Kyle Bass, a billionaire and private equity mogul, is not finding any sympathy on social media after complaining about his $85.32 room service bill.
“Terrible Inflation milestone reached – My first $85 breakfast for one at a NYC hotel,” Bass wrote on X Wednesday. “After signing this bill, I have decided NEVER AGAIN.”
He added the hashtags “Biden” and “inflation” before tagging Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and the Federal Reserve.
The image of the receipt shows the breakdown of the bill: an $8 Diet Coke, a $9 “IRD cover charge,” $12 bacon, $14 orange juice, and $26 waffles, plus tax and tip.
While Bass did not specify the hotel, an X Community Note pegged it as the Carlyle Hotel, a 5-star hotel on the Upper East Side.
“Items on this receipt match the menu for room service at the Carlyle Hotel, a 5-star hotel where the lowest rate on their website ranges from $954 (including a $35 breakfast coupon) to $6,244 after fees for a room tonight,” reads the note.
It’s unclear what Bass is refusing to do again: order room services at inflated prices at the five-star hotel he stayed at, or participate in the economic system he’s furious over.
Online, no one was sympathetic to his plight.
“You ordered room service in a 5 [star] Manhattan hotel. What were you expecting?” quipped a former Democratic state lawmaker. “Poor guy. I bet that broke the bank paying the $10 to have someone bring your food to you in bed.”
“Overpaying for waffles to own the libs,” responded someone else.
“i’m having trouble with the diet coke for breakfast,” wrote another X user.
“skill issue tbh,” someone else replied. “you’re in New York City, get a bagel sandwich for $5”
“Until 2024, room service and minibar items at fancy NYC hotels have always been known to be very reasonably priced,” joked another person.
In the comments, Bass elaborated further on what he received. For instance, he said that while the bill states “waffles” in the plural, he only received one waffle and defended his choice to order Diet Coke, calling it “my poison.”
He also indicated that he got a superior nightly rate compared to what the hotel website offers publicly, saying: “My rate here is as good as it gets…maybe breakfast pricing is retaliatory for my corporate rate.”
But the sticker shock appears to have stemmed from the fact Bass ordered without consulting the menu and its prices.
“I ordered without having a menu (while on a call) and was appalled when the bill came,” he wrote. “I grew up lower middle class…graduated college dirt poor…and appreciate each meal to this day.’
He added that the hateful responses were “unexpected” and alleged that many of the accounts replying “are Chinese disinformation accounts that smelled blood in the water.”
On the upside, Bass at least seems to be a good tipper based on the photo. About $10 in tips were included on the receipt and he hand wrote in $15 next to the additional gratuity section at the bottom—which would put him well above a 20% tip for the bill’s $69 subtotal.