# Why do they mark up the items in mini bars SO much? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 11, 2014, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-they-mark-up-the-items-in-mini-bars-so-much/685843 "2014-04-11T01:56:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Anamorphic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/anamorphic/32/3057_2.png) [@Anamorphic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anamorphic)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2014, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-they-mark-up-the-items-in-mini-bars-so-much/685843/1 "2014-04-11T01:56:36Z")
I’m sitting here in my room in the Mandalay Bay, getting ready to shower and get dressed and go out for the night. I am a bit parched. I usually don’t even bother glancing at the mini bar, but the tap water here isn’t very good, and I was eyeing the bottle of Fiji water sitting there. Then I looked at the price list… $8 for a smallish bottle. I know that the obvious answer is, “well, they mark it up that much because people pay it. And a lot of people are on business expense accounts, so they don’t care.”. But, wouldn’t it make sense to mark the items up SOMEWHAT, so more people buy them? If the bottle of water had been, say, $4, I just might have grabbed it. That’s still a pretty hefty markup for an item that usually goes for around $2, and profit for the hotel. But at that price, I wouldn’t even think about it. Likewise with the small bag of $13 cashews. I know I’m not alone on that. I know outrageous mini bar prices are kind of a given a bit of a joke to most people, but really, wouldn’t it make sense for the properties to go with a smaller, but still sizable markup, rather than an absolutely outrageous one, and get more volume? Or am I underestimating the amount of people who will pay $11 for a small bag of snack mix? ---
**Author:** ![Snarky\_Kong](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a183cd/32.png) [@Snarky\_Kong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snarky_Kong)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2014, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-they-mark-up-the-items-in-mini-bars-so-much/685843/2 "2014-04-11T02:06:09Z")
Well, it depends on the profit per bottle, doesn’t it? If it costs them a dollar to put the bottle there, and they sell X bottles at $4 and Y bottles at $8 it’s pretty easy to figure out which price they’d prefer to sell at. ---
**Author:** ![randompattern](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/7993a0/32.png) [@randompattern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/randompattern)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2014, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-they-mark-up-the-items-in-mini-bars-so-much/685843/3 "2014-04-11T02:08:07Z")
It’s Vegas baby! People are on vacation and splurging…not to mention drinking and picking these drinks up without a second thought of the price. At least not until they get their bill at checkout. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2014, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-they-mark-up-the-items-in-mini-bars-so-much/685843/4 "2014-04-11T02:11:15Z")
If you don’t like the prices try the other mini-bar in your room. ---
**Author:** ![Anamorphic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/anamorphic/32/3057_2.png) [@Anamorphic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anamorphic)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2014, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-they-mark-up-the-items-in-mini-bars-so-much/685843/5 "2014-04-11T02:18:06Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > If you don’t like the prices try the other mini-bar in your room. Well, I get your point, but _my_ point is, I’m just gonna walk out to the Walgreens up the street and grab a few bottles. So they get nothing. They’ve lost a sale. I have no doubt that the industry number crunchers know lots I don’t, and the loss of my (and people like me) money isn’t enough to make them change. I’m just trying to understand the logic behind it. I just find it hard to believe they wouldn’t make up the loss of the higher price with the volume of a more reasonable (but still more than a regular store) price. ---
**Author:** ![Anamorphic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/anamorphic/32/3057_2.png) [@Anamorphic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anamorphic)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2014, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-they-mark-up-the-items-in-mini-bars-so-much/685843/6 "2014-04-11T02:19:36Z")
> [@Snarky\_Kong](#): > > Well, it depends on the profit per bottle, doesn’t it? If it costs them a dollar to put the bottle there, and they sell X bottles at $4 and Y bottles at $8 it’s pretty easy to figure out which price they’d prefer to sell at. Makes total sense, but I guess that was sort of an unstated part of my question… DO they ever sell bottles at $4 to know that they’ll sell X of them on average? Mini bars have always been known for their absolute outrageous markups. I guess if, like you say, they know projected sales for various prices and feel comfortable at the higher price, that totally makes sense, it’s just that they always seem to be at the high end of outrageous. Of course, I’m only in hotels from time to time, so it’s not like I keep tabs on the prices. ---
