Potential spoiler (but I imagine most of FT has seen it by now) so highlight this line to view, but IIRC, four years :).

We had all of our sandwiches removed and placed on the dresser to spoil in one of the Parisian Meridien hotels. They left us a message in English which told us that outside food or drink is expressly prohibited in the minibar.

Agree. I've also had success requesting an additional (empty) mini-refrigerator at certain properties. YMMV.

Good to know it happened to you and not me. Will use this anecdote to remind myself never to stay at meridian hotels....

I have never, not a single time EVER, encountered that. Where have you heard that?

Happened to me in the Vegas Cosmopolitan. I had asked and they removed it never telling me there would be a charge. When I saw my bill, I asked and mentioned I was never told or I would not have had it done. I guess due to status they waived it that one time.

I faced this in the Le Grand Intercontinental Paris where I was told it would cost 25 Euro to empty the minibar. Actually I find it weird and unfair to be charged not to use something in the room.

Whenever a guest requests something out-of-the-ordinary, I see nothing wrong with a hotel assessing a fee to fulfill that request. That is, of course, provided the hotel discloses that fee before the request is fulfilled.

Try looking at this from the hotel perspective. A minibar doesn't empty itself. The process requires an employee to stop doing his/her regular job, go to your room, catalogue and empty the contents, and store those items somewhere. After you leave, that process has to happen again. That's a fairly labor-intensive process.

You're not being charged "not to use something"; you're being charged the labor costs associated with the request.

+1.

The first time I ever encountered one of these electronic counting minibars was when I went to check out and had an astronomical bill from removing said items from fridge (multiple times) in order to put my items in. They reversed the charges.

I think asking for an additional refrigerator to store your medication and pizza in is a reasonable request. When booking a room if the expectation is that there is a refrigerator then you shouldn't be charged to "make it so". Personally I'd prefer to have an additional fridge brought in and pay $10.00 then to pay $10.00 to work around their empty mini-bar set-up.

there is no charge not to use the mini-bar...simply leave the items exactly where they are in the mini-bar and no charge will charged