The Mandarin Oriental Las Vegas has found its 23rd floor lobby’s 40-foot high wall of 1,516 mock-gold bars, looking like bullion, a selfie hit. To celebrate the seventh birthday of the 392-room hotel, which opened in December 2009, General Manager Donald Bowman wanted an additional wow factor.
A team member suggested a Champagne vending machine. The hotel bought the machine outright and set it next to the bullion-look wall.
The return on investment has been huge, with average monthly sales of bubbly of more than US$15,000. From the front desk a few yards away, guests can buy US$25 tokens that come with small golden plastic Champagne flutes and stoppers to fit the neck of a quarter-bottle. Put the token in the machine, press the number of a bottle of brut or rosé Moët, and out it pops, nicely chilled.
Once the bottle is in hand, the stopper is removed and the flute is inserted. “As well as a financial return, the vending machine has proved to be yet another social media hit. Since installing the machine just before Christmas, we have had over a quarter of a billion social media impressions,” Bowman says.