FTcadence

Vegas can get a little bit... toasty. Who wouldn't look to their hotel room mini-fridge as a source of cool, liquid refreshment? The bottles of water and other drinks found inside can be on the pricey side tempting guests into stocking their fridges with their own drinks.

Mandalay Bay wants to put an end to that practice. The hotel and casino will be charging guests a $50 "restocking fee" if they use the in-room mini-fridge to cool their own drinks and other items. Mandalay Bay has a refrigerator rental program (costing $35/night) which thirsty guests can take advantage of if they're hoping to keep those personal drinks cool.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/de...-mini-bar.html

Allan38103

Ice machine broken???

fwoomp

They aren't the first. I've seen signs threatening that in other hotels, although I don't remember where.

Music4u

I agree with post #2. We never touch anything in the fridge rules are rules and thats a fact.

FlyingHippo

After working in hospitality management for 12+ years, I can tell you that most hotels will say things like this, however when it comes to enforcing them, they are normally one of the first things to go. It becomes a "he said, she said" in determining what happened, and at the end of the day a hotel like the Mandarin is not going to want to upset its high $$ paying guests over something so trivial.
More and more hotels are going away from automated minibars, if not away from minibars all together.

HMO

At least this fee seems easy to find out:

puddinhead

I tell them I want the mini-bar removed. I tell them I find alcoholic beverages offensive to my religion and that I can't occupy a room that has alcohol in it. The restaurants and casino is OK because I don't pray in those rooms. Staff never has a come back for that.

Then I tell them I need a refrigerator to store insulin. Play the religion and ADA card - most places are afraid to trump those.

notmypetunia

Seems more appropriate to call it a storage fee if the original items in the fridge do not require restocking.

And those refrigerators with sensors...oof...guess that's a "moving" or "disruption" fee.

JW76

Wow. Remind me never to stay there.

Not that I would voluntarily go to Vegas for any reason, but ... just, wow.

Hope this doesn't become a trend.

CMK10

So lying is okay to save money? That's probably a little immoral don't you think?

puddinhead

Sure - because a hotel or airline has NEVER lied to me.

Like charging a resort fee to use the pool (and other services) then closing the pool for a private party but not disclosing that and refusing to adjust the resort fee.

Sorry - the morality card isn't one that big corporations can play. So just play by their rules.

uthornsgo

Speaking of lies, "restocking fee"??? How do they have to restock the fridge if you're not using their products? There's nothing for them to restock.

Points Scrounger

Clerk: Would you like access to the 'refreshment center'?

Me: No!

dallaspopo

Have you seen any people or business not lie to get what they want? In thsee times no one is really honest about anything. Moral or not.

pinniped

It's sad more than anything...there was a period of time in recent years *after* we lost trust in the client relationships we had with airlines and rental car agencies where we still considered hotels more of a trusted partner...a bit better than both of those. Your airline has deceptive fees unrelated to the cost of providing a service. Your rental agency is just a disorganized mess more often than not. But your hotel was still kind of on your side...for the most part. They were more into...you know...hospitality...

First we got mandatory "resort fees". Now this. Why can't a hotel simply charge a rate that the market will bear and leave it at that?

As for lying to get them to take away the minibar stuff, I might consider it after my other attempts to say "Please come and remove the minibar stuff" (without a lie) failed.