TALK
YOUR WAY TO A HOTEL UPGRADE
Get
the most for your hotel dollar by paying
for one of their least expensive rooms,
but staying in one of their most
luxurious. How? By asking for an upgrade!
If a hotel doesn’t expect to be
full, they will usually gladly put you in
a better room than you paid for, rather
than have it stay empty. It’s a
win-win situation – you’re
happy to have “gotten something for
nothing” and the hotel knows that
treating customers well often pays off
handsomely in return visits. So
don’t be shy – ask for the
upgrade! Here are some tips:
Time
it right. One of the best strategies for getting a
better room is to check in after dinner
(the later the better). By this time, the
hotel will have a good idea of how many
rooms might stay empty, and will be in a
better position to grant your request.
Alternatively, you might check in early
in the day before all the rooms have been
vacated – this works especially well
if you are flying east and arriving at
your destination in the morning.
Be
specific in your reservation. If
you prefer a no-smoking room with a
king-sized bed, or a quiet room away from
the elevator, make sure that you specify
this request when you make your
reservation. If the hotel can’t meet
your request for the room grade
you’ve paid for, they are likely to
bump you up to the next level. (And if
they don’t, be sure to take action:
if a hotel fails to meet a confirmed
request for a particular type of room,
and you can prove that you confirmed it,
that's grounds for a free night's stay.)
Tout
your special event. Are you celebrating a birthday,
anniversary or the first weekend away
without the baby? Let the desk clerk know
and hint that you’d like to make it
an annual event.
Join
frequent-guest programs. You
don’t have to stay at a chain often
to take advantage of these. Like
frequent-flyer programs, they are free to
join, and often pay off handsomely with
benefits. Flashing your card often
increases your chance of an upgrade,
because it signifies an interest in the
hotel. You can even show a card from a
competing hotel's program and say
"I'm interested in how your larger
rooms compare with your competition.
Would you mind checking with your
supervisor to see if such a room might be
available?" You'd be surprised by
how often this works.
Express
familiarity with the hotel or chain. You
want to come off as someone who can give
the hotel lots of business. So if
you’ve stayed there before, be sure
to mention how much you enjoyed it. And
if you haven’t, do some research
(perhaps by looking up the property in
our hotel guide at
http://www.theinsider.com/hotelreservations.htm)
about the particular room type you want.
Above
all, be polite. We
can’t emphasize enough the enormous
power that the desk clerk has over
whether you’ll end up in a five-star
suite or a tiny room next to a noisy
construction area. So be friendly, polite
and a little chatty. We once stood in
line behind a hot shot whose request for
an upgrade was turned down because of a
bad attitude, only to be upgraded to one
of the finest suits we’ve ever
stayed in, only moments later, simply
because we spent a minute empathizing
with the clerk over the nasty way he had
just been treated.
Ready,
set, go!
Now that you know all the tricks
of the trade, are you ready to reserve a
room? Click
here to book a hotel at
a tremendous discount, and then use the
insider tips above to upgrade when you
check in.
The Philadelphia Insider Directory:
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