**Author:** ![tellyworth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/977dab/32.png) [@tellyworth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tellyworth)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2014, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-they-mark-up-the-items-in-mini-bars-so-much/685843/7 "2014-04-11T02:21:56Z")
> [@Anamorphic](#): > > But, wouldn’t it make sense to mark the items up SOMEWHAT, so more people buy them? Businesses experiment with pricing and discounts all the time. If they could increase their profits by lowering prices, they would. In other words, the fact that they continue to charge high prices in probably evidence that lowering them doesn’t work. ---
**Author:** ![dolphinboy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dolphinboy/32/330_2.png) [@dolphinboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dolphinboy)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2014, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-they-mark-up-the-items-in-mini-bars-so-much/685843/8 "2014-04-11T02:35:57Z")
Why? Because they can charge whatever they want knowing that some percentage of their guests will greatly overpay for a diet coke and candy bar. When you’re on the 64th floor of a hotel what other options do you have besides room service and your mini bar? You could always just find a 7-11 somewhere, but who is going to go to all that trouble? And if you’re on a business trip it’s not like you’re paying for it… ---
**Author:** ![zombywoof](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/9e8a1a/32.png) [@zombywoof](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zombywoof)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2014, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-they-mark-up-the-items-in-mini-bars-so-much/685843/9 "2014-04-11T02:39:28Z")
Maximizing sales volume isn’t the same thing as maximizing profit, and surely they’ve settled on prices that accomplish the latter. ---
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2014, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-they-mark-up-the-items-in-mini-bars-so-much/685843/10 "2014-04-11T02:41:34Z")
It’s not like Costco. They are not trying to make a few more pennies of profit by driving volume. They have a channel that provides a huge profit margin with almost no marginal cost. If they sell a few bottles of water, or bags of chips, per day, it’s like free money. Maybe it’s not worth it to multiply the volume by 5 to make more revenue but the same $$ of profit. \*\*Tellyworth \*\*is right–economists study this stuff, and entire books have been published on pricing theory. They know exactly what they’re doing. ---
**Author:** ![SmartAlecCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/67e7ee/32.png) [@SmartAlecCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmartAlecCat)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2014, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-they-mark-up-the-items-in-mini-bars-so-much/685843/11 "2014-04-11T02:51:05Z")
[Cracking Open the Hotel Minibar](http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424053111904537404576554441363020606) > [@](#): > > Paying $8 for the same bottle of water that costs $2 at the corner store may mystify guests, but hotels say they need to charge high prices. > > “People think the hotels are trying to gouge them, but actually [minibars] are loss-leaders,” says Beth Scott, vice president, food and beverage strategy, at Hilton Worldwide, which has been phasing out stocked minibars at some hotels. ---
**Author:** ![SmartAlecCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/67e7ee/32.png) [@SmartAlecCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmartAlecCat)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2014, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-they-mark-up-the-items-in-mini-bars-so-much/685843/12 "2014-04-11T02:52:52Z")
[Rethinking the Minibar](http://www.foodarts.com/news/features/875/rethinking-the-minibar) > [@](#): > > Three years ago, the 1,946 room Marriott Marquis on Times Square in New York City decided that their minibars weren’t generating enough revenue–and so they pulled them from every room. > > “We had eight full-time minibar staffers who each checked 150 rooms a day,” says Kathleen Duffy, head of public relations for Marriott in New York City. “They simply couldn’t get to every room every day. Plus, we found that guests weren’t using the minibars as much as one would think. In Times Square, many retail outlets are open 24/7, so beverages and snacks are available everywhere, all the time. In addition, some minibar items have expiration dates, and we were throwing items away. It was a pure business decision: minibars were not profitable.” ---
