Originally Posted by
scubaccr
Seems fair to me. Attempts to game any IC with such free night upgrades in base room with a single paid night in much jigher cat room will give rise to the IC pushing back.
If booking that big a difference bewtween paid night and free night (award or CC) when free night has zero upgrade right, you can't expect the hotel to give a foc of that multiple cats upgrades.
Booking same cat oe even 1cat above free night would probably not be mentioned and the free night would have been treated like paid night. Similarly possible that 4-5x paid with 1x free night may also be let through without request you ante up.
I agree that it is important to pay an acceptable rate for the majority of nights, and that in that case tacking on the odd award night is more likely to be let go in the same category without extra charge.
However, if the hotel wants to charge nearly the full rate as upsell, it would be better to just use the free night elsewhere or another time. Or, simply accept to move to a lower category room if one is okay with that.
I am sure that booking high category with BOGO certificate, followed by award nights to continue the stay is a “trick” that hotels are very wise to. It likely also depends on who the guest is. Someone loyal to the specific property in question, with a history of high incidental spend will be treated differently than someone who has never stayed before and is just unloading points and certificates.