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They should put the MGM Grand's front desk staff in charge.. Their car park machine ate one of my room keys so I popped to the desk on the way to the pool. As I
by petercooper 3y ago
They should put the MGM Grand's front desk staff in charge.. Their car park machine ate one of my room keys so I popped to the desk on the way to the pool. As I wasn't carrying ID (just my other room key) they gave me a very thorough interrogation of the exact layout of the room, how much my upgrades cost, and other details before they'd issue a second key.
Then they flat out refused to put parking charges onto my tab without ID. 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!
- e40 3y ago> 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.
- petercooper 3y agoIt 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 ;-)
- floren 3y agoMandalay 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.
- Nextgrid 3y agoThey 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.
- solardev 3y agoWon't be long until manufacturers start making different SKUs for different hotel chains, like they do for price matching retailers
- HWR_14 3y agoThe "reasonable timeframe" listed last time I was in that situation was 6 seconds.
- justinclift 3y agoWonder if the sensors are still able to send data if you pull the fridge's power plug first? eg battery backup or similar
- silisili 3y agoThis 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?
- TonyTrapp 3y agoHow 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.
- Operyl 3y agoIt’s more so “how drunk are your guests.”
- petercooper 3y agoBeing 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.
- TylerE 3y agoHotel 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.
- ChefboyOG 3y agoIn 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.
- isk517 3y agoYeah, 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'.
- TylerE 3y agoProbably closer to the former, but I wouldn't expect GOOD booze. I've seen minis of Cuervo for $15 in a minibar.
- rahimnathwani 3y agoYet 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! Right, but pulling a drink out of the minibar requires a room key which, in turn you couldn't get without ID. So both cases depend on ID.
- petercooper 3y agoAh, but they did. They gave me that second key without ID, just with interrogation. That same interrogation was not suitable for a $35 parking charge, however.
- vwcx 3y agoI suspect there's an aspect of precedent/case law here. Minibar charges hold up in court differently than parking (service) charges, perhaps?
- expertentipp 3y ago> 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! Is it the kind of minibar connected to the phone line, where every item presses down a dedicated knob thus touching the item releases the signal to the system? The only time I saw something like this was in a hotel in US of A and viciousness of it infuriated me.
- mrguyorama 3y agoIt's usually done in a much more banal way, just charge you for what they restock.
- cowsup 3y agoNot really. Nowadays, Vegas hotel minibars frequently have sensors.[0] Before sensors, people would grab a $5 can of soda at 2am, drink it, swing by the convenience store in the morning and get a 12-pack for $6, and put a single can back in the minibar. On paper it's a 1:1 swap, so it's not really stealing, but hotels wanted their profits, so they invested in the sensors. I'm sure other hotels just check what gets restocked and charge you accordingly, but hotels that really want to juice you will get every dollar they can. [0] https://www.reviewjournal.com/local/local-las-vegas/minibars-in-las-vegas-changing-with-the-times/ https://www.reviewjournal.com/local/local-las-vegas/minibars...
- wkat4242 3y ago> On paper it's a 1:1 swap, so it's not really stealing, but hotels wanted their profits, so they invested in the sensors. It's not stealing at all. I always stuff my own drinks into the minibar fridge between the hotel supplied ones, something like this would really piss me off.
- cyanydeez 3y ago[flagged]
- 3y ago
- andy800 3y agoThe MGM Grand is massive, over 5000 rooms. It's about a 1/4 mile from self park to the front desk. Nobody "pops" anywhere in that building. Also, who drives without ID?
- withinboredom 3y agoWho said they were driving?
- andy800 3y agoThey were interacting with the car park machine.
- withinboredom 3y agoThe comment never says they interacted with it, only that the machine ate it. They could be a passenger, we don’t have enough information.
- andy800 3y agoAs I mentioned, there are numerous parts of the story that don't add up. The MGM Grand, as I stated, has over 5000 rooms, a random front desk agent would not be able to verify identity by describing the layout of one specific room (nor would that be compliant with security procedures). The car park machine, "popped to the desk," driving or wandering Las Vegas without ID, the identity procedure... I'm comfortable with my assessment that there is something not entirely correct with the story. You are welcome to disagree.
- withinboredom 3y agoI don’t know about this particular story. But I have personally been escorted to my room and asked to describe, in-detail, what objects are in the room when they open the door. I have no idea what they plan to do if it isn’t what I say it is, but that method I’ve experienced. I’ve also explained to the front desk and they ask a cleaning person to do a check based on what I say. Nothing about this sounds too far fetched to me, based on my experiences at other hotels/resorts. Maybe this only happens to you if you have a sketchy appearance or due to other biases; if you are clean cut and of a non-prejudiced race, maybe you won’t run into this crap.
- jncfhnb 3y agoThat’s odd. Can’t say I’ve ever been in a high end hotel that would not accept room number and last name as sufficient for any charge