Why Is A Hotel Minibar’s Vodka Often Cheaper Than The Peanuts?

(R.Duran)

It’s getting late. You’ve had a rough day, what with that sprint to catch your connecting flight through Atlanta and then that thing with the cab and the monkey, ugh — time to kick back and relax in your hotel room. So what do you reach for first, the almost $20 can of peanuts or the more reasonably priced, albeit tiny bottle of vodka?

Yes, the vodka is often cheaper at a hotel minibar, reports Quartz, using data from a recent TripAdvisor survey that looked at the prices of in-room orders. That can include anything from a sandwich to a can pf peanuts, a bottled water or that tempting little mini-bottle of booze.

Hotels included in the survey were the 10 four-star hotels most popular with TripAdvisor’s users in cities like New York, Oslo and Toronto. And at many of those, not only are the peanuts more expensive than vodka, but even pricier than a bottled water. To be fair, a mini-bottle of booze in a hotel room is usually smaller than a bottle of water. Otherwise that is a great deal.

But why would hotels price it that way? Maybe to use the vodka as sort of a gateway purchase: Drink that vodka after a long day just to wind down, because it’s the cheapest thing in there, and suddenly you’re hungry for a salty snack. Cue the peanuts. And then $18 later, you’re thirsty. Here comes that water, price be damned!

Or you can do what the smart people do — just bring your own tiny bottles and snacks and charge yourself nothing for the pleasure of consuming it all, while pointing at laughing at the disconsolate, neglected minibar fridge.

The inexplicable prices in hotel minibars around the world [Quartz]

by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist