At fancy hotels, the new thing is the maxi-bar
H| otels are turning to new bar experiences as a means to keep luxury customers on their toes — and increase favorable food and beverage margins, while they’re at it.
Enter in-room cocktail service. While in-room dining has been on the decline — showing a 3 percent dip from 2016 to 2017, according to hospitality insights firm STR — hoteliers are realizing that expertly shaken martinis, rather than well-done cheeseburgers, are just what travelers want showing up at their doors. In some cases, that means dispatching a bartender for in-person service; at other times, it’s about making a room’s minibar feel more like a home bar.
“As the mother of a 6-year-old, having a perfectly created cocktail in my room creates a really memorable moment,” says Kelly McCourt, director of sales and marketing at The Darcy, which opened in Washington, D.C., last year with a cocktail butler who crafts the hotel’s signature drinks from a bedside bar cart.
In Miami Beach, The Nobu Hotel’s Beverage Butler has also been going strong, ferrying a trolley of liquid wares up and down guest corridors since just after it opened in late 2016. The Campari sodas he shakes are complimentary, but the hotel doesn’t advertise the service in order to “surprise and delight” guests.
Consider this the next evolution in luxury hotel service; after all, why go down to the bar when the drinks can come to you?
Here, the leaders of the in-room drinking pack — expect to see additional resorts join the ranks in the very near future.