Why should I buy automatic minibars instead of traditional manual minibars for my hotel rooms?
Automatic minibars reduce hotel overhead, make operations easier and more efficient, and provide a profit. A hotel with automatic minibars will typically experience an ROI within 12-18 months of purchase. With state-of-the art management software, the minibar department requires significantly less staff to service and attendants are made aware of which bars have activity via tablets. With automatic posting of charges to the correct guest folio, hotel staff experiences far less guest disputes and losses due to consumption inaccuracies. A traditional manual minibar requires more staff, has no consumption-charge accuracy, has no way of notifying attendants when a minibar has had activity, and relies on a guest “honor” system at checkout, often resulting in a general loss of revenue, increased guest disputes, and added hotel expenses.
Guests would like to put their own items in the minibars and do not want to be charged if they replace products by their own. Do you have a solution for that?
We have many solutions for guests to store their own items in minibars. A courtesy box accessory can be installed in all minibar models. The courtesy box will cover four sensors. For hotels that do not want to reduce the amount of pay items, courtesy glass shelves of various sizes can be installed. The final option is to install a Courtesy X Shelf. The Courtesy X Shelf is equipped with infrared sensors to detect if a guest is using their dedicated space. This shelf significantly improves service to guests as the front desk will be able to remind their guests during check-out if he or she forgot their item.
My guests think minibar prices are too high. How can we lower prices without losing money on the operation?
Minibar prices are notoriously expensive because of the costly expenses manual minibar operations require. It is common for labor cost to equal revenue. Therefore, when adding all other expenses, most hotels running manual operations lose money to provide this amenity. This problem is the fundamental reason why Bartech’s automatic minibars have gained such popularity in the hospitality industry. An automatic minibar operation lowers labor cost by about 70%, lowers electricity costs, disputes at check-out, theft and recurrent expenses such as minibar keys while increasing revenue. Automatic operations are a game changer in the minibar industry as they yield plenty of profit for hotels. Once an operation is profitable, the hotel can choose to lower their product margins and offer minibar items at a lower price.
Can guests be asked to pay for products they did not consume?
It is always possible for a guest to remove a product from a minibar and put it back after the charging time set by the hotel (usually 60 seconds). However, the Bartech software will recognize this activity and will flag this product as a product/room to check while the staff is conducting their daily refilling procedures. If the product has not been opened, minibar attendants can issue a refund directly on their tablets. Therefore, the guest folio will always be accurate and the front desk will not ask a guest to pay for products they did not consume.
My hotel is very family friendly. How can I prevent children from accessing alcohol?
All Bartech minibars lock and unlock automatically without a physical key based on if the room is vacant or occupied. Guests can request for the minibar to stay locked during their stay. Furthermore, Bartech can provide keypads on all minibar models to act as parental control. The keypad works exactly like a guestroom safe. Guests can enter a number combination once to lock the minibar and enter the combination again to unlock it.
Is there a way for the software to keep track of product expiration?
Yes, the hotel will estimate a number of days it takes for each product to expire in the Bartech software. Once this is setup, every time the refilling staff refills a product in the minibar, the software will reset the expiration time to the estimated numbers it takes to expire. Every day the product is not consumed, the software will deduct one day from the total. If the product reaches 0 days, it will appear on the refill report as a product that needs to be replaced (expired). Additional proactive reports can be loaded in the Bartech software to see what will soon expire. This allows the operation to replace all products almost expired before guests can consume them. The hotel can then transfer these products to another outlet that moves through products much faster and will not have to write off these initial product costs.
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