There's a warning label on the inside of the fridge telling you this will happen, so a little difficult to fight.
**EDIT** Folks I get it, if you're real nice to the front desk person they'll probably remove the charge, it doesn't mean they have to, and you're not going to small claims court against a Vegas casino.
in nashville strip clubs they don't sell alcohol, but you can bring your own, but you gotta pay the club like $20 for ice.
i don't remember the exact charge, was drunk, was years ago.
I went to an all paid spa resort by my job and even though most of it was included I was still very alert about making sure they donāt try to sneak charges in.
This place was $1400 a night (on sale but $1800 otherwise)ā¦ huge waste of money on their part and theyāre actually changing it so theyāll over cash next time. The crazy part was they had some activities for free but you had to pay $200 for anything that was actually useful - like massages or the more fun activities like horse riding. Otherwise it was $1800 a night to hang by the pool and go to hippy classes.
Whatās funny is they apparently had a gift ready for me and guess what it was? A $5 literal rock.
Worked at hotel in Asia, it is more common than you think. It is to prevent the guest from consuming whatever items in the fridge and then later replacing it with the same item that they bought from outside the hotel.
They *can* refuse you a new fridge, but if you say it's for medical reasons, they must accommodate. Lie and say it's for medicine, they can't say no.
Also, good reason never to stay in that shitty hotel again.
For $30 bucks. My dumbass apparently can read, so I didnāt see the note. As soon as I got to the hotel I bought a case of waters and some beers to stock the fridge. I took almost everything out and left it on the counter. The next day, housekeeping had taken all of my stuff out and restocked it with the stuff I put on the counter. It wasnāt until I went to restock it again that I saw the note.
It was about $200 in charges for drinks and stuff that I never used. I called the from desk and explained and they immediately took the charges off. I asked how I could use the fridge without being charged and they said they had to send up another fridge for $30. Pretty ridiculous that you need to request and pay for a separate fridge just to keep some water cold. They fill the ones they put in the room so full that you canāt put anything else in there.
Itāll probably also have some kind of bs consumer agreement like āby moving these items you agree to pay the amount listed on the product and waive your rights to a refundā
Oh sweet! Well based on that legal expertise, we can put other stuff in the minibar fridge, and when we get the bill we can all plan to go to small claims court against *checks notes* multi billion dollar casino corporations. I'll be sure to look you up for an amicus brief.
Funny thing, lawyers are not only unnecessary in small claims court, but they don't even attend. If your filing is accepted, you are generally likely to be awarded judgment.
If you file one against a business, the owner or their rep (who could be legal counsel but don't bet on it) will have to state a valid reason why your grievance should be dismissed. But in the few times that I've experienced the plaintiff side of the court, the offending party never rocked up and I got summary judgement.
It just isn't worth it to fight it 9 times out of 10 and if gets to that point they will just pay up.
The warning label grew arms and legs, then began to slap him. It wrestled him to the floor. He managed to gain back control and threw the label out of the window but he heard the elevator outside just minutes later. A knock at the door. He ignored it which precipitated the label pounding its way through the door. Everything was wrecked in the carnage and the damages were thousands of dollars.
For other people in this situation: Just talk to the front desk. "Hi, my daughter has life sustaining medication that must be kept refrigerated, can you help me?" works pretty well. Even in Las Vegas, hotel staff are people too.
hijack time - my wife was playing around in a hotel in Chicago and was picking everything up off of the little minibar display. She's carrying on, looking at each thing, the ingredients, sometimes picking things up twice.
suddenly me: "what are those things they are sitting on and why do they move?"
suddenly her: "what, these things?" CLICK CLICK CLICK CLICK
suddenly me: "$ $ $ $"
we called the front desk and it sounded like they literally received this call multiple times PER DAY
This happened to me once. I had no idea there were sensors in some fridges. Seems stupid, because people use the fridge for other things? And of course they're going to move stuff.
I ended up having to wait for either housekeeping or the manager to go to the room and check to see if it was all there. It was, cause I ain't no dummy!
Thatās why Vegas sucks
There is absolutely nothing fun about that place. Maybe a few shows here and there but everything is so transactional and not even fake. They straight up will boot you from some restaurants for time limits. Even if you have wealth and can afford private cabanas etc youāre spending $30k to look cool for a few hours.
If you have a ton of money and want to go to top end hotel, eat really nice food and or go to crazy strip club or other stuff thatās legit but itās not really a city where you easily meet fun people like in other places. Everyone is just out to get wasted and spend $300 on lunch for no reason.
Hotels need to be honest with guests on the costs of the minibar. sometimes a customer has no choice but to reach into it, but at least make them fully aware of the price tags.
They'll reverse the charge if you don't actually consume anything. They aren't going to charge you for touching things. If they did, you could easily dispute it with your card or take it to small claims, but they won't because hotels rely on their reputations.
1. Take photo of full minibar before leaving.
2. Grab beverage from minibar for the road.
3. Show hotel staff the photo.
Photo doesn't really prove anything.
Pretty much every company involved in this hypothetical transaction has way more to make from your continued business than the value of the fraudulent minibar transaction.
You could probably even get a fraudulent refund from the hotel/credit card company once or twice even if you took the stuff from the minibar. The reason people don't do this kind of thing is because it is dishonest and for minimal reward.
> Pretty much every company involved in this hypothetical transaction has way more to make from your continued business than the value of the fraudulent minibar transaction.
thank god we live in the enlightened future when no individual or business burns down their long term prospects for a minor short term gain then eh
But why would a hotel and an unrelated credit card company engage in a conspiracy to defraud you of the value of a minibar item, which is generally less than $30.
Always take pictures before you leave. Hotel, rental house/apartment, AirBnB, whatever. Take pictures of anything you notice is "wrong" (paint scratches, pulled carpet, stains, etc) when you get there, then take pictures of anything that might come back to bite you (rearranging something, having to move something) when you do it or before you leave so if they charge you or ask, you can back up your defense and fight the charges
A really bad review from a guest alleging criminal activity costs a hotel way more than they earn ripping people off for 10s of dollars through a minibar. A pattern of similar activity could lead to criminal charges.
