Don't Even Look At Your Hotel Room's Minibar Or You Might Get Charged
Gregg emailed us from the Westin Hotel in San Francisco:
My wife and I are there right now. We opened the minibar last night to put a piece of pizza in there in a pizza box. This morning, there’s a $26.04 charge for food on the bill slid under our door. Why? My wife just called to ask and was told, "If you open the mini bar door, there’s a sensor in there and if you move anything in there... you get billed for it." In our case, we must have jiggled a $20 bottle of wine.
Gregg adds, "Gee...I wonder how many people pay for the wine (or whatever) that they never ate or drank because they simply didn’t look at the bill???" Remember, if you so much as place the hotel's menu binder on top of the minibar, double-check your bill for charges. Double-check anyway because hotels can be sneaky.
(Photo: Getty)
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This is completely off-topic. Sorry.
But I've really been dying to know the answer to this question, and I figure this is the place to come for it.
What makes credit score companies entitled to the information they keep about me? Other corporations and citzens aren't allowed to farm my information in this way. Why are they? Is this sort of thing in the credit card contract somewhere?
The last hotel I stayed in told me something like that could happen. Fair is fair I suppose. We had to refrigerators in our room. One for us, and one was the mini-bar. They told us not to monkey with the mini-bar, and that adding tiny airplane bottles would not get us a negative balance :)
experienced this in vegas a few weeks back. at checkout they tried to hit us with about a $50 dollar charge, told them we put sodas in the fridge, they said it happens all the time and waived the charge.
And I imagine they have to take them right off again when you point them out. There's no way that bill could be considered legit without some pretty prominent warnings.
@Tank:
The unfortunate problem is, as mentioned by the OP, alot of people probably pay this charge unknowlingly.
At Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas, they have a little tray in the room with chocolate and drinks on it.
It turns out that there's a sensor in the tray, and if you pick up something to look at it (the chocolates are not obviously chocolates; they're in a cardboard cylinder that made us curious) you get charged.
We called the front desk about the mystery $35 charge but then were told that if the sensor sensed that we put the item back in under 60 seconds and it stayed put for 12 hours, the charge would automatically reverse itself. Seems that was true. But nuts.
the last hotel I stayed in had a minifridge in each room, and the thing was empty. Clearly, just a convenience for the guests staying there.
This must help the hotels out with guests who might try to run off with mini bottles of liquor right before they leave (which probably happens at places with mini bars).
@TheBassKicks: WAY off topic. but -
the "credit score companies" are credit reporting agencies. the data they compile is provided by members. your credit card agreement (along with agreements and/or applications signed for your mortgage, bank loans, student loans and some utilities) allows for your lender to share and request information about you with these credit reporting agencies.
that's what entitles them to keep the data.
Another fine case of attempting to sneak in some extra earnings under the radar... I just don't know why companies can't be honest anymore. Just another reason why you should READ, READ, READ, and SCRUTINIZE everything you get involved with, that has to do with money and services and products.
This happened to me at Millenium Broadway in NYC, except they were kind enough to slip us a paper bill under the door to let us know. Went straight to the front desk and got it cleared.
I put a bottle of water in the minibar at a Westin once, THEN read the notice inside the fridge that says that anything you move or put in the fridge may result in a charge. I snatched the bottle back out, and a quick call to the front desk assured me that I had gotten lucky and the sensor hadn't been tripped, so I didn't have to contest a BS charge.
I was in SF staying at the Westin St.Francis last month and also moved stuff around in the mini-fridge to make room for new stuff. I remember seeing some kinda pressure sensor under each item and thought "aw crap". Sure enough, I got charged at check-out. I told em what happened and they cleared it...
I wonder if I could have pulled an Indiana Jones and quickly swapped a similar weight item (rock) fast enough?
@SniDa: i guess its more profitable to sneak these fees away while paying for the technology and sensors.....
This happens all the time.
1.) do not be afraid to ask the hotel to inventory the contents at check in. I have been billed for a mini bar which they say was not completely stocked when I checked out- I don't drink so the assumption is that it had not been stocked.
2.)Most hotels will work with you- if not, contact the frequent stayer program- ask then to intercede.
3.) If it is a "robo bar"- just shake the whole thing- tell then that the door stuck, or you bumped it with the suitcase.
4.) ask for a fridge- tell them you are diabetic and need to store medication- do this at the time of reservation...call to confirm before check in so that they can install the fridge and get it frosty for you.
5.) carry lock picks, decline the key- pick the locks, drink everything and deny it.
open the bottoms of the beer or soda cans. Use the steam iron to open up the candy bar wrappers, remove the candy and reseal them.
for other tricks check www.secretwalltattoos.com
MK
Old news, I even parodied it on fark earlier this year.
'Body found packed in dry ice at hotel. First responders didn't want to move the body due to the high minibar prices'
/you would think they could have done this a better way that would reduce the number of false positives. /RFID everything, to ensure that the bottles are still there. And weigh everything to make sure the total weight is the same.
