I'm asking this question because I've gotten a very high percentage of (highly welcome!) upgrades at hotel stays this year. Although I typically stay about 60 nights a year in various hotels around the world, I have no elite status with any hotel program, since my travel patterns are fairly random. This also means that I don't stay in any one property more than once every 2-3 years. In several of the cases involved this year, I was upgraded on my very first stay. In only one upgrade case this year did I check in at a late hour, when it might have been possible that the hotel had sold out of all of the rooms in the class I'd booked. (Luckily for me, this was at a Four Seasons, and I ended up with a palatial suite for three nights! ) Just last Wednesday, I checked in at 10:30 AM at the Hyatt 48Lex in Manhattan, which appeared to be half empty, and got upgraded to a suite. Hm!

Not that I'm complaining, but I am intrigued as to why a hotel would upgrade a guest under these circumstances. Am I on some kind of list somewhere as a frequent traveler, and they're hoping to get my business in the future?