**Author:** ![sisu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df705f/32.png) [@sisu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sisu)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2014, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-they-mark-up-the-items-in-mini-bars-so-much/685843/13 "2014-04-11T02:54:22Z")
They do it because they can and hope that people stumble in drunk and just have to have that $10 bottle of Voss water. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Lurker\_Above](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dc4da7/32.png) [@The\_Lurker\_Above](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Lurker_Above)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2014, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-they-mark-up-the-items-in-mini-bars-so-much/685843/14 "2014-04-11T03:18:24Z")
> [@CookingWithGas](#): > > If they sell a few bottles of water, or bags of chips, per day, it’s like free money. Maybe it’s not worth it to multiply the volume by 5 to make more revenue but the same $$ of profit. But it’s not free money, the hotel I work for discontinued minibars 5 years ago. And we hadn’t actually made money on them in over a decade (ie. as far back as we could easily check the numbers). The labour costs alone in tracking and stocking the bars ate up every penny of revenue and then some. We had 1 full-time staff member for ~150 rooms doing nothing but mini-bars plus a part-timer to cover weekends and holidays. And every month or so there was a bonanza of free candy and nuts for the staff as soon-to-expire stock was rotated out of the minibars. Customer complaints plummeted after we got rid of the bars too. Check-in times dropped, no beer being replaced with water by previous guests, no arguments with guests over consumption, and I had _half_ the credit card charge-backs to deal with. Best decision we ever made. ---
**Author:** ![Habeed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a587f6/32.png) [@Habeed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Habeed)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2014, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-they-mark-up-the-items-in-mini-bars-so-much/685843/15 "2014-04-11T05:02:35Z")
Since the minibar isn’t profitable anyway, and guests do get thirsty and hungry and get the munchies, why not set it up where it’s a flat fee to open the minibar, and if the guests open it, they can have everything in it. The fee would be no more than what it costs to stock it. I’m thinking the minibar would have 3-6 “compartments”, with some kind of tear open pull tab on them, with a label on it explaining what the fee is. The fees would be somewhere between 10 and 30 dollars tops, based on the wholesale cost of the items plus a small fee to pay staff to restock it. It wouldn’t need an elaborate inventory check, the same maids who clean the room can just shove in new “modules” to replace the missing ones. ---
**Author:** ![AaronX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/7bcc69/32.png) [@AaronX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AaronX)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2014, 5:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-they-mark-up-the-items-in-mini-bars-so-much/685843/16 "2014-04-11T05:38:29Z")
Pst - you can drink it first, then get the same bottle to replace it Can’t be worse than sampling grapes. But doing this is not nice: > [@The\_Lurker\_Above](#): > > no beer being replaced with water by previous guests I thought that only happened in jokes. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2014, 12:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-they-mark-up-the-items-in-mini-bars-so-much/685843/17 "2014-04-11T12:17:55Z")
Next we will see high-end hotels complaining about how soda vending machines are “loss leaders”, making it necessary to charge $3 for a can of soda. Odd how the low-priced chains manage to avoid grievous losses while their machines dispense soda for far less. ---
**Author:** ![Ravenman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ravenman/32/2929_2.png) [@Ravenman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ravenman)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2014, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-they-mark-up-the-items-in-mini-bars-so-much/685843/18 "2014-04-11T12:46:39Z")
A soda machine doesn’t need to be restocked or checked every day. As has been explained above. ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2014, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-they-mark-up-the-items-in-mini-bars-so-much/685843/19 "2014-04-11T12:56:14Z")
Side note - My Wife and I just spent 3 weeks in southern Germany. All the hotels we stayed at had a fridge with a selection of beers and pop. The prices were VERY reasonable. ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Feldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lord_feldon/32/341_2.png) [@Lord\_Feldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Feldon)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2014, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-they-mark-up-the-items-in-mini-bars-so-much/685843/20 "2014-04-11T13:05:06Z")
> [@Anamorphic](#): > > Well, I get your point, but _my_ point is, I’m just gonna walk out to the Walgreens up the street and grab a few bottles. So they get nothing. They’ve lost a sale. They’re not selling to people willing to walk to Walgreens. They’re selling to people who just arrived, don’t know the area, and need a damn drink/snack now. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-they-mark-up-the-items-in-mini-bars-so-much/685843.md?page=2)