Should Breakfast be free or provided at all

We just run a free breakfast from 7.00 to 9.00 in the morning so that people get up and we can start cleaning rooms after 9.30 in morning as somebody must supervise the breakfast. We have 4 types of cereal and toast and jam oatmeal and juices coffee tea and fresh fruit. On weekends or when a special group books rooms we cook home fries bacon and eggs and charge extra $2.00 person in the bed rate blyth hostel

We are thinking of offering a free basic breakfast between 7-9am for a trial period. My reasoning behind the early time is that if someone really wants it, they will wake up for it! But again, people will probably moan that its not available ALL day! I am actually in two minds whether to advertise it or not. Mainly because as it has been stated in other posts it just gives more grounds for complaint.

The breakfast will consist of Cereal & milk (a couple of types of cereal maybe), tea/coffee (available all day anyway), bread, jams (locally made), some seasonal fruit from the local market (usually there is some sort of fruit available on offer per kg), juice (possibly, but it is expensive to buy a good quality brand, and cheaper ones are generally crap!) We want to offer something nice, but cheap for us to provide "for free".

Has anyone any advice about any of these elements? How have people reacted to the "7-9am only" time limit, or is the quality of the breakfast ok for a bed cost between 14-16€? Should we maybe only offer it during the high season months when bed rates are higher, or would it be more beneficial to only offer it during low season to attract more people?

For something that we at first definitely wanted to advertise as something we offered, it has since become a delicate subject and topic of debate!

Yes, it will be totally self service. We will basically wheel out a cart with the breakfast materials at 7am and then wheel it back into the pantry at 9am! :) The "do your own dishes" rule still applies ;)

In theory it sounds great to me and believe me, I have seen less being passed as a "free breakfast" on my travels in the past!

We sell fresh fruit but it too expensive to give away with a cheap bed as people can buy at store or from us as it is tax free when sold seprate.We also sell pop juice boxes and chips are very popular.