WASHINGTON— When the Hay-Adams hotel here underwent a four-month, $18 million restoration, one of the primary goals of the project was to add to the comforts of the guestroom. Naturally, the comforts would involve, among other things, food and beverages, a fact that invariably led to a focus on minibars. At the time of the restoration in 2002, the incumbent minibars in the hotel were less than ideal in the eyes of the hotel’s management firm, Hospitality Visions LLC, and vp and gm, Hans Bruland, who began a search for a new minibar supplier. That search ended close to the hotel’s own backyard in Millersville, MD, home of Bartech Systems International, which agreed to provide and install its e-fridge B41 product model in each of the Hay-Adams’ 145 rooms. “The reason we chose Bartech was that they provided a system and also the support that we liked most,” Bruland said. “They’re also located close by, so if we need to ever reach out to them, they’ll be near. They’ve also been very proactive in calling us and checking in on how the system is working. And technology-wise, they seem to be very competent.” The primary attraction to the minibar system was the technology, Bruland said. They are electronically tied to the hotel’s property management system, which allows the hotel to automatically charge a guest’s bill. Through the use of infrared sensors in the minibar, the removal of an item triggers a charge to the bill for that item. However, the sensors are set so as not to bill a guest if an item is returned in a certain time frame that the hotel can choose. It can be as brief as 15 to 25 seconds, Bruland pointed out. Hassle Free “This automatic charge stops us from having to bother our guests,” Bruland said. “The typical method would have an attendant knocking on the door. But now, we don’t have to ask which items were used. So the charges can be put on the bill quickly and guests don’t have to wait for them to be posted anymore.” The reason for the hotel’s shift was not that its minibars were not doing the job; it was just that they would not be suitable for the new and improved guestrooms that the restoration yielded, Bruland said. “They would not be effective because they were old and wearing thin, and they presented a liability because their self-cooled units were not in the best condition,” he said. “If they started falling apart more and more, we would have run the risk of annoying our guests because of the certain odor they would have then produced.” Bruland added that prior to the installation of the new units, the hotel had to staff two full-time minibar attendants to check their respective inventories. Now, only one is needed. The Windows-based program that keeps track of the minibars’ inventories also helps manage product rotation because it keeps track of product’s expiration dates. The system can also produce maintenance reports and the list of products available in each guest-room. “The worst fear at a hotel is having a guest check in and the minibar in their room is not fully stocked back up yet,” Bruland said. “But this system avoids that by keeping track of the items.” Bruland noted that keeping track of the items is particularly helpful for the rare occurrence that a guest has a dispute over a minibar charge. “Being the hotel that we are, we don’t question guests if we have a problem,” he said. “Yes we have had some disputes, but very seldom would one of our guests take something and not pay for it.” The cost of the system was about $750 per room, including installation and training, Bruland estimated. The hotel also has a maintenance contract with Bartech that requires a monthly fee. It takes about two weeks for the entire system to be installed. However, speeding along that process at the Hay-Adams was the fact that its armoires were modeled in such a way that they easily fit the minibars, Bruland said. He would not reveal a specific return on investment or the revenue the hotel has genera
