minibar madness

Let me begin by affirming that Bellagio is a valued Virtuoso travel partner in Las Vegas. It is a casino resort with...

A warm and hospitable staff. Bellagio been hosting Travel Week for as long as I have been attending (12 years), and all my Virtuoso colleagues appreciate how well Bellagio's employees take care of us, even though our total attendance is over five thousand.

A great location in the center of the strip with "Lake Como" in the front of the hotel and fountain shows throughout the day.

A beautiful lobby with large Murano glass flowers adorning the ceiling and a sunny courtyard that features different, imaginative displays.

A large pool area with plenty of loungers and nice, warm water to lounge in.

Great food — I've enjoyed wonderful meals at Michael Mina, Harvest, and Lago so far this week.

But along with the compliments, I want to pass along a word of caution. Like most hotels, every room has a minibar. Bellagio's minibar has "move it and you've paid for it" technology. The pricing is exorbitant, but the price list is hidden. It's not in print and can be accessed only by turning on the room television, going to the menu, clicking three times to the right to select "Dining" and five more times to the right to select "minibar." As a public service, I've provided a screen shot of the [current] price list. $18 for a liter of Fiji water? Really!

But even more unfortunate is the note in small type on a card in front of the countertop display display of chips, cookies, water, etc.

A $50 per day service fee will be applied for storing personal items or altering existing items within the mini bar. Refrigerators for personal use are available for a daily fee.

Not nice ... and customer unfriendly. So I pass this along as feedback to my friends at Bellagio and as a caveat emptor to my readers. If you want to store baby formula in the minibar at Bellagio, don't!

copyright  (c)  2017 by Ourisman Travel LLC.  All rights reserved. We provide Virtuoso and other Preferred Partner amenities as an affiliate of Brownell, a Virtuoso® member. If you have comments on this column, or questions about booking travel, email me or visit my website.