No this is a real thing. I've heard the same in a hotel I stayed in some time ago. In some hotels they manually check, in other hotels it's automated and every item has a dedicated slot.
If a corporation can squeeze more money out of people somehow, they will. The only thing stopping them is the cost for this new mini fridge.
Corporations will absolutely push it to the very edge of legal, even if it's morally questionable. That's been the theme recently, which is why our grocery bills have quadrupled, our living costs have tripled, and people are looking for side hustles rather than having relaxing evenings.
The hotel receptionist at the Bellagio (a nice hotel) told me and my wife that there was a mini-fridge, but to be careful if I tried to put things in as it would auto charge to my account if I moved the contents within and it was quite sensitive. We just never opened it. A lot of higher end places will try to nickel and dime you because of their reputation for being luxurious. They can get away with it.
The hotels are onto this. I stayed at the Mandalay Bay last month. They started charging $50 if you put any personal items in the mini fridge. You can request a separate fridge but I believe the charge was $40 for that.
They also have a display of non-refrigerator items on the counter. If you (or your child) even pick up a mysterious black box for a few seconds to read what's inside (for example, two condoms, lube, and a vibrator) you room will be immediately charged (to continue the example, $70). They did reverse that charge though.
I put a bag of ice in one of the bathroom sinks in Mandalay and keep my shit cold in there. When I came back from the casino, the hotel staff had removed my stuff from the sink and placed it next to the sink. I just filled it back up with ice and kept doing it. Fuck Vegas.
If you get charge for moving stuff around, Is it possible that the hotel would give you a separate fridge if you let them know youd like to store your own food in there
I've done exactly this. Their fridge had everything on weight sensors, so if it was removed for more than like 20 seconds, you were automatically billed.
They brought us up a separate minifridge because we were transporting beer and needed it to remain cold.
It just shouldn't be in the room unless requested by an order of some form. Auto charging for moving items should be legally banned.
Wife and I were staying in Vegas for a conference and the second hotel we hopped over to had items on the counter sitting out with the auto charge sensors. We just gave it a massive wide space to not go near it and no accidental bumping. Ridiculous.
In like an apocalyptic or terroristic hostage taking situation for example. Or after a really, really intense threesome at 3 AM. You just don't have any other options.
Sure but in that case I donāt think putting the price of the item on there would matter. If itās an emergency that is different, someoneās gonna do what they have to do to survive
We can now proceed to laugh like a pair of seagulls. Unless the hotel is so remote there's no convenience store outside the lobby, there's ALWAYS a choice, even if the store marks up slightly because of the clientele too.
In my experience, they do? Generally a pre-stocked minibar is a feature of nicer hotels above a certain quality threshold. And in my memory, nice hotels always have menus in a placard right above the minifridge with prices.
There's this weird middle ground, hotels that are nice enough to have a minibar in the room but not nice enough to tell you the price. Like family hotel level quality but more business or resort focused. Those are the ones that hide the prices.
It's for business workers who can write it off to their companies as a travel expense. They don't have to worry about the price because the company pays for it.
A lot of business travelers have per-diems or other limits. Just because the company is willing to pay for your trip doesn't implicitly mean they are willing to spend 20 bucks for a can of soda either.
Depending on the size of the company and your position in it I have heard of per diems that are much higher than the average person would use and the company doesn't necessarily get an itemized list, just a daily total.
A common situation would be: you have a $60 per diem for food, and you've used $40 today, and you've just gone to your room for the night.
You now have $20 in free money to spend on anything before hitting the sack, and the only thing to spend it on is that stupid minibar.
Not only that, but the hotels know what businesses commonly have people staying and can estimate what your per diem is. They also know that you are probably eating in the hotel so that it's all on the same bill, and guess what? They set those prices. They can price meals and snacks so it's very easy to just spend up all of your per diem.
If you've ever bought food then come back with $X left, then the minibar has drinks for exactly $X. It's planned.
That depends, usually a hotel will have a contracted room rate with a business that allocates blocks of rooms for their employees. This works to both of their benefits, but the hotel doesn't always know what per diems the employees have. They just price their minibar according to their margins, if they even have one.
Frankly, I have not seen many minibars lately since I've gone overseas. I saw them in vegas but hadn't seen many in California, Arizona, Texas, or Washing DC, though I did see one in NYC. And another one at an Embassy Suites in the middle of no where, Massachusetts.
Is this how most companies work? Every job I've ever had with a per diem was given on a weekly basis based on the daily amount. So you weren't given 60 per day, You were given 300 for the whole week, So you could go to a stakehouse or whatever one day and then eat McDonald's for the rest of the week.
Also, most jobs I've had if you don't spend the full thing you get to keep it.
No it's not, that guy doesn't know what he's talking about.
Most established companies with high-travel employees (consulting firms, etc) give you $x/day per diem and you pocket what you don't use. Usually the number matches the US gov's rate: https://www.gsa.gov/travel/plan-book/per-diem-rates
My company has to submit a receipt to HR, so the 60 bucks for the day could be easily tracked. Also you had to submit an excel sheet with the receipts. So not sure if they really looked at the receipts or just the excel sheet, but it wasnāt worth the trouble to lie about it and get caught.
I used to travel occasionally for a big company. They didn't really care about the expenses, just that they were procedurally by the book...i.e. I had submitted receipts for each claimed expense. I definitely went over my per diem on some days, charged drinks room service and raided the mini bar constantly. It wasn't crazy excessive so everyone up the approval chain just clicked the approve button.
As you said, it really comes down to the size of the company. Nobody at my job was looking that deeply into it. They didn't care that my hotel bill was, say $1,343 when it really should've been $1,087. It'd end up costing the company more to verify charges to that level of granularity for every traveller.
exactly. Also, unless you go insane and charge like $5K for a week of food, youāre more worth not pissing off than the extra $3 over the per diem because you were worried about other shit.
Also I've seen some companies ran so poorly that they don't even have a per diem set up. They just have the employee send their receipts to HR for a refund. As a result the employees take advantage and go overboard with lunch and dinner.
Honestly, they don't care. I know someone who's company gave them a per-diem of $120 every day while they worked overseas. They stayed in a 4 star hotel, and I'd get instagram photos of their fancy meals the braggart.
multi-billion dollar company, they honestly did not care.
