thing on offer. However, the most hygienic thing you will find in a hotel.
Even worse than with food, the situation is with drinks.
As you know, the all-inclusive system most often includes local drinks, and imported alcohol is poured for a fee. In practice, even if the tourist pays, the first 1-2 glasses are imported. Then the person loses his vigilance, and he is topped up with low-quality local alcohol.
It is also not known what kind of water is used to dilute breakfast juices, how often the tanks in which drinks are placed on the buffet are washed. And finally, from what water ice is frozen.
In conclusion, do not eat small cakes that are usually prepared for birthdays. Why - I won’t tell, because I might get in trouble ...
OB (No power)- hotel accommodation only.
BB (Breakfast)- a diet plan that includes breakfast at the hotel. It can be a buffet or a continental breakfast.
HB (Half Board)- 2 meals a day at the hotel. This is usually breakfast and dinner, but some hotels may have breakfast and lunch. Drinks at lunch and dinner are usually not included in the price.
FB (Full board)- 3 meals a day at the hotel (breakfast + lunch + dinner). Drinks at lunch and dinner are usually not included in the price.
Al, All inclusive (All inclusive)- a mode that includes not only 3 meals a day, but also additional services, such as a light breakfast, snacks, a light dinner. Drinks are included in the price. Sometimes it can only be local drinks, and foreign ones are sold for extra. fee
Accommodation types
SGL (single)- single occupancy.
DBL (double)- Double Room.
TRPL (triple)- Triple room.
Suite- accommodation in a deluxe room.
ExB (extra bed)- extra bed in a double room.
Tourist vocabulary
Chld (child)- child (usually the price is indicated for a child in a room with two adults).
SV (sea view)- sea view
Brunch- Eating after breakfast, but before dinner, and replacing both.
Cabana- Building on the beach (or near the pool), such as a bungalow, standing separately from the main building and sometimes equipped as a bedroom.
Complimentary Ticket- Free pass.
deluxe- Luxury hotel type (private bath and full service).
Duty-free Goods- Goods not subject to customs tax.
InclusiveTerms- Tariff for accommodation and meals (three meals a day).
Junior Suite*- Large room with an enclosed sleeping area that converts into a living room during the day.
rest house- Small hotel.
RoomBoard*- Information about the hotel room (conditions, service, opportunities).
Safe-DepositBoxes*- An individual section in the vault where guests store valuables, cash.
ServiceCharge(price of service) - Usually 10 to 20 percent is added to the bill to pay the service worker.
Skipper- A guest who left on the sly, leaving an unpaid check.
Standby (waiting)- A passenger who does not have a confirmed booking, but who is waiting at the airport for the possibility of departure if the seats on the aircraft become available at the last minute. Many airlines offer very low prices for such passengers.
TouristClass- Also called economy class. In a room of this class, the guest does not have a private bath.
Transient Hotel- Hotel for transit guests who stay at the hotel for a short period of time on their way to another hotel (permanent resting place).
Very Important Passenger(very important passenger (VIP)) - A person for whom a special service is intended.
RO stands for "room only". The decoding is exhaustive: you book only a room, meals are not included in the price. This type of food is common in hotels, hostels and villas. This option is ideal for those who do not want to be tied to the breakfast-lunch-dinner schedule. You can plan your day on the trip as you like, without fear of missing an already paid meal. And you can cook food in the kitchen or taste all the delights of local cuisine in restaurants and cafes.
BB
BB (aka “bed & breakfast” - bed and breakfast) is the most frequent type of food in hotels. Breakfast will be included in the room rate. There are two common formats - "buffet" and continental breakfast.
- "Buffet" - an extensive buffet line with snacks, hot dishes, fruits and desserts. Unlimited number of approaches and servings of any size.
- Continental breakfast - a la carte. Most often consists of scrambled eggs, bacon or sausages, vegetables, toast, croissant and coffee.
BB is ideal for those who are out of sorts in the morning: no need to bother with cooking or choosing a cafe, everything is served and cleaned, you just have to eat well (almost like a grandmother).
HB
Under the abbreviation HB (aka “half board”) hides half board - a type of food that includes breakfast and dinner. Breakfasts usually include drinks (tea, coffee, juice, water), but dinners do not. Drinks will cost several times more than exactly the same in the store. However, this type of food is very convenient for families with children and people on a diet. You won’t have to worry about the morning and evening meal - everything will be strictly on time, and you can have lunch while walking in the city.
The abbreviation FB (Full Board) denotes three meals a day - breakfast, lunch and dinner. This type of food is suitable for those who need a measured spa holiday without unnecessary movement. Like HB, Full Board drinks are only included with breakfast. For lunch and dinner, they can be served for a fee.
HB+ and FB+
In some hotels there is a variation of half board HB + and full board FB +. These meal types include free drinks at all meals. The range and quantity per guest depend on the hotel.
AI
Those who have booked a hotel in Turkey at least once are familiar with the AI (All inclusive, or “all inclusive”) system. All inclusive includes three meals a day, drinks and even local alcohol. This type of food is offered in resort hotels that resemble a city within a city. They have their own infrastructure: swimming pools, a beach, restaurants, bars and cafes on the territory, fitness clubs, shops and much more - in a word, there is everything to “seal” enough and once again not to leave the hotel. This type of food is suitable for chronically tired travelers who want to arrange a celebration of laziness, as well as families with children, so that little travelers can have something to eat at any time.
UAI
UAI (Ultra All inclusive) is an advanced AI. In addition to three meals a day and local drinks, you can also taste imported drinks, both alcoholic and non-alcoholic.
Call signs received. We are calm for you, now you will definitely not fail the turnout and choose a hotel with the right type of food. Dream, book, relax.
