Hotel Charges Guests $50 to Store Personal Items in Room Minibars
Vadim Liberman September 26, 2014
A Las Vegas hotel guest discovered that placing her own items in the minibar was very expensive.
Most guests already know that hotels charge inflated prices for items available for purchase from their room’s minibar. That’s why guest will often buy things like bottled water or food elsewhere, and then store those items in the room’s fridge. At Las Vegas’ Mandalay Bay Hotel and Casino, however, that too could end up costing guests — a whopping $50, according to the Daily Mail.
Keri Anderson, co-founder of travel blog HeelsFirstTravel.com, stored her own wine in her Mandalay Bay room fridge, only to later remove it after speaking to fellow guests who alerted her to the potential charge. Upon closer inspection of the minibar’s interior, she discovered the following warning: “Storing of personal items in the minibar will result in a $50 restocking fee. Refrigerators are available through Guest Services for $35 a night.”
“I’ve stayed in a bunch of hotels from a small boutique hotel on Easter Island, to a luxury suite overlooking the Bangkok skyline, to a two-bedroom villa on Koh Samui, and never come across this kind of fee,” Anderson told the Daily Mail. While the hotel didn’t end up charging her the fee, Anderson said she found the practice “rather annoying, and even a trifle sneaky.” She added that she would “never open another hotel fridge without reading every piece of paper in the room first!”
Anderson might want to heed her own advice should she ever stay at Las Vegas’ Aria Resort and Casino, which requires guests to fork over a $25 fee for storing their own items in the room’s minibar, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Earlier this month, a New York University study estimated that hotels in the U.S. are expected to reap a record $2.25 billion in guest fees this year, 6 percent more than last year.
[Photo: Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino]
The Cosmopolitan Las Vegas charges for every little thing moved, including snack items on the counter. To their defense, they do willing remove the charges, if nothing was consumed. But if you want a small refrigerator for your items, the charge is $25 per night. I found it offensive that they advertise that their rooms have mini-kitchens, but really all they offer is facilities to help you consume what is sold in the room. Won't be staying there again, as the Cosmo rooms are not kept very clean. I guess the housekeeping people are too busy checking the trash for used mini-bar items.