How to get a hotel room upgrade (without begging)

How to get a hotel room upgrade (without begging)

In my quest for luxe travel on the cheap, I’ve found a lot of ways to save on hotel rooms. From joining frequent guest programs to redeeming points or taking advantage of best rate guarantees, I’ve done it all. However, my latest trick was all thanks to a computer glitch.

RELATED: The ultimate list of little-known travel hacks

Shutterstock.
Shutterstock.

I wanted to book a two night stay at a resort, and planned to offset the costs using two $60 credits I had from Hotels.com. But when I went to book, it wouldn’t let me use two ‘promotions’ on a single reservation. So, I ended up booking the nights separately, but was surprised to find the one bedroom suite I’d selected was no longer available for both nights, and I’d have to downgrade to a standard room for the second night.

READ MORE: The secret to getting a hotel room for half price

I decided to go for it since we weren’t planning to make use of the kitchen anyway, automatically saving myself about $25. But I had a sneaking suspicion we’d end up getting to stay in the suite the whole time—and when we arrived to check in it turned out I was right.

How to get a hotel room upgrade (without begging)
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The hotel had obviously looked at our reservation and realized that if we changed rooms, their staff would have to do double the clerical and cleaning work. So they decided to give us the upgrade, which probably ended up saving them money in the end since they didn’t have to pay someone to clean two rooms.

To make this trick work for you takes a bit of luck and planning:

  • You need to be staying multiple nights (but not too many)
  • It is completely dependent on availability
  • Make sure to book the first night as the upgraded room, then the other as the lower rate room.

Keep in mind it can also be a bit of a pain to book rooms separately as you’ll have to reenter your information multiple times—but that extra bit of time can mean big savings!

Have you ever gotten an upgraded hotel room? If so, explain how in the comments below!


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5 thoughts on “How to get a hotel room upgrade (without begging)”

  1. Pingback: How a VRBO booking lead to a post-Christmas nightmare

  2. I literally JUST pulled off a similar trick a few weeks ago while booking a room in Orlando for a conference in November. The conference rate at the hotel is the same for standard and deluxe rooms. So, obviously, I’ll take the upgraded room. But when I tried to book all 5 nights at once, it did not show any deluxe rooms available. When I took off the first night and asked for only 4 nights, boom – deluxe room. Then I called the hotel directly, explained that due to my flight schedule, I need to tack on a night at the beginning of my stay. I was told it was no problem and that I will not have to change rooms.

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