What are mini-bar policies for one-night stays in hotels?

One thing to consider is that, despite what common sense or simplistic views of economic theory might suggest, many businesses actually rely to a large extent on the customers' honesty.

For example, I have worked at a café in an area with many tourists (i.e. people we don't know and who have no reason to fear having a bad reputation or being denied service in the future) and many tables outside that weren't visible from the bar. We tried to keep track of things, at busy times we asked people to pay right away (some bars in bigger cities make that a policy, especially in the evening) but also often let people get their drinks first. We had no time to actively monitor all tables and it would therefore be pretty easy to slip away unnoticed. It did happen once in a while that someone left without paying but on the whole most people just pay what they owe, even come to the bar to pay if nobody is visible, warn us when we make a mistake or come back later if they accidentally forgot to pay.

Anecdotally, it seems that few people would just stand up and leave but it happened a few times that customers took advantage of mistakes (e.g. waiter asks “you had three beers, right?” and the person says yes even though they got another round from another waiter). Maybe the social pressure against doing that is lower since the process is initiated by someone else or something like that…

I have also seen self-service fruit stands in rural areas in France and Switzerland. Producers would simply set up a table with fruits on it, a box to collect the money and a sign with the price and not much preventing anybody from stealing the produce and/or the proceeds from previous sales.

It might not work in every context (most of the hotels I stay at actually don't have minibars, I guess people might have less prevention against stealing from a big corporation than from an independent business) but many hotels might just rely on this and consider mistakes and petty theft as a cost worth bearing for the sake of offering better service to other customers.

I travel quite a bit and there are a number of different ways that the minibar set up might work.

1. In more upmarket hotels the mini bar is often automated. With small pressure sensors that activate it the item is removed. It tells the hotel billing computer to add the charge to your final bill.

2. In a hotel where i stayed recently the minibar was empty, with a note saying that if i wanted it stocked then I would need to pay a deposit, or have a hold placed of £50 on my credit card.

3. In smaller mid range / boutique hotels or guest houses it is often done on an more basic level. Where, as you described, the minibar is checked after checkout. If you were to check in using a prepaid card the hotel might clear the minibar.

I recently stayed in a chain hotel that had an honesty slip. Where I filled out what had been used and handed that in at checkout. However that hotel also took a copy of my id so would have had some recourse. At the very least I think they would blacklist you so you could not make a booking again.

Interesting to see the number of references to hotel mini-bars being overpriced, which of course most are. It is for that reason when we acquired our hotel [a new venture for us] we decided to price it at local shop prices. We make our money from our rooms, the mini-bar is a facility for our guests. If the local corner shop can make money at their prices, so can we. As for the original question, our Terms include a clause allowing us to charge the guests credit card for undeclared mini-bar items PLUS a re-stocking service charge. Cash paying guests have to wait while their room is checked.

Your main question has been answered by others, but regarding the prepaid card idea; most hotels will put a hold on your card (prepaid or not) for a certain amount (e.g. $40). That in essence, 'holds' the money for them, should they need to use it for incidentals. Therefore, you can't simply use a prepaid card that has $1 on it, because when they try to put a hold on it, it will fail, and they will ask you for another card. This is also why you can no longer steal gasoline using a prepaid card (a large chunk is 'held' to ensure that it can be charged for the gasoline).