<p>Thank you alwaysamom! How helpful!</p>
<p>I don’t travel much, so am only at Marriott silver rewards level. I rarely get upgrades, but it has happened occasionally when they no longer have rooms left at the basic level I reserved. Haven’t had it happen just because I am a rewards member.</p>
<p>I missed out on that groupon, would have been a good one for us!</p>
<p>Actually mamabear, There is an overabundance of hotels in DC right now and I bet you could get the same price on hotwire or priceline. Check out recent deal here: [4*</a> DC (Dupont Circle - Woodley Park) Omni Shoreham Hotel - Priceline and Hotwire Forum](<a href=“Priceline: DC (Dupont Circle - Woodley Park) Omni Shoreham Hotel - Priceline Coupons, Hotwire Hotels Revealed, Hotel Lists, Bidding Help*”>Priceline: DC (Dupont Circle - Woodley Park) Omni Shoreham Hotel - Priceline Coupons, Hotwire Hotels Revealed, Hotel Lists, Bidding Help)</p>
<p>Las Vegas is the only place where the $20 trick consistently works and even there the policy is that front desk clerks have to give a good reason, aka not that the customer tipped them $20, as to why the customer was upgraded. There, suite and view upgrades or even free bottles of champagne or chocolate covered strawberries are not unheard of for people who tip the front desk clerk.</p>
<p>The issue with booking through daily deals sites and other third party booking services, corporate travel agents exempted, is that many hotel chains do not provide loyalty benefits to persons booking through such channels, especially if it was an opaque booking service like Priceline or Hotwire. Hotels want their less desirable rooms occupied too, so price conscious customers who book through third party channels often get those rooms. Still, it doesn’t hurt to call ahead and ask for a specific bed type or smoking preference, especially if there is no price difference between the room types on the hotel’s website. Asking for a better view or quieter location at check-in will often get you the desired room if there is availability, especially if one has status in the hotel’s rewards program.</p>
<p>That’s exactly why I wrote my post SEA_tide, I knew when I went for the groupon room that there would be a chance for a crappy room in a good hotel. When I called to confirm that I actually had a reservation I did ask about how I could go about getting an upgrade, but as I suspected the reservation agent really had no pull there (or at least she said she didn’t) and told me to ask the front desk person about that when we check in.</p>
<p>Some chains, notably Omni hotels, still honor the rewards perks even when you purchase rooms from a third party vendor. I have a low status with Marriott so doubt that will have any pull but just in case, I wrote down my number and will mention it when I check in.</p>
<p>Thanks kathiep, I may check that out. I have never used priceline, when traveling with the kids I wanted to know where I would be and have enough beds, but now we are empty nesters so should be OK.</p>
<p>oops, well, i live and work in las vegas and make my living from tips. there’s a lot of tipping going on around here. 
when in rome…</p>
<p>Back from DC. When we checked in we right away mentioned our anniversary and the front desk guy said he would find us a nice room. I asked for one in the part of the building that had been recommended on tripadvisor and he said that would be doable. So, the room we got was very nice. Not sure if was an “upgrade” but we were happy with it.</p>
<p>You can get some good deals with Priceline even if you don’t have the guts to do a blind bid. We booked a lovely room in a Residence Inn this weekend in south Denver (Highlands Ranch) - $99 with a very nice breakfast. We didn’t need the kitchen or extra space, but it was $40 less than the lowest cost we could find on Hampton Inn and such.</p>
<p>I’ve always felt tipping is something done after the service is provided and it’s because the salary structure is such that the basic compensation is deliberately low and the management, the employee, and the customer all recognize tips are part of the system.</p>
<p>To get an upgrade based on a tip seems like an unadulterated bribe especially if there is no policy as such that getting upgrades is the norm.</p>
<p>Oh god, no. Don’t fold a $20 bill and hand it to them with your credit card. You can’t do that. If they were to give you a better room as a result, they’d get in big trouble.</p>
<p>Simply ask sweetly if there are any upgrades available.</p>
<p>Love it when people respond without actually reading the thread. 1) I got the hotel room at a big discount through a groupon, which is why I was concerned about getting a crappy room. I actually recommended Priceline to another poster on this thread. I’ve used them several times, which is why I was asking about getting a better room. 2) I am now back from my trip, didn’t bribe, but politely asked for and did get a very nice room.</p>
<p>Thanks for the suggestions everyone and especially for hearing about how some chains penalize employees for taking bribes. Now here is something strange. The only proof we got that we had a room was our room keys. No print out when we checked in and no bill under the door.</p>
<p>Since you’re a rewards member, will they send you a receipt via email (which is how we get ours)? Or is it a different deal because you used Groupon?</p>
<p>Hmmm…we just used rewards points for two hotel stays…and also got no receipt. We didn’t pay the hotels anything so we figure that is why. </p>
<p>Since you didn’t pay the hotel directly, perhaps that is the reason for no receipt. Just guessing!</p>
<p>Hi Kathiep,</p>
<p>I did this and it worked for me. I used a third party booking site (high end travel discount) and then at the hotel gave $20 to the reservation clerk as per the instructions from the book mentioned on here.</p>
<p>This was in NYC at a high end hotel. Clerk smiled, upgraded me and gave me two coupons for a free cocktail in the hotel bar. Very pleasant experience.</p>
<p>This is interesting… We were charged $25 on our credit card for the Marriott. I thought this might just be a temporary hold, but just to make sure, I called the Marriott. She found our reservation but no evidence at all of the charge, none, not even on the check in. She suggested that maybe we used our card somewhere else in the hotel but, in fact, we didn’t. I’m going to wait to see if it sticks after 24 hours but found the whole thing weird.</p>
<p>Glad you had fun, Kathie, and that you got a nice room! Could the charge be for internet?</p>
<p>Nope, we didn’t agree to any surcharge and just used the the 3G/4G through AT&T.</p>
<p>Could the $25 charge just be a temporary hold on your credit card in case you did incur charges at the hotel? We stayed at a Hilton last month and they put a temporary charge on our credit card that stayed as a temporary charge even after the charge for our weekend stay was posted. It wasn’t included in the total charges on our credit card when we received our monthly bill.</p>
<p>Which is what I said in my post shellfell, but the person I talked to at the Marriott (this is the national financial division, not the place we stayed) said that my credit card was not showing up for even that. It was weird. I had my credit card website up and could see the charge clearly said the hotel name, the date we were there and the $25 charge and she was telling me that cc had not been used in their hotel. She got a supervisor who said the same thing.</p>