Hotel Minibar – worth to know

Hotel Minibar – worth to know

When presenting types of services in hotel 5 star range, it is worth to mention the hotel minibar. This is a very known and required room facility. There are a few things about the minibar needed to focus on e.g equipment and payment.

What is hotel minibar

The hotel minibar is a small fridge in the room. Depending on hotel it can be empty or full. However, in 4 and 5 star hotels, it is standard to have a full minibar in the room for guest use. An empty fridge is an amenity used in small and low-range hotels, just to give the guest possibility of keeping the stuff inside.

Inside the minibar can be found small alcohol and non-alcohol drinks, sweet/salted snacks, and other kind of stuff (e.g. condoms).

Is it hotel minibar paid

Yes of course minibar needs to be paid for. It is categorized as an extra service, which means that it is not included in the room price and requires an extra payment. Every room which includes a minibar, includes a pricing list as well.

The minibar can be paid for at the front desk during check out. Many hotels automatically note what has been used because of the build in system. In some hotels the minibar is checked by the housekeeping during cleaning the room. In this case during checkout receptionist will ask what was used.

What if the guest will not pay for the minibar

In this case, the hotel charge manually guests payment card. If it is not possible, the hotel may contact the guest and ask to pay the bill.

Why hotel minibar is closed

Sometimes may happen the situation that the minibar is locked. There are a few reasons for that e.g:

  • guest did not guarantee the stay and extra services payment with his/her own debit/credit card,
  • reservation is paid by somebody else (e.g company), and it does not include payment for extra services.

Closing the minibars is used in the hotels without an automatic system that notes every use. Those hotels need to protect themselves from potential money loss. Therefore if the hotel has no guarantee that it will be possible to charge the guest, the minibar is locked.

Of course, guest may ask to open the minibar, there should be no problem with that. However, the guest needs to be prepared that the hotel will ask him/her to leave money or a credit card deposit for the minibar use.

To sum up, the minibar is paid extra hotel service. It includes mostly small drinks and snacks. When the minibar is locked guest may ask to open it.

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