Bartech debuts management platform for manual minibars

Bartech, a provider of automatic minibars for the global hospitality industry, launched BarTouch Cloud, a manual minibar management platform. With guests expected to remain socially distanced and with properties limiting the presence of nonessential staff, BarTouch Cloud ensures that hoteliers can continue to seamlessly meet guest needs within the safety of their guestrooms by converting manual minibars into efficient, responsive and profitable food-and-beverage operations.

While many guests may decide to avoid public hotel areas such as restaurants or bars, they still expect immediate access to a wide range of food and beverage options. BarTouch Cloud ensures that hotels with manual minibars can seamlessly adapt by providing hotel staff with the ability to track inventory levels and issue restock requests using any smart device. Through its integration with a hotel's property-management system, BarTouch Cloud also can guarantee that purchases are billed to a guest's folio to ensure that all revenues are captured while eliminating additional trips by staff to guestrooms.

With its cloud-based design, BarTouch Cloud allows employees to monitor and manage F&B services using either Wi-Fi or 4G/5G from virtually anywhere in the world. BartTouch Cloud additionally helps lower operational and maintenance costs by allowing limited labor resources to multitask F&B needs with other responsibilities,  and Bartech oversees and manages all IT activities with regard to minibar operations.

Engineered to meet industry recommended specifications for offering cloud-based technology, BarTouch Cloud takes minutes to implement while providing enhanced network and data protection abilities. Such security features consist of utilizing the latest in strong data encryption and user login technology. As a fully cloud-based solution, BarTouch Cloud also maintains shared responsibility between a hotel and Bartech in safeguarding all minibar operations-related data.  

"Providing access to in-room purchases is now so critical to meeting guest needs, while ensuring their safety and running a profitable business, that many hotels are looking for ways to overcome the substantial limitations of manual minibars in running a successful operation," said Bruno Agrario, VP of sales and marketing at Bartech. "BarTouch Cloud fully resolves such challenges and provides hoteliers with total flexibility over effectively managing what offerings to make available to guests to suit any specific demographic."

BarTouch Cloud is compatible with any manual minibar brand and model. It also can provide the ability to manage and bill nonrefrigerated items from snack trays and display units. This not only includes products such as bottled water or chocolate but also can be extended to provide guests with seamless and safe access to electronics, toiletries, hand sanitizers, face masks and more.