I recently took my entire family — including the in-laws — to Scottsdale, Arizona for a little summer fun at a very posh desert resort.
Okay, perhaps I’m exaggerating just a tiny bit. Let’s call it fairly posh.
Regardless, one thing is certain: the resort is still fancier than a Holiday Inn Express. For example, it has honest-to-goodness living, breathing valets. They even greeted us warmly as we pulled up to the lobby — despite the fact we drove up in an old beat-up minivan that ended up looking more like a clown car after we opened the doors and everyone managed to finally stagger out.
Did I mention the resort also has many amenities? Uh huh. Spacious multi-room suites, a spa, a golf course, a nice swimming pool, bike riding, hiking trails and, of course, the obligatory bar with a couple of fancy-pansy restaurants to boot.
I know what you’re thinking: Okay, Len, so who recently died and left you a small fortune? Well, the answer is nobody.
The fact is, because the average summertime temperature in Scottsdale is only a few degrees cooler than the surface of the sun, it’s not very hard to find resorts there offering accommodations between June and September for a song.
My family ended up getting several spacious guest rooms for $300 per night. Yes; the very same ones that normally go for $1600 or more during the winter high season. Needless to say, it’s an incredible low season deal for those willing to brave the desert heat.
But while the resorts giveth in the form of low season deals, they also taketh away.
For instance, consider one of the great mysteries of life: the in-room hotel mini-bar. Ours included a well-stocked goodie basket full of snacks, bottled water, and even a $25 sleeve of three golf balls. I assume that is for duffers who want to stock their bag before hitting the course. But while the resort was practically giving their gorgeous suites away, their mini-bar prices were so far out of touch with reality that they bordered on price gouging.
I realize that this is no big revelation, folks, but still … check out these goodie basket prices:
- Cheez-It crackers (1.5 oz.) $12
- Rold-Gold pretzels (2.0 oz.) $12
- M&M’s candies (1.74 oz.) $12
- Kit Kat candy bar (1.5 oz) $12
- Snickers candy bar (2.1 oz) $12
- Nutri-Grain cereal bar (1.3 oz) $12
- Pringles (1.4 oz.) $12
- Famous Amos chocolate chip cookies (2.0 oz.) $14
- Bottled water (1 liter) $18
I was too afraid to unlock the accompanying refrigerator that was filled with alcohol and cans of soda for sale. But I’m sure those prices were, shall we say, “exorbitant” too.
For awhile, I even strongly considered locking the goodie-basket snacks in the refrigerator too — and then throwing away the key — just in case my kids got any “bright ideas” in the middle of the night. That’s why, if you’re on a tight budget, it’s important to avoid temptation and stay away from those in-room snacks. Otherwise, any low season deal savings you secure can be quickly eroded.
The best way to do this is to bring your own snacks and drinks from home; we bring everything from pretzels to potato chips, as well as a cooler full of soft drinks and other beverages. If you can’t do that, at least stock up on munchies from a nearby grocer or liquor store before checking in to your room.
Remember, while resort hotels usually have a low season — it’s always the high season at the mini-bar.
Photo Credit: Dru Bloomfield – At Home In Scottsdale
The hilarious part is that there was most likely a vending machine or two that would have had many of the same items. While still overpriced at the vending machine, it would still have been 50-75% (or more) cheaper to get a kit kat bar, so figure they want you to pay $3 for the ‘convenience’ of not having to walk down the hall. Yikes!
You would think — in fact, I’ve been to plenty of properties that have mini-bars competing with the vending machines. But at this place there were zero vending machines on the property. You had to order room service, go to the bar, or plunge into the mini-bar.
Fourteen bucks for Famous Amos cookies, wow that’s a lot.
I hope you are enjoying your vacation Len. Being with family is the best part.
It is insane that they would charge prices like that, but it is well-known. Must be that business travelers use those and charge them to the company. Otherwise, those snacks would just get stale sitting there waiting for someone to fork over $12 for a snack bag.
I’m with ya! Every time I see those prices I have to wonder who on planet Earth actually buys this stuff for those prices? I guess the mark-ups are so large that as long as they can sell just one item, it probably covers the waste and remaining financial losses that result from the other products going stale. One has to be really desperate to buy a Kit Kat bar for $12.
Great price on the resort stay. We always avoid the mini fridge at all cost. I’d rather order a sandwich from room service if I was really craving some food.
No kidding! Although room service has its own set of price point problems too. (Although, I do enjoy getting room service every now and then. It really is a nice treat.)