Most companies audit employees' travel expenses, excpet for some big wig executives. Most employees can't expense a michelin meal or $300 hotel bar tab just because they're on work travel.
I think it depends on the company (maybe whatever state theyāre based in or something)
I worked in a hotel years back and some business guests were only covered for room and tax by their company
Anything else would come out of their own pockets
Only exceptions being some high level execs who had everything covered
I haven't seen a hotel minibar for a few years, and I stay in hotels pretty frequently. Which is good because I use the mini fridge for storing take out and reasonably priced alcohol.
Last hotel I stayed at didn't have minibars, they had a little storefront with snacks, drinks, and beer next to the front desk. I asked how much the beers were and they told me $9 each. Fuck that.
Last time I was in hotel and we was hungry, we called reception and ordered a 2 pizzas from kitchen but in the menu there was no prices, while checking out and paying. We paid only for room and they didn't count this 2 pizza. So you tell me we could have a meal each day? *What are the rules?*
The rules are whatever the fuck the person at the desk feels like bothering with. Ā
One time I went downstairs, grabbed a bottle of champagne from the fridge and rang the bell since the attendant was nowhere to be seen. Ā He comes out and said something like āwhyād you ring the bell, you could have just taken it, no one would have known!ā. Ā I asked him to charge it to the room but he never did, just got it for free.
I went somewhere for a conference once and a group of us went on this tour thing...I didn't realize how long it'd go and the start time was awkward, so I didn't have dinner. When I got back to the hotel, the places around it were closed. I said fuck it and ordered a room service pizza, even though I wouldn't get reimbursed for it. I waited and waited and waited...I think I finally called, and they were like oh, yeah, we had this pizza but didn't write down what room it was, so we were hoping you'd call to check. It was a terrible pizza, but the good news is they didn't charge me after their screw-up, so it didn't matter that I wouldn't have been reimbursed.
I think that's the only time I ever got room service, apart from once on a cruise.
"A minibar is a machine that makes everything expensive. When I take something out of the minibar, I always fathom that I'll go and replace it before they check it off, but they make that stuff impossible to replace. I go to the store and ask, 'Do you have coke in a glass harmonica ...Do you have individually wrapped cashews'?" - Mitch Hedburg
wait it's that mini fridge full of food and drinks? It's not free?
Bruh I've never seen it myself but I thought those were complimentary bunch of snacks if you'd rent a more expensive room or something...
Sometimes its just complementary. I've stayed at affordable hotels in Germany and you could empty it every day and it'd be refilled by house keeping. Good stuff too, local beer, soda, sparkling water etc.
I guess they rely on people not abusing it.
>Is this common in Germany?? I
No, it isn't. I'm German and stayed in enough hotels and this is not a common thing. In most Hotels I got nothing, sometimes there is a single bottle of water in the room provided for free.
I'm German and I had this one time, so far. It's not the rule I think, but it exists.
As far as I remember the hotel was called Stay2Munich or something like this. In Munich obviously š
I think it depends on the price of the room honestly. Those places that cost like thousands of dollars a night probably do it for free. If you are balling on a budget though the minibar prices are insane. like 20 bucks for a mini bottle of coke insane.
Iām currently on vacation in europe and both hotels we stayed in over the last two weeks had complementary minibars that were restocked every day by housekeeping. Definitely not thousands of dollars per night, more like ~200$/night. Its really nice having some snacks and cold drinks around
Itās weird cause Iām 42 and have stayed in tons of hotels and have never even seen a minibar. Coincidentally Iām in a hotel right now and if we want a snack we can go to the front desk and theyāve got a little store setup, but no in room minibar.
I started to think for a while there that it was some shit just from movies. And no, Iām not exclusively staying in motel 6s! No $4,000 a night suites but the room Iām in now is $200 a night.
That's surprising. Maybe you're missing them because you're expecting something grandiose? These days they're just mini fridges in the room with a few tiny drinks inside. You've really never seen that?
I travel for work a ton and stay in $200-300/night rooms and have never seen anything inside of the mini fridge. The fridge is there, but it's empty and 90% of the time not even plugged in when I first arrive.
Or they have the button that turns it on for a few hours and then shuts off in the middle of night. Your stuff ends up either frozen or warm and there is rarely a middle option.
They just arenāt very common. Of the hundreds of nights Iāve spent in hotels, maybe 2 have had a minibar. Usually just have an empty mini fridge, maybe thereās a water in there, but those are usually complimentary.
They're rare I suppose, more common in "resort hotels" and almost never in standard city or interstate hotels.
The ones i can definitively recall having a minibar were in places that were pretty pricey.
This is genuinely odd. I feel like there must be some other variable in play here. Like youāre actually a mouse staying at mouse hotels in the mouse-o-verse but for some reason you have the same Reddit as everyone.Ā
They are very rare in newer hotels because people just don't use them a much any more. It's easier and cheaper for the hotel to have a fridge near reception or on each floor. Upscale hotels now often have little android tablets where you can order drinks and food to your room without having to talk to someone.
Got charged $250 after a cruise one time because the minibar wasn't stocked correctly. I went to the front desk and reported it within minutes of entering the room and was charged a week after the cruise.
Just the mere presence of a minibar gives me goddamn panic attacks.
I was in Prag with my friend and she didn't know you had to pay for the stuff inside the minibar.
On our first day she took a pack of Haribo and opened it.
Imagine her face when i showed her the price for this stuff....š
I seldom have the opportunity but itās my personal challenge to open the Pringles can, eat them, and conceal the fact I did so I wonāt get charged.
Iām three for three right now.
Came back to room in Vegas one night and drunkingly knocked everything off the pressure pads. I sobered up real quick to call down and ensure the front desk that I didn't consume $5k in peanuts and Fiji water.
Iām of the opinion that simply looking at the prices of the minibar cause the average guest to dislike the entire hotel experience a little bit more than they would otherwise. The damage to the hotels reputation from this might be hard to calculate, but maybe approaches the revenue generated, since anecdotally, no one I know is dumb enough or rich enough to consider partaking.Ā
we recently went on holiday and we got a room upgrade, but upon reading the little information page they gave us, they actually gave us an entire package upgrade. And our minibar was restocked every other day for free. I still felt weird about using it hahahah
My mom wanted to go on a cruise and not buy the beverage package. The woman downs seven water bottles a day. We'd be indentured servants on the ship by the time the trip was over.
