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Comment by e40 | Hacker News Reader

> Yet if I had gone back to the room and merely pulled a single drink out of the minibar, I could have run up a $60 charge no problem!

Please tell me that was a mini bottle of aged whisky and not Diet Coke.

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It was ridiculous. So a bottle of water, say, was something like $7 in the mini bar, and then there was a "$50 restocking fee" on top if you took anything out of the minibar in a certain day. Naturally, all minibar use was immediately banned when I discovered this ;-)

Mandalay Bay has a little sign on the minibar indicating that if you even pick something up, you're liable to get charged -- they claim to have weight sensors, presumably so you can't drink a $15 bottle of water, then run down to CVS an hour later and buy a replacement. This might just be bullshitting, but I took great care not to even touch the damn thing... which is exactly what you want on your vacation, a little zone of the room that'll cost you money if you touch it.

They indeed have weight sensors - that’s how the mini fridge detects that something has been taken so it can charge you.

The concept isn’t evil in itself, it’s just that the pricing applied to it is predatory.

The warning is there for your convenience more than anything else and is often out of an abundance of caution. I’ve seen similar ones where you can pick up and put it back within a certain time and not be charged - I’m pretty sure all these machines have a grace period to avoid spurious charges in case it gets bumped/etc, so it is safe to pick up items and put them back within a reasonable timeframe.

In practice feel free to pick up (and even replace items, if it’s literally the same and they won’t be able to tell) and just play dumb and contest the charges at the front desk, they’ll have to waive them if they can’t decisively prove you actually took any items.

Won't be long until manufacturers start making different SKUs for different hotel chains, like they do for price matching retailers

The "reasonable timeframe" listed last time I was in that situation was 6 seconds.

Wonder if the sensors are still able to send data if you pull the fridge's power plug first? eg battery backup or similar

This is strange in that it -feels- illegal. Could you imagine if grocery stores did that? What if you just want to inspect it closer or look the back or something?

How far away from civilization (or the next supermarket) do you need to be for these prices and fees to make any sort of sense, that anyone even remotely thinks about taking a single drink? I've never seen something like that in Europe.

Being a casino, I assume that the targets are people who are either drunk or totally indifferent to prices while they're on vacation or, as is common in Vegas, on an employer-expensed conference junket.

My solution was to go to the convenience store (still located in the casino) which was expensive (a guy in front of me nearly had a meltdown at paying $15 for a can of lager) but at least had no "restocking fees." A Target with more sensible prices is about a 10 minute walk from MGM Grand, however, in case anyone here ever winds up there.

Hotel prices on even basic food/snacks are so high now it's often cheaper, even with a good tip, to just do like a grocery store/pharmacy door dash on your first day there.

One of my coworkers showed me a fun something that was so obvious that it's one of those "now why didn't I think of that" tips on one of our international trips. When arriving at the destination airport, buy a bottle of whatever at the duty free shop. Consume that instead of any minibar items. The cost of one full size bottle will be cheaper than a single minibar charge. I don't know why, but hitting duty free was just in my head as only something to do when returning home. I just chalk it up to OJT!

OJT? Orange juice time?

On the Job Training

Way more practical, but less delicious

Not to mention that you might get scurvy during on the job training (especially if you're a pirate), whereas it would be nigh impossible to do the same during orange juice time.

Sounds like you're buying the wrong bottle at the duty free!

They're not mutually exclusive!

In my experience, the minibar's level of use is proportional to the sobriety of the guests + their understanding of the prices.

So, basically, drunk people and children.

Yeah, the only times I've heard people talk about having to pay for using the minibar it one of two stories, either; 'I was drunk and just wanted something to snack on' or 'I left my kids unattended in the room for a half hour'.

Besides nickel and dimeing you, casinos raise prices in order to make their comps seem more generous. Basically, they want to target problem gamblers and encourage them to get addictions, so they give them gifts in order to keep them in the casino and create a sense of comradery. The most basic comp is alcohol, which is given for free on the floor in order to make gamblers drink. After that, you get free food, which seems more generous than it is because of how expensive Vegas food is. If you're really throwing down money, the casino will give you a free room so you never leave more than necessary. If you're a straight up whale, you'll get a VIP treatment with special rooms, butlers, and transportation. I don't know if comps are a thing in Europe, but the alcohol comps are restricted up here in Canada.

You don't need to be far from civilization. You just need to be drunk and exhausted, which describes a very large fraction of people in Las Vegas hotel rooms.

And the Vegas strip, when it's 110 degrees outside and a 20 minute walk between casinos, is often not the the most convenient place to pop into a convenience store.

I was at the Westin in Las Vegas recently and it just had an empty fridge that I stocked with beer from the nearby liquor store.

Makes me want to stay there

It’s more so “how drunk are your guests.”

Probably closer to the former, but I wouldn't expect GOOD booze. I've seen minis of Cuervo for $15 in a minibar.

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