What is the best way to get hotel room upgrade in Vegas?
Like Ben says, the key is the Front Desk(FD) agent. I speak from experience as a FD agent (but not in a Vegas hotel).
First rule, don't expect anything in return if you're not first willing to invest.
Like attractive women, we are approached hundreds of times a night by people who think they are gonna score. So treat the situation as so. There are many variables to this situation that you probably wont be aware of at check-in like how full the hotel is and availability of upgrades.
There is 3 ways of getting upgraded:
1) The GTFO upgrade(a.k.a the lose-win)
You b*tch and moan until the agent upgrades you to get you out of their face. Usually old people and assh*les pull this sh*t off. We lose potential personal financial gain by giving away rooms.
2) The FD Up-sell (a.k.a. the win-win)
FD agents may or may not get commission from up-selling a room. i.e. you're cheap and book on priceline and the agent offers you a better room for $##.##/night. for my hotel we basically got 10%. again i.e. $40/night for 2 nights earned us $8 (before taxes) on our next paycheck. This would be a typical up-sell.
3) The Godfather (a.k.a the winner-winner-chicken-dinner)
"Make me an offer I can't refuse."
This is typically the best outcome for everybody. Here's the short version on how it works (read below for a longer version):
1) You approach agent.
2) You make friends with agent.
3) Agent upgrades you.
4) You tip the agent with cash.
Why it works:
You pay less than getting up-sold, the agent makes more than up-selling, the hotel makes more from increased gambling by guest with leftover money from not being up-sold.
Sounds easy enough right?
Read further to understand the situation:
1) The approach: is there a big check-in line? the agent is going to be rushed to check everyone in.
is there a whiney guest around? (think wussy cockblock who couldn't score with the chick that won't go away)
are you in good spirits? or did you just drive with a whiney gf for 5 hours? we are trained to read you and try to get you through the check-in process the way we think you want to get through the check-in process. approach us as if you were already a friend.
2) Making friends with the agent:
what's the agent's name? name tag says where he/she's from?
are you genuinely interested in talking to the agent? no? enjoy your priceline equivalent room.
3) Agent upgrades: it's a leap of faith.. agents generally don't receive a tip at all but that doesn't mean we don't want one so this is why we upgrade "cool" people. if we say, "we're gonna take care of you and put you in the.." or "i upgraded you to a..." that generally means we think you're cool and we want to "take care" or "upgrade" you and that a tip would be "taking care" of or "upgrading" our situation.
4) Tipping cash to the agent:
This is the most rewarding part (no pun intended)
Like women, we like mystery as much as we like being up front but can't decided what we like better so long as we get either one or the other. So leaving a tip at the end of checking-in vs. leaving a tip later that same night vs. leaving tip during mid-stay vs. leaving tip at the end of the stay all have different subtle effects on your stay. IMHO tip at the end of checking-in or after you went up to the room and you're on the way out to dinner or the club/floor to gamble.
As for the amount? If you have a good idea of worth, then tip whatever you feel that the upgraded room was worth to you, whoever may be staying with you, how it improved the quality of your stay, and how it made you feel by getting what you wanted. If you're bad at the above then tip at least $20 for a 1 night stay or I'd use 10-20% of whatever you paid/paying for the room per night as a good starting point.
Cheers
5 Answers
I'm not a big enough gambler to get comps and I find point systems seldom work.
The key is the clerk at check-in. The whole hotel business is built on the appearance that the hotel is full, but rooms are always available. I'd try subtly slipping the clerk $50 and asking if there any upgrades available. I've found that this can be a very effective way to get an upgrade or at least a discount on upgrades.
Just consider it another way to gamble.
A friend of mine had shown my Front Desk Tip before my trip to Vegas back in January and it worked for me and my buddy at The Mirage.
I got the feeling that it was an unwritten code that the front desk recognized and if you struck onto it they would be more than willing to upgrade you depeding on avaliability.
Like Ben says, the key is the Front Desk(FD) agent. I speak from experience as a FD agent (but not in a Vegas hotel).
First rule, don't expect anything in return if you're not first willing to invest.
Like attractive women, we are approached hundreds of times a night by people who think they are gonna score. So treat the situation as so. There are many variables to this situation that you probably wont be aware of at check-in like how full the hotel is and availability of upgrades.
