Hotel mini bars - To license or not to license
2013
Recent trade press reports have indicated a trend away from mini bars in bedrooms at hotels. It is perhaps a timely reminder of the question of when and whether residential rooms/hotel bedrooms/letting rooms should be included within the licensed area for licensed premises.
Certainly for most full service hotels we would generally advocate the inclusion of bedrooms within the licensed area to remove any question of provision of licensed activity by the sale of alcohol into rooms without a premises licence, but it is not always the case, or necessary.
Where there are mini bars then the rooms should always be licensed by inclusion in the licence, but if there is no mini bar and no room service there will generally be no need to include such bedrooms.
If there is room service then we would suggest inclusion to be on the safe side.
The only down side to inclusion would seem to be that if alterations are to be undertaken to the residential rooms (and even if there are no alterations to any bar areas etc) then this may require an application to the licensing authority to vary the premises licence, which has cost implications.
It is an area that to the best of our knowledge has never been fully tested!