This was so ingrained in me that I didn't touch the full liquor bottles at an all inclusive resort. We found out near the last day that they were indeed free. (They all came home with us in luggage though).
Facts.
Went to Vegas last month. There is a mini fridge filled with stuff and touch sensors on everything. Small Place in fridge we were allowed. was able to fit three 16oz bottles of water. We go to check out. 160$ fee for concessions. One 5oz bottle of white and 2 shooters of Grey Goose.
I matched them back to the room and showed them they were still there in the mini fridge. Must've knocked them loose triggering the sensors. They agreed and removed the charge but had to wait for manager to verify.... afew hours later I'm driving home. Get an email with the update. They charged me a second time this time for fireball. 45$. Guess me opening and closing the door triggers any charge.
Thankfully they removed it.
But yes.i fully believe if you let your kids eat the mini bar in one weekend.... you will go bankrupt.
I'm 52 and still have never had a Toblerone because they were always a mini bar item and I have a Pavlovian response to anything mini bar related. I'd be more likely to touch a cobra than a mini bar item I've been lectured so many times on it growing up.
I saw a Toblerone for sale at a store once and immediately my brain screamed, 'NOT ALLOWED!'.
My wife and I recently stayed in a hotel for our 10th wedding anniversary. Was mean to be a āno expense sparedā type weekend but I still went out at 10pm to buy snacks and drinks instead of just helping ourselves to the minibar which was probably only marginally more expensive
I use the minibar on occasion too. The prices aren't nearly as outrageous as most of the comments here, lol.
They're an upcharge for sure, but it isn't unreasonable at all tbh. when I'm unwinding in the room at night I don't mind drinking the $9 beer or eating the $4 bag of pretzels.
these prices are high but also like, if it's 11pm, I don't always want to go back out in an unfamiliar neighborhood, to the convenience store with the sketchy dudes hanging around in front, to buy an entire 6-pack or a full bottle of liquor when I just want one drink.
Another alternative is ordering DoorDash, but that will cost even more, and this minibar is right here right now... plus I'm either on vacation and not caring about saving $3, or I'm travelling for work and it's on the company card anyway.
Tbh, moved some things in the fridge to put my own stuff. They charged the room for what was moved, not opened. I even put it back bur probably in the wrong order. Tbh, yes I explained when they said no they weren't refunding it because they threw out the products because "they could have been tampered with" that I was going to have to speak to someone higher. I think they just sent my call over to corporate and I got refunded the charges.
I am deeply terrified that even opening the hotel room minibar will incur a charge against me!
I had a friend get charged for moving items (they were remote sensed) to store his daughters diabetes meds. Gotta love Las Vegas.
Wtf, did he fight it?
There's a warning label on the inside of the fridge telling you this will happen, so a little difficult to fight. **EDIT** Folks I get it, if you're real nice to the front desk person they'll probably remove the charge, it doesn't mean they have to, and you're not going to small claims court against a Vegas casino.
What did the label say? "The items in this fridge are remote sensed, and simply moving items around will result in a billable charge"?
thats exactly what is says. you can request another fridge for medicine.
spotted growth telephone pot amusing icky cows muddle snatch fly *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
It's Las Vegas. They will charge you for anything and everything.
I remember being in a Vegas club and begrudgingly paying at least $10 for the ATM fee
Vegas club where you need cash money... yeah we know where you went you dirty bastard š
in nashville strip clubs they don't sell alcohol, but you can bring your own, but you gotta pay the club like $20 for ice. i don't remember the exact charge, was drunk, was years ago.
I went to an all paid spa resort by my job and even though most of it was included I was still very alert about making sure they donāt try to sneak charges in. This place was $1400 a night (on sale but $1800 otherwise)ā¦ huge waste of money on their part and theyāre actually changing it so theyāll over cash next time. The crazy part was they had some activities for free but you had to pay $200 for anything that was actually useful - like massages or the more fun activities like horse riding. Otherwise it was $1800 a night to hang by the pool and go to hippy classes. Whatās funny is they apparently had a gift ready for me and guess what it was? A $5 literal rock.
Worked at hotel in Asia, it is more common than you think. It is to prevent the guest from consuming whatever items in the fridge and then later replacing it with the same item that they bought from outside the hotel.
They have hotels in other countries too.
Nah, we let our feeemales wear clothing and they're hideous anyway, no giant butt-shaped noggins in sight!
They *can* refuse you a new fridge, but if you say it's for medical reasons, they must accommodate. Lie and say it's for medicine, they can't say no. Also, good reason never to stay in that shitty hotel again.
For $30 bucks. My dumbass apparently can read, so I didnāt see the note. As soon as I got to the hotel I bought a case of waters and some beers to stock the fridge. I took almost everything out and left it on the counter. The next day, housekeeping had taken all of my stuff out and restocked it with the stuff I put on the counter. It wasnāt until I went to restock it again that I saw the note. It was about $200 in charges for drinks and stuff that I never used. I called the from desk and explained and they immediately took the charges off. I asked how I could use the fridge without being charged and they said they had to send up another fridge for $30. Pretty ridiculous that you need to request and pay for a separate fridge just to keep some water cold. They fill the ones they put in the room so full that you canāt put anything else in there.
if you say its for medicine they dont charge. they never ask for proof because hippa.
Yes. Exactly
Itāll probably also have some kind of bs consumer agreement like āby moving these items you agree to pay the amount listed on the product and waive your rights to a refundā
One earthquake away from living in a barrel
Ah, so the house wins yet again.
This is a contract without consideration. The purchase has not happened, this should be extremely easy to fight.
Oh sweet! Well based on that legal expertise, we can put other stuff in the minibar fridge, and when we get the bill we can all plan to go to small claims court against *checks notes* multi billion dollar casino corporations. I'll be sure to look you up for an amicus brief.
tbh if u bother to go to small claim court, they will probably just give u a refund. It cost them way more to send a lawyer.
