"That was one great $8 diet Coke!"

Joe, you should have bought the $10 little bottle of rum to go with it. If they had a $5 lime, you could have had a $23 Cuba Libre.

maitaitom,

.....and darned well worth it!

JoeG

<take out an item and replace it>
Well, thanks for the suggestion. Really never thought about that!

Phil Flash has taught me that the mini bar is where you store your film. Didn't realize it had any other use...

Ah, but Marilyn! What if you were charged for the weight differential!

That's some fast maid service there, too, JoeG!

Koshka, I believe Phil's film in total weighs more than the entire contents of the mini bar, or so it seems!

NYFSnob - Is that an invite? Thanks!! We're going to get along great (I'm from Princeton!!) Actually, I have travelled with celebrities (I'm a musician), but the hotels I end up in are more of the Howard Johnson variety, so I've never had a butler in my room. Only bellhops who are trying to fix the TV remote, etc.. Anyway, here's to whatever you end up drinking in your hotel room. And may all your tavels be happy ones!

Apart from everything else, I wonder how fresh some of those mini-bar items are? If all guests were like me, they would be sitting there forever.

What's a minibar? Well, it's much smaller than a maxibar and somewhat larger than a microbar, one would suppose. As for replacing items, I've seen some where they have applied impossible-to-remove-in-one-piece stickers to the items so they can easily detect such trickery. The very best minibar menu I've seen yet? The Hotel Monaco in Chicago includes such necessities as a hand buzzer and silly putty.

Dear amp322,

My first husband is a musician (guitar) but I'm the most famous person with whom he's ever traveled. (Sorry, baby.)

Frankly, I have a very soft heart for musicians (ask Capo), especially those who make their living on-the-road. I've witnessed many a diva treat the musicians badly and I found this no-one-is-dispensable behavior disgusting. If I wrote that book, it would be called, "Why I'll never work in this business again!"

I've also worked with a few divas who put their band in the very same hotel as the star (five star, that is) and each to his/her own room. These are the divas I love till this very day and would work for, again, in a heartbeat. There's just nothing like sharing the company of a generous soul or staying in a suite at the Lord Byron in Rome.

Mini-bars are a mark-up item that many customers can afford and utilize. It's expensive for a reputable hotel to keep these items stocked and fresh. Sometimes, hunger pains and thirst cannot wait for Room Service or a trip to no man's land. I understand that many people refuse to engage in this mark-up because these items are everyday items to us and it's hard to justify the expense. Like I said, if I want something now, I pay for it and I don't complain.

"Like I said, if I want something now, I pay for it and I don't complain."

NYCFoodSnob, I think you are in the "now" and I am still in the "then."

I'll check out the contents, perhaps use it for cold storage if I need it, and otherwise stay out of it. But then again, Ira's suggestion makes a lot of sense!

I've stayed in places where there were snack/gift shops open 24/7, and it was just a matter of walking down the hall to get an affordable munchie. Also, a recent stay at Super 8 in AC included an empty fridge in the room, with vending machines outside the motel. A convenient & affordable alternative to the fully stocked minibar.

Ah, nobody needs all that name brand stuff anyway. To help out the next guy, I restock with Sam's Club brand Cream soda and Orange flavored juice(-like) drinks. They should only be charging $4 a pop to that next lucky devil. Everyone wins.

"What's a mini bar?"

A cocktail lounge for midgets?

Hmmm... so a miniscule minister, a petite priest and a really small rabbi walk into a mini-bar...

On my recent visit to Rome, my mini-bar was stocked only with bottled water. I used the fridge for storing food and I drank at least a dozen bottles of water. I was not charged, but I would have been happy to pay had I been. I was also not charged for telephone use.

Ooooo MizzEve, which hotel was that?!! Sounds like the Twilight Zone!

We recently had one of those motion-sensor minibars in Oslo. It had almost no room for us to store anything and we were afraid to touch anything anyway! There were clear signs warning that you would be charged if you moved anything.
To avoid being charged for something you didn't use, we now inventory the minibar when we arrive and notify the desk if there is anything missing. In Budapest half the bar contents were missing but they said they don't restock regularly and would simply ask us at checkout what we used. Maybe yes, maybe no. Easier to prevent problems than to argue later.