Originally Posted by hhoope01

That depends. Some hotels may have "corner" or other rooms that are larger than the normal rooms, but they are not designated as "suite" rooms. I have been upgraded many times to those type of rooms. I used to travel quite often to Herndon/Reston, VA and stayed at the Dulles Marriott. They have some nice corner rooms that they would almost always put me up in. The Houston JW tended to do the same thing. I stayed somewhere around 60-70 nights last year at the Wuhan Ren (China) with 3 different stays of about 20-25 nights each. Even for that length of a stay I was upgraded to the same corner room on the CL floor for every stay. I have been upgraded to "view" and balcony rooms especially when staying at a beach locations. So there can be a number of possible upgrades to be had at hotels.

With that, the OP asked what is the best way to get upgrades? Ask. If you have a specific room or room type that you prefer, get that request into your reservation. Call the hotel a week or two beforehand and ask. When you check in, make sure you ask. Be nice, have a smile on your face, don't act like you are entitled to everything and your chances will probably be a little better. Do realize though that how full the hotel is and the length of a stay can have a direct impact on upgrades. Note that while suite upgrades are NOT required by MR rules, I have been lucky at a number of hotels when staying and they aren't full and my stays are short (i.e. one or two nights).

If you have never stayed at a particular hotel before and want to find out about their various room types, you can search here, you can ask here, you can call the hotel and ask what types they have.