A hotel I was in had VERY prominent warnings that basically said if you used the minibar to chill things, we'd be liable for any charges for moved stuff. I think it was less of a warning than a disclaimer :/
The new Water Club in Atlantic City has this. Worse they have the tray kind that detects any weight change and charges you.
Funny enough I heard the company who owns the Borgata cant understand why no one wants to stay there at all... lets see, small rooms, everything 2-3 times more expensive than the sister hotel RIGHT next door, and instead of having room service having a weighted tray that overcharges you.... Yeah takes a rocket scientist of a CEO to figure out how much fail was involved in its creation.
@ludwigk: I love the empty mini-fridges... intended for the guests that value cold beer from the across the street rather than pay the $9 water bottles.
I had something similar happen. I actually took a bottle of water out of the mini-fridge (despite the fact that they were going to charge me $4 for it or something) but the bill added a bottle of wine that I must have jostled when taking the water out. They actually checked to make sure the wine was still in there before taking it off my bill...
@mkguitar:
"Use the steam iron to open up the candy bar wrappers, remove the candy and reseal them."
Yummy! A puddle of chocolate! ;)
Minibar in my hotel in kazakhstan had half liter beers for 2 Euro. That's reasonable. This was twice the price of going across the street to buy it. I don't mind paying a convenience fee to have things in the room. I just hate the bend you over and take this 6 dollar Snickers Bar. If they would just charge a normal fee instead of tricking people into paying.
I don't understand why Hotels bother with mini bars. Ok I know they get to charge premium on the items but I still would imagine it was more trouble than it is worth. The time and energy spent into staff checking, having sensors and then the customers getting their backs up over charges.... the hotels really need to move on.
All this and more in this month's issue of DUH Magazine.
@Morticia: Obviously because they make huge profits off of them. They aren't lying in their beds awake at night, clutching their accounting binders, wondering if it's really all worth it. It is.
Heres the scam: Insert bullshit charges on every customers bill. The charges can be for the useless safe, for the mini-bar, for newspaper delivery etc.
If a customer challenges the charge, cheerfully refund it. There is always a nice percentage of customers (suckers) that do not read their bill, don't have the spine to challenge the bill or don't care because their comapany is paying.
There are always enough suckers to make these policies profitable in the short term.
After I get these charges waived from my bill, I always tell the manager that I will not stay in the property again because of their sleazy methods.
Oh farking stupid.
I don't drink coffee, but a chain hotel I stayed in way back in the 80's had coffee pot and fixins in the room (fee of course) ..... so I went to the convenience store and got me some tea bags and hot choc for the missus.
I guess these days they would charge me for heating the water.
This nickel and diming crap is getting way past stupid. If the hotel offers a mini-bar (it is a step or two above the typical chain hotel that I normally frequent) then I am sure the hotel is charging premium prices for the room and surely can afford to let the room renter to use the farking 'fridge.
"Minibar in my hotel in kazakhstan..."
Did it for make benefit glorious nation of Kazakhstan? Yes? High five!
Go to the front desk and tell them you want it taken off the bill. Be polite, but firm. Ask to speak to a manager if you must. They will acquiesce.
Those damn minibar sensors are the worst thing ever.
It's pretty easy to see the large device and round scales the items sit on. I don't like seeing these ignorant posts, it's like getting mad that it's not sunny out and you can't figure out why.
@EtoilePB: I wonder how much hotels spend on these sensors and such. I guess the initial investment is worth it because more and more hotels are doing things like this.
You could always call the front desk right away, say you're a diabetic alcoholic with a peanut allergy and ask them to empty it for healthy and safety reasons.
I've been billed by hotels days AFTER checkout, and had to call to reverse them. I suspect employee theft, either taking items or not stocking them fully.
Remember,
-Bring a soldering iron.
-Ice Tea looks like any amber booze.
-No one notices holes in the bottom of beer cans
Just saying....
@harleymcc: And thieves like you are the reason the rest of us have to deal with sensors and scales.
It bugged me when my hotel in London did this. They were at least upfront about it - the outside of the fridge had a sign that explained it - but I really wanted to use the fridge to store the sandwich fixin's that I picked up at Tesco. No such luck. :(
@EtoilePB: I have this "Raiders of the Lost Ark" scene playing out in my head - trying to put down a tube of pennies fast enough to trick the sensor...
That's a great idea. I mean, they can't possibly charge you $600 for _every single_ item in the minibar unless you were having the kind of time where the police would have been called.
I stayed downtown Chicago a few weeks ago. The cheapest thing in our minibar was a Snickers bar for $3. I could have walked down the hall to the vending area and got the same Snickers bar for $1.50. Or I could have gone half a block to Michigan Ave and got it for 59 cents at Walgreen's.
I wonder how much for a humour-detector?
@mkguitar: Yeah, I'm all for 1, 2 and 4. Three sounds like a good idea if you think you moved one thing and are worried about getting charged for something you didn't eat or drink. 5 sounds is a tad criminalistic.
My father ran afoul of this one once. He got out of it by telling the hotel desk that he needed to store medication in there.
correction: "hotels can be assholes."
A common spelling mistake.