20 dollar trick - free Vegas room upgrades
A lot of folks were asking for more details about how we got our room hookup, so here you go!
After our last trip to Vegas when we were upgraded for free to a nice player's suite due to problems with our room, we were kind of spoiled. Having only stayed in "standard" (cheeeeeap) rooms before, we loved the upgrade. But, we are practical people and couldn't really bring ourselves to spend hundreds of dollars a night on the hotel room, as much as I wanted something fancy for my birthday. For this trip, we booked a standard room at Bally's for about $50 a night - super cheap, considering it is a weekend.
Matt did some research and found a website called The Twenty Dollar Trick. The site is pretty much dedicated to the concept of slipping $20 (or more) to Vegas receptionists and asking for complimentary room upgrades. You can view different hotels and read people's comments and success rates. We actually booked at Bally's based on the high success rate people had for this hotel. Plus, we saw that some people had slipped $50 instead of $20 and gotten amazing hookups.
We arrived after midnight and were nervous that there wouldn't be much extra stuff available. Nonetheless, Matt sandwiched the $50 bill between his license and credit card and slid it across the counter.
"It's my fiance's 30th birthday... do you have any complimentary room upgrades available?"
It is really important to use the word "complimentary". A lot of the fails on the website involve folks forgetting to use that word. If you don't use it, they will try to upgrade you to something that you have to pay for.
It was so easy. I had no idea this stuff worked in real life. This receptionist knew the drill. She immediately began tapping away on her keyboard and then pulled out a brochure and announced that she was placing us in a suite for the duration of our stay. I glimpsed the pricing: $272 for weeknights and $500 for weekends. Per night.
We love our room so much. Neither of us have ever been in anything even remotely this nice.
Our next trip will probably be on weeknights, so we are going to try this hotel again. There will probably be more, nicer stuff available on weeknights. We read that someone who slipped a $50 at Bally's was given the penthouse on a weeknight.
After our last trip to Vegas when we were upgraded for free to a nice player's suite due to problems with our room, we were kind of spoiled. Having only stayed in "standard" (cheeeeeap) rooms before, we loved the upgrade. But, we are practical people and couldn't really bring ourselves to spend hundreds of dollars a night on the hotel room, as much as I wanted something fancy for my birthday. For this trip, we booked a standard room at Bally's for about $50 a night - super cheap, considering it is a weekend.
Matt did some research and found a website called The Twenty Dollar Trick. The site is pretty much dedicated to the concept of slipping $20 (or more) to Vegas receptionists and asking for complimentary room upgrades. You can view different hotels and read people's comments and success rates. We actually booked at Bally's based on the high success rate people had for this hotel. Plus, we saw that some people had slipped $50 instead of $20 and gotten amazing hookups.
We arrived after midnight and were nervous that there wouldn't be much extra stuff available. Nonetheless, Matt sandwiched the $50 bill between his license and credit card and slid it across the counter.
"It's my fiance's 30th birthday... do you have any complimentary room upgrades available?"
It is really important to use the word "complimentary". A lot of the fails on the website involve folks forgetting to use that word. If you don't use it, they will try to upgrade you to something that you have to pay for.
It was so easy. I had no idea this stuff worked in real life. This receptionist knew the drill. She immediately began tapping away on her keyboard and then pulled out a brochure and announced that she was placing us in a suite for the duration of our stay. I glimpsed the pricing: $272 for weeknights and $500 for weekends. Per night.
We love our room so much. Neither of us have ever been in anything even remotely this nice.
Our next trip will probably be on weeknights, so we are going to try this hotel again. There will probably be more, nicer stuff available on weeknights. We read that someone who slipped a $50 at Bally's was given the penthouse on a weeknight.