Monday in the show "Historically yours", David Castello-Lopes looks at the origins of the minibar.
An object invented in the 1960s and popularized thanks to the Hilton hotels.
But the golden age of the minibar seems to be over, a real heartbreaking for the columnist.
Every day, in
Historically yours
, David Castello-Lopes offers to discover the origins of an object of our daily life.
On Monday, the columnist chose to start the week by leaning over the minibar.
The object was all the rage in hotel rooms a while ago but is now endangered.
A German invention that boosted hotel profits
"I have been to a lot of hotels this summer and noticed that the minibars were empty almost everywhere. A sadness that we probably owe to health reasons. Because seeing all these empty minibars pains me: the minibar is one of my pleasures in hotels, especially when you're with people you love. You get up, take a micro-bottle of Ruinart at 67 euros that you accompany with a handful of peanuts that are worth as much as a return trip Paris-Lille by TGV, and you can savor it, and it's because I love the luxury of minibars that I wanted to know its origins.
The minibar was invented in the 1960s by a German company, the Siegas.
But the first hotel to put it in all of these rooms was the Hong Kong Hilton in 1974. Facilities were spurred on by the hotel's food and beverage manager, Robert Arnold.
He sets up the minibars on one floor of the hotel before generalizing the process in view of its success.
And we have to believe that he was right since consumption in the hotel's 840 rooms has increased by 500%.
An increase that directly boosted the hotel's profits by 5%.
A real success for Hilton, which then decided to generalize it in all its establishments, before its competitors do the same.
>> Find all the origins of David Castello-Lopes
A Golden Age Gone
But for the past fifteen years, the golden age of the minibar has ended, in particular because of theft.
For example, there are a lot of people who drink the small bottles of vodka and fill them with water before putting them back in the minibar.
The hoteliers therefore found a parade with what an American journalist called a "high security prison for orange juice and other chocolate bars".
Concretely, each product is placed on a small platform which, when the item is removed, sends a notification to reception and the price of the item is automatically added to your invoice.
Suddenly, if you want to examine a small bottle of whiskey and decide to put it down after a few seconds, your bill still swells by 42.50 euros.
Something to make customers cautious,
especially
when we know that companies now accept less that their traveling executives spend crazy sums for the hotel minibar.
It is therefore for all these reasons that the minibar is less and less widespread.
A real heartbreak because, you will agree, peanuts are much tastier when they cost the price of a Paris-Lille return trip by TGV. "