There is 3 ways of getting upgraded:
1) The GTFO upgrade(a.k.a the lose-win)
You b*tch and moan until the agent upgrades you to get you out of their face. Usually old people and assh*les pull this sh*t off. We lose potential personal financial gain by giving away rooms.
2) The FD Up-sell (a.k.a. the win-win)
FD agents may or may not get commission from up-selling a room. i.e. you're cheap and book on priceline and the agent offers you a better room for $##.##/night. for my hotel we basically got 10%. again i.e. $40/night for 2 nights earned us $8 (before taxes) on our next paycheck. This would be a typical up-sell.
3) The Godfather (a.k.a the winner-winner-chicken-dinner)
"Make me an offer I can't refuse."
This is typically the best outcome for everybody. Here's the short version on how it works (read below for a longer version):
1) You approach agent.
2) You make friends with agent.
3) Agent upgrades you.
4) You tip the agent with cash.
Why it works:
You pay less than getting up-sold, the agent makes more than up-selling, the hotel makes more from increased gambling by guest with leftover money from not being up-sold.
Sounds easy enough right?
Read further to understand the situation:
1) The approach: is there a big check-in line? the agent is going to be rushed to check everyone in.
is there a whiney guest around? (think wussy cockblock who couldn't score with the chick that won't go away)
are you in good spirits? or did you just drive with a whiney gf for 5 hours? we are trained to read you and try to get you through the check-in process the way we think you want to get through the check-in process. approach us as if you were already a friend.
2) Making friends with the agent:
what's the agent's name? name tag says where he/she's from?
are you genuinely interested in talking to the agent? no? enjoy your priceline equivalent room.
3) Agent upgrades: it's a leap of faith.. agents generally don't receive a tip at all but that doesn't mean we don't want one so this is why we upgrade "cool" people. if we say, "we're gonna take care of you and put you in the.." or "i upgraded you to a..." that generally means we think you're cool and we want to "take care" or "upgrade" you and that a tip would be "taking care" of or "upgrading" our situation.
4) Tipping cash to the agent:
This is the most rewarding part (no pun intended)
Like women, we like mystery as much as we like being up front but can't decided what we like better so long as we get either one or the other. So leaving a tip at the end of checking-in vs. leaving a tip later that same night vs. leaving tip during mid-stay vs. leaving tip at the end of the stay all have different subtle effects on your stay. IMHO tip at the end of checking-in or after you went up to the room and you're on the way out to dinner or the club/floor to gamble.
As for the amount? If you have a good idea of worth, then tip whatever you feel that the upgraded room was worth to you, whoever may be staying with you, how it improved the quality of your stay, and how it made you feel by getting what you wanted. If you're bad at the above then tip at least $20 for a 1 night stay or I'd use 10-20% of whatever you paid/paying for the room per night as a good starting point.
Cheers
ALL major casino based Vegas hotels have
their own "Players Card".
Go to the hotels web site and register for their
players card FIRST before making your reservation.
Then use the phone versus the web site for making the reservation. This way you can work your magic charms on the hotel room reservation agent (they make commission ya know!). Make sure you right down the Players Card membership number you are given when you registered for it. A reservation agent's time is precious they don't want to be bothered with looking your information up for you because you're a dolt and forgot it.
Start the conversation with "I am a (insert hotel name here) Players Card Member" and go from there.
When you check in at the hotel AGAIN have all the information with you. They don't typically mail the card to you when you register for it online, but once you get to the hotel they have facilities that will stamp out the card with your name and numbers on it that you can use in their machines to gain points for COMPS.
http://www.kineda.com/the-secret-to-getting-comps-in-las-vegas/
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I've never gambled enough to pull this off and I've heard conflicting things.
One camp says that the trick is to win big. They'll comp your room and upgrade you to give them more of a chance to win their money back.
The other camp says to lose big, and the hotels will comp your room and upgrade you to keep you around so you keep losing.
Either way, your best bet (no pun intended) is to find a courtesy host and ask. Many casinos run on a "point" system, so they can let you know exactly what has to happen to make it work. Don't forget, room upgrades MAY be cheaper than losing a ton of money at craps. Find out how much it'll cost to get the bump.