Dude, those snacks are ridiculously pricey. I would bring my own too. That is a fantastic deal on the hotel, however. I just got my girlfriend a great on one for when she comes as well. You can snag them if you look!
You’re right, Jon. There are lots of places you can take advantage of if you are willing to travel during their respective traditional off seasons.
It’s not unlike some movie theaters where you easily pay more for popcorn and soda than you do for the ticket.
True. Or printers where you ultimately pay much more for the ink! Speaking of movies, we rented an in-room movie while we were there for the low low price of $30.
Reminds me of how I had to pay $100 to park a car overnight once, at a hotel. Had no choice. Of course, thankfully it was on business, so I expensed it:) And, made sure to take a cab on subsequent business trips!
The unadvertised, hidden costs…have to love them.
No charge for the valet parking at this resort, Wise Squirrel.
A few years ago I checked into a pretty good hotel. I was attending some important business meetings. All on expenses too !!! Some of my team went out that night and I knew they would be hitting it hard so I deeded to stay in ( no, I’m not a misery, my meeting was first on the agenda next morning). So I checked the movie schedule and popped out to the small market to top up on a couple of beers, a few snacks and a big ham sandwich which I could not resist!!
Watched the movie, eat my stuff, drank the beers and went to sleep. Early morning rise, nice shower, breakfast and head off to the meeting. Everything went really well. The client accepted the solution and I was done for the day. Went to a nice lunch and while the rest of the guys went back to work I head back to the hotel. I was going to use the pool and relax because tonight was my turn !!
I get to the hotel and the reception desk call me over. Present me with a letter to say they had charged my credit card already, my case had been packed and was with the concierge. What the ???
Apparently the hotel had a rule that said “no outside food and beverages”. The housekeeper saw the rubbish in the bin and of course told the management. No quiet chat, please don’t do it again, oh no, kicked out. I was fuming.
I checked out all of my team and used the house phone to call one of the other hotels. Told them what had happened and asked them to send their people carrier around at 6 pm to collect all of us.
Our company had a corporate deal with that hotel chain. We cancelled it.
I hate these big hotels. They act as if they are doing you a favor by allowing you to stay in their place. They think that because they are a 5 star establishment that they, the staff, are somehow 5 star as well. Not everyone is like that of course. There are some nice people working in these places but they are forced to apply the policies of their executives.
I live in Asia now and the care you receive in hotels here is far superior. They charge of course but only fairly. You bring food into the hotel and they help you with it !! offer you plates, cutlery etc. That’s how it should be.
Wow, talk about a no tolerance policy… that is unbelievable! All for a ham sandwich too. Is the luxury hotel business so good these days that these 5-star hotels don’t have to worry too much about competition from similar properties? I wish you’d share the name of the hotel so we can all avoid it in the future. Go ahead, let ’em have it Cemlyn!
It’s like buying candy at the movies! People pay for convenience. What a profit margin on that, huh? $12 for a $1 cost of goods sold? We’ve stayed in hotels plenty of times and I can think of only once I paid for a beer in the fridge – on our honeymoon! And it pained me to do it even then.
I didn’t check, but I suspect the single shot bottles of vodka and Jack Daniels had to be $25 each. A friend of mine told me he recently paid $15 for a can of soda from the mini-bar while he was on a business trip.
I bet the marketing guys have a lot of fun coming up with the prices for the minibar. I’m sure they have side bets on how many $14 bags of cookies they’ll sell each month.
I would love to know what percent of people actually buy that mini-bar stuff. Almost every hotel I have been to has a gift shop downstairs or a CVS nearby that you could buy whatever you wanted at a quarter of the price. Maybe business people can dig in to the mini bar and expense it? I don’t know, but those prices are crazy.
One thing is certain, Kris: the mini-bar would be real a killer for people traveling on per diem! 🙂
A daily meal per-diem is exactly the traveling policy my current company now has, and I’ll bet it was inspired by mini-bar and other abuses.
I’ve always been price sensitive even when it’s not my dime, treat rental cars the same as I treat my own cars, etc.
On the other hand, I’ve met plenty of people who simply don’t care, who will abuse rental cars and live as high on the hog as they can get away with while on the company dime. For example, if a company has a “we don’t cover alcoholic beverages” policy, they just pad their meal expenses by a few dollars per meal to cover the cost, since receipts are only required if a meal exceeds $25.
But even that is relatively “honest” in that the padding is rationalized to cover what many see as legitimate expenses, and who don’t like overly paternalist policies interfering in what they see as personal off-duty choices while traveling for the company.
