Had she not just been a sexy queen on a bottle her love could have reigned o’re me.
At all inclusives and in suites where the bar is included and I’ve got somebody with me? Sure.
In generic hotel rooms for silly prices? Nope. I don’t eat chips & such, nor much care for soda. I’d rather pay $10 for a real martini down at the bar than $8 for a mini of gin in a glass alone in my room with ice from down the hall. The former feels social and normal. The latter feels like desperation tending towards a booze problem.
Supposedly? On my last trip to Vegas, there was literally a screen I could bring up on the TV that would show if I’d picked up something from the minibar and that the cost was being deducted from my deposit.
I did in Germany, but they apparently have a rule that you can’t overcharge or something.
At one hotel(not a B&B but not a chain) I was allowed to take beers from the bar and just keep track. Very trusting.
Same at a B&B in Austria. We took drinks from the communal fridge in the restaurant area, wrote our names and consumption on a little list nearby, and left the empty bottles on the counter next to the list so the staff could do the accounting.
I stayed at a place in Denmark that did that. There was a big tally on the door to mark what you took. And the prices were very reasonable. But they didn’t have a bar, that was all they had.
I’ve never bought anything from the mini-bar.
I’ve been warned that if you rearrange stuff so you can put your leftovers in the fridge, you will get charged for anything that was moved.
I’ve asked them to lock the mini-bar. Never heard of an option to remove stuff. I’m fact, some hotels used to ask me if i wanted the key to the mini-bar.
The first thing I do is go for a walk and find a liquor store. Bring stuff back to the room and I’m set. I’ve never used anything from the minibar.
I do this on Google Maps before I book a room.
I haven’t seen a mini-bar in years now. They pretty much stopped being a thing I thought. I’m surprised places are still doing this.
As you’ve seen one in the wild, can you say which hotel chain?
I bought some stuff from a minibar in the early 90s, I think – soft drinks and snacks.
I was young and naive, and had never traveled for business before. I didn’t know the stuff in the fridge cost money; I thought it was complimentary, like the tea and coffee on the counter. There wasn’t a price list anywhere that I recall.
It was a bit of a shock when I checked out to see the charges on my bill, but they weren’t outrageously excessive like they are now. Something like $1.50 for a can of Diet Coke that was maybe 50 cents in a gas station.
Lesson learned, though. I’ve stayed away from minibars ever since.
Hmm, it is more common to get just a mini-fridge these days. So much more useful! I feel like I’ve seen a mini-bar recently, but don’t remember where.
Indeed, I usually look for a mini-fridge when booking rooms. Far better.
Mini fridges are not common in Europe in my experience. At least not as common as in the US.
I was so excited last year when our room in France had one.
I’m old enough to remember when minibars were a new thing, and prices were not insanely marked up. Plus, I was on an expense account most times when travelling. So it was no big deal to use them.
When all that changed, I stopped using them.
My wife and I stayed in a luxury hotel on expiring airline points once. Since the room was essentially free anyway, we decided to indulge in one of the chocolates available and see what luxury hotel chocolates were like. They were, as you can guess, pretty average and not remotely worth the cost.
Why? To prevent others in your party from consuming them?
I just recently realized that in Planes, Trains, and Automobiles when the two of them are in that motel room they’re drinking little mini-bottles of liquor and individual snack bags, they raided the mini-bar and because they paid with cash and a wristwatch, there’s no credit card to charge, so it’s all free.
Back in the early days of Priceline I scored some pretty nice hotels for cheap…like the Palmer House in Chicago for $60/night. Minibars were a new thing to me. I needed the fridge to keep some of my stuff cold so I took everything out and set the items on the floor. Imagine my surprise the next day when I got back from sightseeing to find a rather substantial bill for for all of the minibar items. I called the front desk and complained, I hadn’t consumed anything! Their attitude was “you take it out of the fridge, you buy it”. Luckily I was able to convince them I was a rube who knew nothing of the ways of the big city and they took the charges off.
Any Vegas hotel room that isn’t a “Basic Budget Room” is going to have a mini bar which is how I see them all the time. For some reason the basic rooms don’t have them but if you pay $10 to $20 more a night than the basic you suddenly got one in your room.
Maybe there is a correlation with “someone other than the guest” is paying?