A
mini-bar is a small, private snack and beverage
bar often found in upscale Western-style
hotel rooms.
Typically, a mini-bar comes in the form of a counter and small refrigerator stocked with a precise inventory. The room's guests can take a beverage or snack at any time during their stay. The bar is commonly stocked with small bottles of alcoholic beverages, juice, and soft drinks as well as candy (sweets), cookies (sweet biscuits), crackers (savoury biscuits) and other small snacks. Prices are generally very high relative to similar items purchased in a store, since the guest is paying for the convenience of the items and upkeep of the bar. Many hotels have progressed further to offer non-food items, such as socks, toiletries, and condoms. Some even use infrared or other high-tech methods of automatically recording purchases.
The German company Siegas introduced the first refrigerated mini-bar in the early 1960s. Earlier mini-bars did not have refrigerators, so the idea likely stretches back at least to the early 1950s.
Although Siegas introduced the first mini refrigerator in the early 1950s, it was not until Robert Arnold who as Director of Food and Beverage and his team of hotel executives, including Joe Wu, EAM Ian Duncan and Senior Vice President and General Manager of Hilton International Ken Moss that the Hong Kong Hilton in 1974 first experimented with the idea of introducing honesty mini bars to the Hotel industry.
