I’m of the opinion that there are two kinds of hotel guest – one that is so scared of the hotel minibar that they’ll refuse to be handed the key, and one that makes it one of the first things they check out in their room.
I’m one of the latter – and find that the contents of the minibar says a lot about the quality of the hotel chain. A low end hotel chain may offer nothing more than a couple of bottles of water and some full size cans of soda. High end hotels may have as much as $2000 of items behind the door (their prices, not retail prices).
I’ve collected some of the weirdest things I’ve come across in the hotel minibar. And before you ask – yes, I too hate the automated minibar where a mere touch of the door makes a computer think you robbed the place.
W Hotel, Times Square New York
Many hotels know that their guests might/will get a bit frisky when they enter the room, and most of them understand that their guests don’t always carry “protection”. For that reason, the minibar may be where you’ll often find an assortment of intimacy products. The W Hotel at Times Square takes adult fun a little further with their “sex in the sheets” product. Sure, it isn’t really a minibar item, but it certainly is worth mentioning in this lineup.
For $18, someone will come up to your room with ice cream, a bunch of toppings and plastic sheets. I’ll leave it up to you to decide what these are for. Add $20 and you get a disposable camera. Kinky!
Edgewater Hotel, Seattle
The Edgewater is one of my personal favorites in Seattle. The whole place just feels more like home than most hotels, down to the contents of their minibar. Sure, they have the regular overpriced booze and soda, but they are also the only hotel I know of that will gladly sell you a teddy bear or rubber duck. Sure, some people may claim they want it for their kid back home, but I’m sure there are guests that gladly spend the $40 to have a companion to keep them company in their bed.
Hotel Rivington, New York
The hotel on Rivington is one of those hotels that tells a lot about itself just by looking at the minibar. This thing has it all – from full size bottles of Champagne to six (yes, six) different “intimacy products”. They also have T-Shirts, full bottles of Patron and $6 gummi bears. You can instantly tell this is an expensive minibar, because they don’t stock any regular soda, but they do have 8 different flavors of juice.
With the amazing view from their rooms, and the Tempur-Pedic bed, it is no surprise that they keep these items in the minibar, it is a very romantic hotel.