Bartech Customers Experience Dramatic Rise in Minibar Operation Profits During COVID-19 Pandemic
Bartech, an automatic minibar solution provider for the global hospitality industry, has been recognized by its hotel clients around the world for serving as a vital source of revenue growth as operations continue evolving to minimize guest health risks. With many hotel businesses required to close or limit capacity to once profitable amenities including restaurants and bars, Bartech’s customers have since reported a surge in minibar consumption rates that have made up for financial losses from other underperforming areas.
As a substantial number of guests spend more time in their guestrooms to prevent possible germ exposure, numerous sales statistics continue to point to in-room minibars as a valuable source for fulfilling their immediate needs. Several hotels that have re-opened in fact indicated three times the revenue generated per guestroom when compared to pre-COVID numbers.
Significantly for such customers that are leveraging Bartech’s automatic and semi-automatic minibar solutions, any operating costs can be kept to a minimum regardless of consumption rates. Bartech’s minibar solutions can automatically track all purchases in real-time without the need for staff to enter individual guestrooms. This allows hoteliers to drastically cut down on the number of employees required to supervise F&B operations while ensuring that consumed items are always billed and result in profit.
“Hoteliers have had to re-evaluate how they cater to guest needs from the safety of their guestrooms and the impressive sales that we have seen from our customers demonstrates that minibar technology is a crucial component to achieving successful results,” said Bruno Agrario, VP of Sales and Marketing at Bartech. “We are extremely honored to see that our advanced minibar solutions are providing customers with the means to overcome revenue challenges while serving as a vital service that continues to see a diverse range of guest needs fulfilled.”
Among Bartech solutions that are attributed with ensuring hotel profitability, enhanced efficiency and guest satisfaction are the 40-liter C32 and 70-liter DD46 automatic minibars. Both minibars offer several options for integrating with a hotel’s PMS to automatically track purchases and individual minibar inventory levels. With the use of infrared, magnetic or micro-switch technology, Bartech’s minibars notably ensure that any consumed item is always accurately reported for billing and restocking purposes.
Bartech’s in-room services also extend to providing guests with the option to purchase non-refrigerated items using the innovative eTray. Costing approximately one third of the price of a full minibar, the eTray can be used for a broad array of items including snacks, bottled water and alcoholic beverages. For hoteliers seeking to address a wider range of guest needs, the eTray can also be used to provide in-room purchase options for headache medicine, sleeping masks, hand sanitizer, batteries, electronics and much more. Through its fully wireless operating abilities, the eTray also ensures that staff can remotely monitor and manage inventory levels, with purchases automatically transmitted to the PMS for billing.
Bartech further provides hoteliers using manual minibars with the opportunity to adapt an intelligent manual minibar F&B strategy with BarTouch Cloud. Using just a personal mobile device, hotel staff can instantly track individual minibar inventory levels and issue restock requests, allowing for the streamlining of F&B operations. The platform is compatible with both either Wi-Fi or 4G/5G and can be accessed from virtually anywhere in the world, allowing hotel staff to more effectively multi-task while ensuring more efficient and profitable F&B operations.
Using Bartech’s Minibar+ solution, hoteliers can also enhance their manual minibar operations with semi-automatic functionality. With no licensing fees or PMS integration expenses, the software serves as a “plug and play” solution that is available as a free downloadable app, and includes valuable features such as the ability to remotely control minibar temperatures without having to set foot inside a guestroom. Minibar+ also offers the ability for hotel staff to remotely lock and unlock minibars or monitor when a minibar door has been opened.