Mobi

Hi All,

First a little background info... I wanted to go to the US & Vegas for about 10 years. So finally I did the trip with my girlfriend last Sept. We did a 24 day trip from Europe to NYC, then flying to San francisco, renting a car and setting off on a National Parks trip via Las Vegas, to end in LA.

Ok so about Las Vegas... we stayed 4 nights in the Planet Hollywood Hotel. I spent a lot of time last year looking for a good/affordable hotel deal, and the view was very important for us. So I booked a hollywood hip room with fountain view via our travel agency. But I also saw this famous 'sandwich trick' stories on the internet, so when checking in I tried it using a 50$ bill. The girl at the counter said there was nothing she could do (apparently since taken over by Harrah's, they officially can't accept any tips anymore). After chatting a bit and making clear that the room view was very important to us, she offered to upgrade us to a resort vista suite for only 20$ per night. I gladly took that upgrade as I could see on the PH website that this room is about 100$ more per night.

Now my question is : Can somebody explain why I got a 100$ room uprgade for only 20$ per night? Is it always better to book a 'smaller' room online, then ask for an upgrade to a better room in the hotel itself? If I would have booked the resort vista suite in the' first place, I would have spent 400$ more instead of 80$, so this realy confuses me.

We plan to go back to Vegas as soon as we can, and this time I would like to book everything myself instead of via a travel agency, so I'd like to know how best to book the room that I want.

Last thing : I am new to this forum, but thanks to it I realised I could get some 'free' nights in one of the Harrah's group hotels with my Total Rewards card. I just tried to see when I could book some 'comp' nights, and I see I can only choose until the 2nd week of January. After that date all prices are normal prices again. Is there a time limit to when you can take up comp nights? (remember we were staying in Vegas 20-24 Sept.)
Is it standard policy that you can get x amount of comp nights after you stayed there?

Thanks.

Chozn1

It's all based on availability. If the hotel was full, you obviously wouldn't have the option of the upgrade. However, on slower weeks, the hotel figures they might as well make a little more money off of you if the rooms just going to be sitting there empty anyway. I did this at a recent stay with Encore. I booked a standard room a few months before our stay, and called in about once a week leading up to it just checking on availability. They were more than helpful each time I called and told me what the percentages of occupancy were so I knew what my odds were of upgrading. I ended up saving about $600 this way.

regalhome

When calling a week in advance do you just ask whats my chance of getting upgraded next week?

skofarrell

As Chozn1 said, if the room is open when you check in, they will try to sell it at the last min to keep it from being "wasted". Very similar to the airlines trying to seell you an upgrade when you check-in.

Calling ahead won't help, as the hotel will continue to try to sell the full price room.

You have two choices. Pay full price and lock it in at reservation time or accept "luck of the draw".