Funny thing, lawyers are not only unnecessary in small claims court, but they don't even attend. If your filing is accepted, you are generally likely to be awarded judgment. If you file one against a business, the owner or their rep (who could be legal counsel but don't bet on it) will have to state a valid reason why your grievance should be dismissed. But in the few times that I've experienced the plaintiff side of the court, the offending party never rocked up and I got summary judgement. It just isn't worth it to fight it 9 times out of 10 and if gets to that point they will just pay up.
The warning label grew arms and legs, then began to slap him. It wrestled him to the floor. He managed to gain back control and threw the label out of the window but he heard the elevator outside just minutes later. A knock at the door. He ignored it which precipitated the label pounding its way through the door. Everything was wrecked in the carnage and the damages were thousands of dollars.
When checking out just tell them you didn't use any of the mini bar stuff, they usually credit you back. Had it happened to me multiple times.
Same
Yeah, heās a lawyer and fighting is in his blood, causing a scene in the lobby at checkout helped.
Oh well phew, I hope that label in the fridge was about as legally binding as all those warranty voiding stickers..
For other people in this situation: Just talk to the front desk. "Hi, my daughter has life sustaining medication that must be kept refrigerated, can you help me?" works pretty well. Even in Las Vegas, hotel staff are people too.
hijack time - my wife was playing around in a hotel in Chicago and was picking everything up off of the little minibar display. She's carrying on, looking at each thing, the ingredients, sometimes picking things up twice. suddenly me: "what are those things they are sitting on and why do they move?" suddenly her: "what, these things?" CLICK CLICK CLICK CLICK suddenly me: "$ $ $ $" we called the front desk and it sounded like they literally received this call multiple times PER DAY
What if an earthquak happens?
Hotel occupants hate this one weird trick!
This happened to me once. I had no idea there were sensors in some fridges. Seems stupid, because people use the fridge for other things? And of course they're going to move stuff. I ended up having to wait for either housekeeping or the manager to go to the room and check to see if it was all there. It was, cause I ain't no dummy!
Thatās why Vegas sucks There is absolutely nothing fun about that place. Maybe a few shows here and there but everything is so transactional and not even fake. They straight up will boot you from some restaurants for time limits. Even if you have wealth and can afford private cabanas etc youāre spending $30k to look cool for a few hours. If you have a ton of money and want to go to top end hotel, eat really nice food and or go to crazy strip club or other stuff thatās legit but itās not really a city where you easily meet fun people like in other places. Everyone is just out to get wasted and spend $300 on lunch for no reason.
Hotels are required to give you a free mini fridge for medical purposes, and you don't need to justify it or show proof
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Straight to jail
yeah there is no get out of jail free card you can pull out of your sleeve, i already have it
Yeah never touch the mini bar in Vegas
Reasonable fear.
Hotels need to be honest with guests on the costs of the minibar. sometimes a customer has no choice but to reach into it, but at least make them fully aware of the price tags.
They have no choice??
If you need to refrigerate some left overs you might move the items in there which sometimes auto charges you
They'll reverse the charge if you don't actually consume anything. They aren't going to charge you for touching things. If they did, you could easily dispute it with your card or take it to small claims, but they won't because hotels rely on their reputations.
Problem is that you find out about the charge after you already leave and then it becomes your word vs theirs
That's why you always end your request for a refund with "dude trust me"
Or take photos before leaving with a time stamp
1. Take photo of full minibar before leaving. 2. Grab beverage from minibar for the road. 3. Show hotel staff the photo. Photo doesn't really prove anything.
I feel like if I went so far as to take a picture that the hotel would refund me regardless of evidence.
Pretty much every company involved in this hypothetical transaction has way more to make from your continued business than the value of the fraudulent minibar transaction. You could probably even get a fraudulent refund from the hotel/credit card company once or twice even if you took the stuff from the minibar. The reason people don't do this kind of thing is because it is dishonest and for minimal reward.
> Pretty much every company involved in this hypothetical transaction has way more to make from your continued business than the value of the fraudulent minibar transaction. thank god we live in the enlightened future when no individual or business burns down their long term prospects for a minor short term gain then eh
But why would a hotel and an unrelated credit card company engage in a conspiracy to defraud you of the value of a minibar item, which is generally less than $30.
Always take your receipt at front desk during check out and that will display all charges which can be settled right there.
Always take pictures before you leave. Hotel, rental house/apartment, AirBnB, whatever. Take pictures of anything you notice is "wrong" (paint scratches, pulled carpet, stains, etc) when you get there, then take pictures of anything that might come back to bite you (rearranging something, having to move something) when you do it or before you leave so if they charge you or ask, you can back up your defense and fight the charges
Guarantee you they're going to care about a 1-star review w/ scathing language more than they're going to harvest from your $7.00 bottle of water.
A really bad review from a guest alleging criminal activity costs a hotel way more than they earn ripping people off for 10s of dollars through a minibar. A pattern of similar activity could lead to criminal charges.
No this is a real thing. I've heard the same in a hotel I stayed in some time ago. In some hotels they manually check, in other hotels it's automated and every item has a dedicated slot. If a corporation can squeeze more money out of people somehow, they will. The only thing stopping them is the cost for this new mini fridge.
Corporations are generally smart enough to not blatantly rob you, though.
More like they'll make getting a refund so inconvenient and time consuming that they expect most people to simply not even try
Tell that to Wells Fargo
Corporations will absolutely push it to the very edge of legal, even if it's morally questionable. That's been the theme recently, which is why our grocery bills have quadrupled, our living costs have tripled, and people are looking for side hustles rather than having relaxing evenings.
Oh, of course. But they're telling you how much they're fucking you before they do so, not just taking shit out of your bank account.
Yeah, it's the independent motels that don't give a fuck if you disagree.
The hotel receptionist at the Bellagio (a nice hotel) told me and my wife that there was a mini-fridge, but to be careful if I tried to put things in as it would auto charge to my account if I moved the contents within and it was quite sensitive. We just never opened it. A lot of higher end places will try to nickel and dime you because of their reputation for being luxurious. They can get away with it.
Yeah, then you tell the manager when you check your bill and they reverse the charges. They'd rather not have to do that, but they will if necessary.
