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Hotel Pricing


newguy47591

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I have a hotel with 97 rooms in a big town off the interstate. Hotel has a built in Dennys. Owner wants snack and soda machine up front in vending area and snack and soda in back vending area by pool.

My question is this is my first hotel account. What should my prices be on cans? 20 ounce? snacks?

Owner wants 10 percent commission.

Thanks!

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10% commission is pretty good in this case.  Honestly, I don't know what you should do about pricing but I would try to make everything cashless (or at least take credit cards) and mark everything up at least 50% more than usual (ie. if you normally sell 20 oz bottles for $1.50, sell them for $2.25).  The higher prices should offset vandalism damage and take care of the commission.

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Not sure that 97 rooms warrants 2 sets of machines at all.  You mention it's off the interstate; if it's primarily a short stay (1 or 2 night) type of location then a single set of machines should do fine.  I would not put anything by the pool but like AZ said, drink machine only if you must.  Personally, I don't take on lodging properties that require multiple locations; a single vending location with better machines/ selections and cashless is better for everyone IMHO.  I think PHX is on target with drink prices, for snacks $1 to 1.25 chips 1.50 candy.  Strongly consider credit card readers, and maybe use that as an incentive for the property to agree to one set of machines if you provide the cashless service. 

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We do a lot of hotels, A lot.  97 rooms will not support 2 drink and 2 snacks.   Offer to do the drink and snack up front and tell the owner you will see how they do, if needed you will install another drink by the pool.  Hotels want 20% to 25% commission.  Take your base rate and add the commission.  Example cans  12oz  base rate .75 plus 25   1.00  and so forth.

Also its not a good idea to put a snack outside because of the critters getting inside.

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I have a hotel account with 137 rooms.  

I am a special case where I don't have to pay commission, but to be honest, even if I had to pay commission, my prices would hardly change except for pastries and candy bars because their so expensive.  

These are my prices

 

Drinks

Cans 12 oz - $1 and I sell them like crazy.

Gatorade 20 oz- $2 and with 4 choices, they even sell out.

Water- $1 and it is one of my best selling drinks.  Apparently, people there even say the fountain water tastes funny haha.

Red Bull 12oz-  $3 

Monster-  $2.50 even though I could probably charge $3.

Lipton green tea 16 oz- $1.50.  They are cheaper to buy then Gatorade and people love them.

 

Snacks

1 oz chips- $1. They sell well even though my competitor in their sells the 2 oz for $1.35.

Pastries and bars- $1.25.  If I payed commission, this is the one thing I would change to at least $1.50.

Crackers-$1.  Even though crackers are cheap, I think people will still buy them at $1. 

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So hotels are doing well for u guys? I have 1 but i bought the machine (newer model si 3 wide with ivend and cc reader) for $1000. I left it there as its free storage its in a random hallway and it makes like $60 a month. I put everything at 1.50 tho i figured ppl wouldnt mind. I hit it up.once a monty and just keep the cash for gas but it doesnt do well. The front desk has a micro market looking setup so ive never asked them anything but it is pretty big maybe 200 rooms or more

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I have found Hotels do very well if the machines are placed correctly and you don't have a high rise with machines on every floor.  Best Westerns, Quality Inns, even Hotel 6 they do well.  Flea Bags do extremely well until they break in (which is just a matter of time).

One of my larger vending companies has just started doing some micro-markets. They tell me that an office account with 90 employees had has gone from $90 a week to $600 a month with a small market in the breakroom.  Dependable Vending is a solid company in California.  

There are no guarantees.  I have seen blue collar accounts with 200 employees be dogs.  Blue Collar with 40 employees be great.  Collision Centers always do well and are often overlooked by vendors to busy counting cars.  Not saying they bring in $100 weekly per machine but often they are close to that amount.  Not talking about a two person garage.  Call Centers even with 20 people are worth doing!  

Some problems can be pricing,  Product selection.  Type of employees.  Poor machine performance.  If a machine fails enough the employees will lose faith in it and not waste their money.  

As Greg Carron (vendor of the year) said, "the investment is a long term return.  You will know quickly just how long it will be!"

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