The hotels will actually keep the card you paid with on file and charge you for the mini bar in a second transaction. I've had it happen quite a bit when I've used the mini bar but the items from the last night hadn't been accounted for in the bill as the cleaners will restock and note down what was taken from the mini bar each day.
Explained in sibling comments: Room, breakfast, wifi and parking is payed by the company. Minibar and everything else there is: Nope.
I go down to the reception, they look at the bill, ask me if I consumed something from the minibar ("Never!") and wave goodbye.
They are not authorized to charge the company card for drinks or whatnot. They _could_ try to localize me based on the information I provided or .. I don't know - sue me across countries or something.
Disclaimer: I buy cheap drinks (including non-alcoholic beverages) in shops outside of the hotels I stay in. I hate the concept of minibars except as a fridge for MY stuff (those vending machine style of minibars really annoy the hell out of me). But I still insist that here/around me this exploit would work just as fine as the (to get back to the subject of the thread) exploit of the cafe that started this thread. It's not difficult. There are little to no repercussions. You will most likely get away with it. And most people still won't do it.