Then you have the “truly dishonest” class: Those who pad expenses for no reason other than to pocket some extra cash. We even had a guy who once got a $1000 cash advance, and upon arrival at his destination, claimed the advance was stolen! It didn’t take long for his expense reports to be audited, and he was fired.
Wow, that’s a record. I’ve done priceline a bunch of times and you do end up getting nickle and dimed on parking fees, internet charges, etc but overall still a great deal as long as the AC charge wasn’t extra.
No, the A/C was no extra charge — and the Honeybee kept the thermostat only slightly above freezing. I had a beanie on in the room almost the whole time, even though it was 105 degrees outside. I’m not kidding.
We always bring our own food too, though we look a little like campers when we bring in our stuff. We try to find a side door convenient to our room rather than drag the cooler through a posh lobby. Our grocery bags that say “Walmart” on the sides don’t impress either! lol
We’ve gotten good deals on nice hotels through Priceline. Congrats on such a nice deal!
When it comes to hauling in our coolers, my family doesn’t care. We lug ’em in right past the front desk staff — along with the pillows we bring from home too. 🙂
I used to travel a lot to the US with work, and stayed in some pretty fancy hotels.
I think I really realised I was never going to be a rock star when I first encountered minibars.
Okay, the obvious evidence was that I *wasn’t* a rock star, but was just traveling with work!
But also, even though I was on expenses I just couldn’t bring myself to raid the mini bar. I couldn’t stick it to my employer like that.
Not eating over-priced Pringles out of a sense of civic duty sort of rules out throwing the television from the window into the pool.
Len, that’s a lot of companion to bring with in a summer vacation. But, I know you must have had a blast over there at Arizona being with them! The more the merrier!
My girlfriend and I stayed in a hotel one time for our anniversary. The wait staff accidentally thought it was our WEDDING anniversary. We ended up getting parking validated, brunch, a bottle of wine & cheese delivered to the room without even asking for it!!!
Wow! Good for you, Tim!
Which hotel chain was it? They should get props for the gesture!
My wife and I were on a business trip to Vancouver, and after discovering on the website that the Fairmont Hotel had stocked minibars, she suddenly became “diabetic” and needed the mini bar emptied before arrival. We brought our own snacks. But they did provide a weight scale to use in the room, to my wife’s disgust.
Hi Len,
I followed your link concerning the Mini-Van and just had to “jump on your car bandwagon” idea of keepin’ ’em long and maintainin’ ’em meticulously. I have a ’95 Honda Odyssey with 271000+ miles on it with every record keep since mile number 13., and while it is definitely long in the tooth and a sore site upon which to look, she still starts on the first turn of the key! I have averaged less than a $100.00 a month on the repair bill, which includes maintenance, since I paid it off in 1997.
My wife had a 2003 Kia (she bought it before I married her), and it had 130,000+ miles before the insurance bought it from us, due to it being totaled from her being hit by a drunk driver. She was not hurt, thankfully. The maintenance on it averaged about $150.00 per month, so the type of older car one keeps makes a difference in the upkeep, too, but maintaining the old Kia was still cheaper than buying a new one. We definitely save by keeping the old cars in top-notch shape. I was able to save that “new car money” for both my kids’ college degrees, and they both graduated with no college loans, as did I. Oh, yea, forgot to mention…the first 90 Honda Accord only had 268,000 miles on it before I bought my daughter a used 2008 150 Ford Pickup, since she rides horses and rodeos. I was able to save much money for college with no car payments (paid the Accord off in 92) by having no monthly car payments, just maintenance, for quite a while. My wife and I just bought my first new car since 1995 and intend to keep this one for a long, long time, too! I guess some of the downsides to keeping an old car might be not having the safety features that a brand new car has that my ol’ ManVan doesn’t. Oh and the scary ol’ paint job – or lack of paint – she now has!!!
Kenny E. Williams
Wow. I don’t think I’ve ever stayed at any resort with a mini-bar. Water for purchase though.
We did get hit with a “resort fee” last time though. I am pretty careful, usually, about these things. When looking at prices, I list the places that I am considering, and add in a column in a spreadsheet for internet, parking, resort fees, transportation (for example, when we were going to Legoland, I compared taking a shuttle, staying at a place WITH a shuttle, and parking).
Yeah, Marcia, those “resort fees” really blow — and the hotels refuse to waive them. Even worse, hotels don’t have to include the resort fee as part of the room prices when advertising. What is interesting is that the airlines are forced by law to include all fees in their ticket prices, but they don’t require the same from hotels. I guess the hotels have better lobbyists!