Hotel Guest Vending Product: Segment, Features and City-Level Market Estimate

Design a vending machine product for hotels, built around the guests who stay in them. Then estimate how large the market for it is in your hometown. ### Clarifying Questions - Who is building it: a hotel chain for its own properties, a vending operator that places and restocks machines, or a hardware company selling connected machines to hotels? The answer changes whether success means guest satisfaction or machines sold. - Which hotels are in scope: full-service hotels that already offer round-the-clock room service, select-service business hotels, or small guesthouses and B&Bs? - Is the assortment limited to snacks and drinks, or can it include travel essentials such as toiletries, phone chargers and plug adapters? - For the estimate, should the market be counted in machines, in buyers, or in annual sales? ### Part 1 — Design the product Pick the type of hotel and the guests you are designing for, lay out their pain points, and propose a prioritized product with success metrics. ```hint Walk through the night Follow a guest from a late check-in to the next morning and note each moment when the hotel cannot sell them what they need. Then remember that the hotel and whoever restocks the machine also have to want it. ``` #### What This Part Should Cover - A chosen hotel type and guest segment, with the reason the others wait - Pain points specific to a hotel stay, for guests and for the hotel and restocker - A prioritized feature set that differs from an ordinary snack machine, and what is left out - Success metrics with guardrails for guests and for the hotel ### Part 2 — Size the market in your hometown Estimate the market for the product from Part 1 in your hometown. Say what unit you are counting and label every assumption. ```hint Choose the unit before the inputs Decide whether you are counting machines, purchases or yearly sales, and anchor the estimate on something that grows with hotel stays rather than with the number of residents. ``` #### What This Part Should Cover - A clear definition of the market and its unit - An equation whose inputs are each labeled as assumptions with round numbers - Correct arithmetic and a sanity check from a second angle ### What a Strong Answer Covers - Treating guests, the hotel and the restocking operator as users whose needs all have to be met - Hotel-specific choices such as late-night access, forgotten essentials and charging purchases to the room - The same segment carried from the design into the estimate - Risks such as eating into restaurant and minibar sales, thin economics at small properties, and age-restricted products - The least certain assumption and how a pilot would pin it down ### Follow-up Questions - The hotel already earns money from a minibar and a restaurant. How would you show the owner that the machine adds revenue rather than moving it around? - A pilot finds that machines in small guesthouses sell too little to pay for restocking visits. What would you change in the product or the business model? - How would the design differ between a resort and an airport hotel?