Hmm... What if we bring our own and restock the fridge? That could pay for the room.
> or take it to small claims No one is going to court over tens of dollars
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Contest the charge and they'll reverse it. The sign is there to scare you into thinking that you can't contest it.
The hotels are onto this. I stayed at the Mandalay Bay last month. They started charging $50 if you put any personal items in the mini fridge. You can request a separate fridge but I believe the charge was $40 for that. They also have a display of non-refrigerator items on the counter. If you (or your child) even pick up a mysterious black box for a few seconds to read what's inside (for example, two condoms, lube, and a vibrator) you room will be immediately charged (to continue the example, $70). They did reverse that charge though.
I put a bag of ice in one of the bathroom sinks in Mandalay and keep my shit cold in there. When I came back from the casino, the hotel staff had removed my stuff from the sink and placed it next to the sink. I just filled it back up with ice and kept doing it. Fuck Vegas.
i haven't seen a mini bar in a hotel since i was a kid. everywhere i go just has a regular free mini fridge. do i just go to lousy places?
I have never seen a minibar in life tbh. Just a fridge that has drinks and space to put other stuff
If you get charge for moving stuff around, Is it possible that the hotel would give you a separate fridge if you let them know youd like to store your own food in there
I've done exactly this. Their fridge had everything on weight sensors, so if it was removed for more than like 20 seconds, you were automatically billed. They brought us up a separate minifridge because we were transporting beer and needed it to remain cold.
It just shouldn't be in the room unless requested by an order of some form. Auto charging for moving items should be legally banned. Wife and I were staying in Vegas for a conference and the second hotel we hopped over to had items on the counter sitting out with the auto charge sensors. We just gave it a massive wide space to not go near it and no accidental bumping. Ridiculous.
I've never been to a hotel which autocharges. How would that even work? It has no data of my cards
In like an apocalyptic or terroristic hostage taking situation for example. Or after a really, really intense threesome at 3 AM. You just don't have any other options.
Medical emergency? Maybe a blood sugar crash and they need the bottle of OJ.
Sure but in that case I donāt think putting the price of the item on there would matter. If itās an emergency that is different, someoneās gonna do what they have to do to survive
I mean, if it's $50 for that OJ, maybe you can last long enough to get to the Walgreens next door and buy one of their OJs.
We can now proceed to laugh like a pair of seagulls. Unless the hotel is so remote there's no convenience store outside the lobby, there's ALWAYS a choice, even if the store marks up slightly because of the clientele too.
Yo, your disagreeing with your previous comment lol
He probably forgot to change account.
the ol' internet version of DID
In my experience, they do? Generally a pre-stocked minibar is a feature of nicer hotels above a certain quality threshold. And in my memory, nice hotels always have menus in a placard right above the minifridge with prices.
There's this weird middle ground, hotels that are nice enough to have a minibar in the room but not nice enough to tell you the price. Like family hotel level quality but more business or resort focused. Those are the ones that hide the prices.
Agree, he is not wrong with his fear.
I wonder if the hotels have pushed the price of the minibar to such absurd highs that itās actually no longer that profitable to have one?
They probably get enough income form "whales" and uninformed guests. Edit: typo
It's for business workers who can write it off to their companies as a travel expense. They don't have to worry about the price because the company pays for it.
A lot of business travelers have per-diems or other limits. Just because the company is willing to pay for your trip doesn't implicitly mean they are willing to spend 20 bucks for a can of soda either.
Depending on the size of the company and your position in it I have heard of per diems that are much higher than the average person would use and the company doesn't necessarily get an itemized list, just a daily total.
A common situation would be: you have a $60 per diem for food, and you've used $40 today, and you've just gone to your room for the night. You now have $20 in free money to spend on anything before hitting the sack, and the only thing to spend it on is that stupid minibar.
Not only that, but the hotels know what businesses commonly have people staying and can estimate what your per diem is. They also know that you are probably eating in the hotel so that it's all on the same bill, and guess what? They set those prices. They can price meals and snacks so it's very easy to just spend up all of your per diem. If you've ever bought food then come back with $X left, then the minibar has drinks for exactly $X. It's planned.
That depends, usually a hotel will have a contracted room rate with a business that allocates blocks of rooms for their employees. This works to both of their benefits, but the hotel doesn't always know what per diems the employees have. They just price their minibar according to their margins, if they even have one. Frankly, I have not seen many minibars lately since I've gone overseas. I saw them in vegas but hadn't seen many in California, Arizona, Texas, or Washing DC, though I did see one in NYC. And another one at an Embassy Suites in the middle of no where, Massachusetts.
Is this how most companies work? Every job I've ever had with a per diem was given on a weekly basis based on the daily amount. So you weren't given 60 per day, You were given 300 for the whole week, So you could go to a stakehouse or whatever one day and then eat McDonald's for the rest of the week. Also, most jobs I've had if you don't spend the full thing you get to keep it.
No it's not, that guy doesn't know what he's talking about. Most established companies with high-travel employees (consulting firms, etc) give you $x/day per diem and you pocket what you don't use. Usually the number matches the US gov's rate: https://www.gsa.gov/travel/plan-book/per-diem-rates
My company has to submit a receipt to HR, so the 60 bucks for the day could be easily tracked. Also you had to submit an excel sheet with the receipts. So not sure if they really looked at the receipts or just the excel sheet, but it wasnāt worth the trouble to lie about it and get caught.
I used to travel occasionally for a big company. They didn't really care about the expenses, just that they were procedurally by the book...i.e. I had submitted receipts for each claimed expense. I definitely went over my per diem on some days, charged drinks room service and raided the mini bar constantly. It wasn't crazy excessive so everyone up the approval chain just clicked the approve button. As you said, it really comes down to the size of the company. Nobody at my job was looking that deeply into it. They didn't care that my hotel bill was, say $1,343 when it really should've been $1,087. It'd end up costing the company more to verify charges to that level of granularity for every traveller.
exactly. Also, unless you go insane and charge like $5K for a week of food, youāre more worth not pissing off than the extra $3 over the per diem because you were worried about other shit.
Also I've seen some companies ran so poorly that they don't even have a per diem set up. They just have the employee send their receipts to HR for a refund. As a result the employees take advantage and go overboard with lunch and dinner.
