The rules—sometimes unspoken—regarding hotel minibars vary, depending on the hotel. Sometimes the drinks in these hotel minibars are complimentary. Sometimes guests get charged based on what they consume. And sometimes, as some TikTokers are learning the hard way, guests get charged simply for opening and moving items around in the fridge.
On hotel guest named Karima recently made a video after finding out the hotel she was staying at charged guests a whopping $50 just for altering the contents inside the miniature fridge. This practice is upsetting to customers who buy their own beverages, like water, or refrigerated food and need a chilly place to store them.
Another TikToker who clearly didn’t see Karima’s video made a very expensive mistake while staying at the Venetian Hotel.
In a video with 3.2 million views, TikTok user Bella (@dynewithbella) shows how the hotel fridge is “stocked” with beverages like miniature Jack Daniels and Tito’s bottles as well as bottled waters, canned soda, canned beer, and canned energy drinks.
Bella notes that hotels charge a lot just so that guests can have the convenience of being able to drink a Coke at 3am. So Bella says she went to CVS to stock up on beverages.
She then films herself removing the hotel-provided beverages from the fridge and fills it up with her own CVS-bought Aquafina and Pepsi.
“Let me just remove all these drinks and then put our own,” she says after calling herself “smart” for thinking of this.
“What do you think happened in the morning after I did this?” she asks her 21,000 followers.
Viewers speculated Bella was charged for all the items she removed, leaving comments like “you definitely paying for all the drinks” and “Instead of paying for midnight coke…you pay for all the drinks.”
@dynewithbella Do y’all think we’ll repeat this hack ever again 😭 #hoteltiktok #minibar #vegastiktok #traveltiktok #hotel #lasvegastiktok #thevenetianlasvegas ♬ original sound – Bella ❤️
The Daily Dot reached out to Bella via Instagram direct message and TikTok comment and the Venetian Hotel via press email.
In a follow-up video, Bella confirmed she was charged for the beverages she removed. “We woke up in the middle of the night, a charge on our accounts because we removed those drinks,” she said. She said she was charged $175.
Venetian Hotel’s website confirms it has sensors where the drinks are located in the fridge. “Fees will apply to your guest account as soon as they are removed from the refreshment center,” it notes.
Bella said she went to the front desk and explained everything. She luckily had the video to show them proof she didn’t drink any of the beverages, and the hotel agreed to remove the charges. “Anytime you see this minibar, make sure there’s no sensors. Confirm with the front desk please,” she said, ending her follow-up with some advice.
