Originally Posted by
Tinainfl
I have seen posts indicating that gold & platinum members sometimes request room upgrades by contacting the hotel in advance. Is this standard practice?
Standard practice? Well some people do and some people don't. To each his own.
Originally Posted by Tinainfl
What about asking for an upgrade at the time of check in? Is that effective? What do you say?
[sarcasm]You smoothly flash your gold card, wink at the person behind the counter, and say "I'm sure the Presidential Suite is available for this Gold status member".[/sarcasm]
Again, to each his own. If I'm returning to a hotel, I'll have a general idea about which part of the hotel I may or may not want (views, noisy streets, 4 am garbage pick-up, etc...)
Originally Posted by Tinainfl
I have not yet received any upgrades during my recent stays as gold (didn't request any either), so am hoping for some advice to increase my upgrade odds.
You may have received an upgrade. Better views and concierge floor are considered upgrades. Suites are specifically excluded, although you may still get lucky.
Just curious, what do you consider an upgrade?
The hotel I'm currently staying at...the attendant in the lounge told me that about 1/3 of the guests are Platinum. I'm low on the list of people the front desk wants to make happy.