Sometimes it helps to be familiar with the room types available at each property before staying, then to ask politely upon check-in (after confirming availability the day of your stay) "you wouldn't happen to have any ______ (Fantastic, Mega, Wow, etc.) Suites available for upgrade by any chance, would you?"

If you arrive before 4pm, be sure to let them know that you are fine waiting until housekeeping has a chance to clean it. If a Plat is already in the room and taking advantage of 4pm late checkout...

Usually works wonders for me.

The press release came out today...didn't know it was related to a delayed opening.

The Austin Starwood Meet/Thing looks interesting...that might be affordable by then.

This afternoon's entertainment was watching cars float due to the wave action from other cars driving through flooded areas.^ The crowd reactions are priceless.:D

W Suite Porn
 

I asked nicely there, and was told "We don't upgrade into suites." Oh well. Considering when I was there last month I arrived at 7:00 PM, quickly left for a 7:30 PM dinner with coworkers, got back around 10:00 PM, and had to leave by 5:30 AM the next morning for the airport, I wouldn't have had much time to enjoy the suite anyway.

I'll take your advice though, and start asking more often. I'll admit I'm too much in the habit of just taking what they offer right up front.

I believe I have been upgraded to a Corner Suite at the W New Orleans (on Poydras) no fewer than 20 occasions. For a while, I was staying there nearly every other weekend (they were dirt-cheap for a few years after Katrina).

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More hotel porn I see.

A W that is (or was, at least) notorious for not upgrading people to suites is the W San Diego.

ETA - W Dallas Victory is also pretty unreliable for suite upgrades. Somehow I managed to finagle one. It took about 10 minutes of sweet-talking the front-desk agent.

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15 minutes till I half way through my shift.

At the LM BKK , I was told the suites are not available at the moment, but If you don't mind waiting we can have one ready in 1-2 hours.
I said sure and left my bag with the staff and I left to do some shopping, I returned to this:
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2621/...3183e48683.jpg
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2421/...f15cebebbc.jpg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3533/...295b4f31aa.jpg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3456/...cba654ca6c.jpg

I had great success at the W San Diego, It was one of the best treatments I recieved as a plat.

I think I'm going to use my $50 Best Buy gift card and my $20 Visa gift card from Courtyard and pay half price for a Magellan 1440 GPS that is on sale for $140. Any Boxers know of a specific reason why this is a bad idea?

I almost stayed there for an overnight during teh :rolleyes:moon, but changed our flight schedules to stay here, instead:

I really don't know, but I would guess that it would.

I know. I think I just got a bad front desk clerk, and since I was in a hurry, I didn't really worry about it.

They've been fairly cheap again lately — last time I was in New Orleans they had rooms available on weeknights for under $90.