Hilton HHonors - Tips on how to get upgraded?

We are not frequent travelers anymore (having 2 young kids will do it to you), but we do have Gold status based on our Platinum AMEX use (again, having 2 kids will do it to you...). Anyway, we have redeemed our points for rooms in many places and the treatment always seems very random (in Rhodes, Greece, we were treated like royalty, in Calgary, we were treated like dirt - usually it is somewhere in between...). Any tips on how to get an upgrade? (Day of the week arrival, emailing before, etc.?) We are thinking about using an AXON in Cancun sometime in the next few months.

Thanks!

A tip to the front desk clerk sometimes goes a long way.....

Wirelessly posted (My IV to the Net: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.0) BlackBerry8703e/4.1.0 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/105)

If you make your res online, request an upgrade (nicely) in the comments section.

When you check in ask (nicely) if they were able to upgrade you. If they weren't ask (nicely) if they could.

Of course, asking nicely with a smile like they are doing you a huge favor (because they are) is a given. Never demanding because you are a GOLD VIP and you spend bajillions of dollars with Hilton and if they don't upgrade you you are going to write a letter to SOMEONE!!!
(Not saying you do that or did but we here have heard of "some people" doing similar things).

You get more flies with honey then vinegar... and all that jazz.

Shorter stays are upgraded more typicially then longer stays... going on more then antecdotal evidence given here.

Lower demand times are more likely to allow a higher chance (more open rooms) to be upgraded.

Some properties are well known for giving good upgrades. And vice versa.

I think Infinity just nailed it.

Wirelessly posted (My IV to the Net: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.0) BlackBerry8703e/4.1.0 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/105)

Shorter stays are upgraded more typicially then longer stays... going on more then antecdotal evidence given here.

Lower demand times are more likely to allow a higher chance (more open rooms) to be upgraded.

Some properties are well known for giving good upgrades. And vice versa. I agree with the last three 100%.

exactly, infinityplusone. too bad a lot of diamonds/golds don't understand that.