I just finished a certificate stay at a Residence Inn the past weekend. When we checked in, I asked if there's any chance we would get a bigger room? We are gold and booked on a studio suite. He said he would check and asked how many people were in the party and assigned us a room.

Since he did not specifically say we were upgraded, we did not expect anything. It turned out he had upgraded us to a 2-bedroom suite. We were pleasantly surprised and the children were in cloud 9 (there are 3 TV in the suite and 2 bathrooms).

I guess this upgrade business is entirely upon the situation and the front desk person. We got an upgrade on a stay that we did not even pay.