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Is it a sign that hotels are becoming more like airlines in their desire to streamline their core product while hiking up the price of extras?
The Netherlands has a reputation in Europe for being a good place to test-market new concepts in hospitality—just look at chic and cheap hotel chain CitizenM or Amsterdam's new flashpacker paradise, The Student Hotel. And it seems that lately, many of those concepts have been no-frills ideas that owe more to paring back. Enter the latest innovation from Holland: the Minibarbox. Launched recently by Amsterdammer Vincent van Dijk, it’s essentially a booze picnic, sold from hotel reception desks for around €15, that eradicates the need for a full-scale minibar service. Possibly more to the point, it also eliminates unseemly disputes at check out. Already stocked at Ramada Apollo, DoubleTree by Hilton Amsterdam, and Holiday Inn Express The Hague, the Minibarbox contains a Heineken beer, a Ketel1 jenever, and some rather nice Dutch cheese biscuits. Is it a sign that hotels are becoming more like airlines in their desire to streamline their core product while hiking up the price of extras? |
