NATIONAL REPORT— Hotels are differentiating their in-room beverages in order to give guests the feeling they are checking into more than “just a room” upon their arrival. Management at The Charles Hotel, which sits in Harvard Square in Cambridge, MA, is currently working on plans for a “Martini Tray” that will be available as a welcome amenity for those visiting the Presidential Suite. An entire martini set-up will be provided, from a bottle of Bombay Sapphire Gin to a classy martini shaker and glasses, as well as olives, said the hotel’s director of operations, Fabian Unterzaucher. Meanwhile, the property works off its philosophy of serving farm-fresh foods when it comes to beverage presentations at the hotel, said Unterzaucher. “With beverages in the summertime we do a lot of farm-fresh drinks,” he said. Items offered include fresh lemonade, which can be flavored with raspberry, said Unterzaucher. The drinks, which are sold through room service, as well as through the hotel’s restaurant, Henrietta’s, sell well, he said. The restaurant also has a little market from which visitors can purchase the items, he said. Change With Seasons The hotel is careful not to actually list such drinks on the room-service menu, and instead has hotel staff offer them verbally, since the beverages change with the seasons. For example, in the fall, the theme of the drinks changes to apples, he noted. Also offered through room service and the restaurant are Smoothies, made with non-fat yogurt, fresh fruit and ice, as are root beer floats, made with draft root beer and ice cream. Unterzaucher noted that in guest-room minibars, the hotel offers fruit juices provided by Nantucket Nectars, which is a local company. Upscale Beer Garden And, taking his passion for unique beverages a step further, Unterzaucher is opening an upscale beer garden on the restaurant’s terrace. Aside from original benches and beer steins flown in from Munich, Germany, the beer garden will provide both Bavarian and Edelweiss beer. Meanwhile, at the Hotel Delmonico in New York, GM Joe Keminski is offering as a welcome amenity his own Hotel Delmonico spring water. The blue bottle, etched with the hotel’s “lion’s crest” logo, bids guests a welcome to the hotel, and is offered for free, said Keminski. “There are several companies in New York that will customize bottles for you,” said Keminski, who said he is also considering offering a welcome glass of champagne, as well as caviar, since there is a caviar bar located downstairs from the hotel. Up the block, at The Plaza Hotel, management is also working on customizing its in-room beverage offerings. In fact, senior members of the food and beverage staff flew to France to select their own wine and champagne that could be offered in the hotel’s minibars. Visiting the French region of Burgundy, assistant director of food and beverage Tom Norberg selected a chablis and burgundy that are now provided in half-bottle sizes in the minibars. “We had found that a lot of people couldn’t supply us steadily with half-bottles of wine, so we went directly to France to get it,” said Norberg. The wine, which carries The Plaza label, is selling at a 25% higher rate than the wines previously sold in the rooms, said Norberg. Champagne is also sold in half-bottle size with a Plaza label, and was personally selected by the hotel’s food-and-beverage team. Other trends management has noted in in-room beverages is that guests prefer bottled water sold in the minibars to be in plastic, rather than glass containers, since the bottles are usually taken out of the room, en route to a business meeting, for example. More Bottles Jeff Jacobs, The Plaza’s executive food and beverage director, said that he has also increased the number of bottles offered in the minibar from two to four. “One reason we do this is because 50% of our visitors tend to be international and are used to drinking bottled water,” said Jacobs, who noted tha