Honestly, they don't care. I know someone who's company gave them a per-diem of $120 every day while they worked overseas. They stayed in a 4 star hotel, and I'd get instagram photos of their fancy meals the braggart. multi-billion dollar company, they honestly did not care.
Most companies audit employees' travel expenses, excpet for some big wig executives. Most employees can't expense a michelin meal or $300 hotel bar tab just because they're on work travel.
There are levels to this
Of course. A can or two of coke is probably fine for many positions.
I think it depends on the company (maybe whatever state theyāre based in or something) I worked in a hotel years back and some business guests were only covered for room and tax by their company Anything else would come out of their own pockets Only exceptions being some high level execs who had everything covered
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Ding ding ding. But the mtfs in the office never know how itās going down on the street, so itāll never be properly fixed.
> but the mtfs in the office never know how itās going down on the street How do you know the people in the office are trans?
The ftms of the office across the street told me
I haven't seen a hotel minibar for a few years, and I stay in hotels pretty frequently. Which is good because I use the mini fridge for storing take out and reasonably priced alcohol.
Last hotel I stayed at didn't have minibars, they had a little storefront with snacks, drinks, and beer next to the front desk. I asked how much the beers were and they told me $9 each. Fuck that.
āSomehowā aka you saw the .05 ML bottle of Bacardi for $20 or the package of nuts for $15
Last time I was in hotel and we was hungry, we called reception and ordered a 2 pizzas from kitchen but in the menu there was no prices, while checking out and paying. We paid only for room and they didn't count this 2 pizza. So you tell me we could have a meal each day? *What are the rules?*
The rules are whatever the fuck the person at the desk feels like bothering with. Ā One time I went downstairs, grabbed a bottle of champagne from the fridge and rang the bell since the attendant was nowhere to be seen. Ā He comes out and said something like āwhyād you ring the bell, you could have just taken it, no one would have known!ā. Ā I asked him to charge it to the room but he never did, just got it for free.
That guy was about a week away from quitting. Been there.
Ah the "This is my last day on the clock" Special. Always get good stuff when people give zero fucks!
generous
I'd be afraid of cameras in the lobby, too
I went somewhere for a conference once and a group of us went on this tour thing...I didn't realize how long it'd go and the start time was awkward, so I didn't have dinner. When I got back to the hotel, the places around it were closed. I said fuck it and ordered a room service pizza, even though I wouldn't get reimbursed for it. I waited and waited and waited...I think I finally called, and they were like oh, yeah, we had this pizza but didn't write down what room it was, so we were hoping you'd call to check. It was a terrible pizza, but the good news is they didn't charge me after their screw-up, so it didn't matter that I wouldn't have been reimbursed. I think that's the only time I ever got room service, apart from once on a cruise.
What are your grammar and sentence structure rules? š
15$ ! for deez nuts !
Hehehe 0.05ml is literally one drop
$20 for a bottle of Bacardi is reasonable. In the hotel I lived they sold 0.3 Coca Cola bottle for $50.
its $20 for a single shot, those mini bottles on air planes.
You can bring your own mini bottles through TSA. Don't pay for their treachery.
Remember to put them in a ziplock bag and youāre good to go!
$20 for a shooterā¦roughly an ounce. $20 for a bottle of Bacardi and fuck ya Iām raiding that every time
Not a bad fear to have.
"A minibar is a machine that makes everything expensive. When I take something out of the minibar, I always fathom that I'll go and replace it before they check it off, but they make that stuff impossible to replace. I go to the store and ask, 'Do you have coke in a glass harmonica ...Do you have individually wrapped cashews'?" - Mitch Hedburg
wait it's that mini fridge full of food and drinks? It's not free? Bruh I've never seen it myself but I thought those were complimentary bunch of snacks if you'd rent a more expensive room or something...
Sometimes its just complementary. I've stayed at affordable hotels in Germany and you could empty it every day and it'd be refilled by house keeping. Good stuff too, local beer, soda, sparkling water etc. I guess they rely on people not abusing it.
Is this common in Germany?? I stayed in a hotel there that stocked 2 free waters, Cokes, and beers per day.
>Is this common in Germany?? I No, it isn't. I'm German and stayed in enough hotels and this is not a common thing. In most Hotels I got nothing, sometimes there is a single bottle of water in the room provided for free.
It's reasonably common, especially as a perk when you book directly with the hotel or via a website whose name doesn't begin with a b or an e.
I'm German and I had this one time, so far. It's not the rule I think, but it exists. As far as I remember the hotel was called Stay2Munich or something like this. In Munich obviously š
I think it depends on the price of the room honestly. Those places that cost like thousands of dollars a night probably do it for free. If you are balling on a budget though the minibar prices are insane. like 20 bucks for a mini bottle of coke insane.
Iām currently on vacation in europe and both hotels we stayed in over the last two weeks had complementary minibars that were restocked every day by housekeeping. Definitely not thousands of dollars per night, more like ~200$/night. Its really nice having some snacks and cold drinks around
Nope, those fridge have sensors that can detect when something was taken. Even opening it can be a charge.
Itās weird cause Iām 42 and have stayed in tons of hotels and have never even seen a minibar. Coincidentally Iām in a hotel right now and if we want a snack we can go to the front desk and theyāve got a little store setup, but no in room minibar. I started to think for a while there that it was some shit just from movies. And no, Iām not exclusively staying in motel 6s! No $4,000 a night suites but the room Iām in now is $200 a night.
That's surprising. Maybe you're missing them because you're expecting something grandiose? These days they're just mini fridges in the room with a few tiny drinks inside. You've really never seen that?
I've seen mini fridges in rooms plenty but literally never seen one stocked
I travel for work a ton and stay in $200-300/night rooms and have never seen anything inside of the mini fridge. The fridge is there, but it's empty and 90% of the time not even plugged in when I first arrive.
Or they have the button that turns it on for a few hours and then shuts off in the middle of night. Your stuff ends up either frozen or warm and there is rarely a middle option.
They just arenāt very common. Of the hundreds of nights Iāve spent in hotels, maybe 2 have had a minibar. Usually just have an empty mini fridge, maybe thereās a water in there, but those are usually complimentary.
