Work with vendors to determine minibar content

Do you know your guests as well as you think you do? Are you sure that after spending a long day sitting with family or in meetings, your guests would unwind by purchasing a pair of fur slippers from the minibar? If so, you don’t know your guests as well as you think you do.

Novelty items sell from the minibar in a limited number of hotels if marketed correctly, but the vast majority of purchases are basic brand-name snacks and sodas. Unfortunately, many hoteliers think they know what the guest wants and stuff the minibar with items that collect more dust than dollars.

“Many hotels have their own opinion on what should be in their minibars,” said Walt Strasser, SVP of sales and marketing for Minibar Systems. “Unfortunately, they are almost always wrong and the stuff they put in—condoms, first-aid kits, slippers—does not sell.”

To avoid the potential minibar dud, vendors continuously collect data on top-selling items and suggest hoteliers work with them on how to fill the machine.

“We have the data, it is automated, and the machine can’t be wrong,” said Marc Cohen, EVP of sales for Bartech. “We have software that determines the best-selling items and where they’re sold. We have a list and we give this list to the hotel.”

The automation of minibars has made tracking sales and manipulating databases easier.

“Typically the best sellers are the same from hotel to hotel with some local variance,” said Peter Kuzyk, national sales manager at Dometic. “Hotels have been experimenting with items and some are more successful than others. The cost has to be low and the shelf life as long as possible.”

All minibar vendors agreed on the top-selling items. For beverages: water, domestic beer and Coca-Cola top the list. For snacks: potato chips (usually Pringles) are the No. 1 seller.

Top selling items: You can’t go wrong with the basics

The ideal minibar offering has a good blend of alcohol and non-alcoholic beverages, sweet and salty snacks and a mix of premium and well-known brands. The following is a list of what basics should be included:
Spirits vodka, scotch, bourbon, rum, gin
Domestic and imported beer regular and light, local
Wine white and red
Still water large and small
Soda and juices cola, diet cola, orange and cranberry juice
Energy drinks
Mixers club soda, tonic water
Salty snacks chips, cashews, peanuts, pretzels
Sweet snacks premium chocolate, cookies, M&Ms, Snickers, Kit Kat
Healthy option breakfast bar, trail mix
Source: Walt Strasser, SVP of sales and marketing for Minibar Systems