Which is more viable for a vending machine? Hotels or airports?

 When it comes to a vending machine, profitability depends not just on what your inventory is, but your placement of the machine. Said inventory has to be placed in an area where the people who encounter it are the type of people who would even want it, of course. It also has to be placed in an area was sufficient traffic, and the price has to be right for the type of traffic moving through the area.

This leads to an age-old question vending machine operators have always asked: hotel vending machine or airport vending machine? Ideally, profitability will be maximized by engaging with both of these channels, but that just may not be an option, depending on your area. Also, it is worth noting, that while airports are far bigger than most hotels, the established proliferation of vending machines means that the competition for space in attention is a lot higher there. But, I’m getting ahead of myself by talking about that part just now.

First, let’s discuss a little bit about exactly what type of general transactions occur with vending machines, because there are generally three different reasons why somebody uses one.

Types of Engagement with a Vending Machine - As I said, there are generally three reasons why people engage a vending machine. The biggest one is impulse buy, as people walk by a vending machine, see the soda or candy bar or snack in it, and think, “oh that sounds good, why not, I’ll treat myself treat myself”. This is 90% of the sales in places like malls, convenience stores, and other retail spaces.

However, these impulse buys are also a big part of airport purchases, which means that airports are much more sensitive with placement to catch the eye.

Another big pull is convenience, which is universal, is convenience. People have a feeling of low blood sugar, or their thirsty, as more convenient to just put up with the higher price of a vending machine, along with the lower selection of choices, and go with whatever they can find.

The last one is timeliness. People are in a hurry, and it simply all they have time for.

The Ups and Downs of Hotels - The up side of a hotel vending machine is that you don’t have to compete for attention quite as badly as you do with an airport. Impulse buys are rarer with hotel patrons, but convenience is a huge drive. It’s inconvenient to go to a store and keep a bunch of drinks and whatnot in your hotel room, but it’s convenient to just run to the vending machine and get a few drinks of the time and put them in the little mini fridge. The same goes for snacks, as people likely don’t know the area, and don’t want to go driving around looking for chips or candy bars.

The downside is that there isn’t as much ongoing through traffic, as the population of an airport changes nearly every half an hour as planes arrive in the part and people come and go with them. There’s also less space, though this one isn’t as big of a deal as you might think.

The Ups and Downs of Airports - Airports are a little different, while there is a lot more space there, the competition is going to be a lot more fierce. However, you can be more diverse with your inventory in an airport, if you’re lucky, you can run a lot more machines, and there is a lot more refreshed traffic.

However, unlike most hotels, you have to compete more fiercely with actual food establishments that are prevalent throughout an airport. These establishments tend to be pretty quick, so the convenience aspect isn’t really is great, and you have to fight for impulse buys a lot more in an airport. This doesn’t mean that hotels are naturally better than an airport vending machine, but I will say that you have to try a lot harder in an airport, though it is pretty rewarding if you can manage things correctly.