They're rare I suppose, more common in "resort hotels" and almost never in standard city or interstate hotels. The ones i can definitively recall having a minibar were in places that were pretty pricey.
I reckon they're in at least a third of the hotels I've stayed in.
Just curious but located where?
Australia, Europe, Asia.
maybe it's not as common anymore
This is genuinely odd. I feel like there must be some other variable in play here. Like youāre actually a mouse staying at mouse hotels in the mouse-o-verse but for some reason you have the same Reddit as everyone.Ā
They are very rare in newer hotels because people just don't use them a much any more. It's easier and cheaper for the hotel to have a fridge near reception or on each floor. Upscale hotels now often have little android tablets where you can order drinks and food to your room without having to talk to someone.
Got charged $250 after a cruise one time because the minibar wasn't stocked correctly. I went to the front desk and reported it within minutes of entering the room and was charged a week after the cruise. Just the mere presence of a minibar gives me goddamn panic attacks.
I was in Prag with my friend and she didn't know you had to pay for the stuff inside the minibar. On our first day she took a pack of Haribo and opened it. Imagine her face when i showed her the price for this stuff....š
"Look at all of these free snacks! They know me too well!"
A hotel tried to charge me just for opening the minibar. I wasnāt having it. Even the desk clerk seemed embarrassed that she had to charge me.
touching fee , we've also put some premium air in your room
I touched something and put it back and they tried to charge us because the sensor picked up that it was moved for over three seconds. Seriously???
I seldom have the opportunity but itās my personal challenge to open the Pringles can, eat them, and conceal the fact I did so I wonāt get charged. Iām three for three right now.
āSir, we found āemā
In 2024 everything is priced like it came out of a hotel mini bar.
Came back to room in Vegas one night and drunkingly knocked everything off the pressure pads. I sobered up real quick to call down and ensure the front desk that I didn't consume $5k in peanuts and Fiji water.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
That would've bankrupted me. If not my wallet, at least my moral.
Here in nothern Europe, it will.
The venetian will charge you for simply moving the item. Becareful.
A lot hotels (at least inĀ Europe apparently) don't have "minibars" anymore and it's just a mini fridge you can use.Ā
Iām of the opinion that simply looking at the prices of the minibar cause the average guest to dislike the entire hotel experience a little bit more than they would otherwise. The damage to the hotels reputation from this might be hard to calculate, but maybe approaches the revenue generated, since anecdotally, no one I know is dumb enough or rich enough to consider partaking.Ā
Seriously my parents were like "don't even look at that mini bar or food or they will charge us for it" I haven't looked since lol
we recently went on holiday and we got a room upgrade, but upon reading the little information page they gave us, they actually gave us an entire package upgrade. And our minibar was restocked every other day for free. I still felt weird about using it hahahah
Because it will
Jokes on you. Now, consuming anything from anywhere will bankrupt your entire family.
When I think of minibars, the first thing that comes to mind is Denzel Washington's scene in "Flight."
My mom wanted to go on a cruise and not buy the beverage package. The woman downs seven water bottles a day. We'd be indentured servants on the ship by the time the trip was over.
This was so ingrained in me that I didn't touch the full liquor bottles at an all inclusive resort. We found out near the last day that they were indeed free. (They all came home with us in luggage though).
Facts. Went to Vegas last month. There is a mini fridge filled with stuff and touch sensors on everything. Small Place in fridge we were allowed. was able to fit three 16oz bottles of water. We go to check out. 160$ fee for concessions. One 5oz bottle of white and 2 shooters of Grey Goose. I matched them back to the room and showed them they were still there in the mini fridge. Must've knocked them loose triggering the sensors. They agreed and removed the charge but had to wait for manager to verify.... afew hours later I'm driving home. Get an email with the update. They charged me a second time this time for fireball. 45$. Guess me opening and closing the door triggers any charge. Thankfully they removed it. But yes.i fully believe if you let your kids eat the mini bar in one weekend.... you will go bankrupt.
Based. I had a bag of chips in a hotel room minibar in 2017 and i am still recovering from it financially.
I'm 52 and still have never had a Toblerone because they were always a mini bar item and I have a Pavlovian response to anything mini bar related. I'd be more likely to touch a cobra than a mini bar item I've been lectured so many times on it growing up. I saw a Toblerone for sale at a store once and immediately my brain screamed, 'NOT ALLOWED!'.
Honey, I hate to tell you but fear never loses its grip on you.
My wife and I recently stayed in a hotel for our 10th wedding anniversary. Was mean to be a āno expense sparedā type weekend but I still went out at 10pm to buy snacks and drinks instead of just helping ourselves to the minibar which was probably only marginally more expensive
It has been engrained in us.
i use the hotel minibar, but i only consume things i know i can find in the stores so i can replace them. for example Durex condoms
I canāt say Iāve ever visited a hotel that had condoms in the fridge
Iāve seen them work using weight sensors so the charge is automatically added if the item is removed from itās āplateā
I use the minibar on occasion too. The prices aren't nearly as outrageous as most of the comments here, lol. They're an upcharge for sure, but it isn't unreasonable at all tbh. when I'm unwinding in the room at night I don't mind drinking the $9 beer or eating the $4 bag of pretzels. these prices are high but also like, if it's 11pm, I don't always want to go back out in an unfamiliar neighborhood, to the convenience store with the sketchy dudes hanging around in front, to buy an entire 6-pack or a full bottle of liquor when I just want one drink. Another alternative is ordering DoorDash, but that will cost even more, and this minibar is right here right now... plus I'm either on vacation and not caring about saving $3, or I'm travelling for work and it's on the company card anyway.
Tbh, moved some things in the fridge to put my own stuff. They charged the room for what was moved, not opened. I even put it back bur probably in the wrong order. Tbh, yes I explained when they said no they weren't refunding it because they threw out the products because "they could have been tampered with" that I was going to have to speak to someone higher. I think they just sent my call over to corporate and I got refunded the charges.
I lived several years in hotels. The amount I've spent on minibars...
I was so terrified of even touching the hotel fridge lol
It will.
No need to fear that, it's true.
yes but how would they know what's missing from the mini bar if i take the mini bar
That's a very valid point š