tvelinsk

My Mom and I spent 4 nights at the LV Hilton with 4 1-night reservations (Mom Friday and Sunday, me Saturday and Monday). Mom checked in on Friday while I was dealing with the Valet, and the young man checking her in was extremely enthusiastic in accepting her $20, and gave us Lanai suite 342. I was a bit dissappointed when he said this since I had stayed in a Lanai suite a few years ago and they were very dated, but once we got in the room we found that they had made quite a few updates, including a neat overhead rain showerhead, and a 42" flatscreen in the livingroom section of the room.
Saturday morning we both walked up to the desk, and I handed the girl my cards along with $10, and said "My Mom is checking out and I am checking in right now, and we were wondering if we could just stay in the same room". The girl said "Oh, no. The reason you got this $300 room was that there were not any regular rooms available. But I can give you an upgraded room in the east tower". I went ahead and took it, and we moved our stuff up to what was really just a regular room with a down comforter on the bed and a flatscreen tv.
Sunday morning we decided to actually pack our stuff and throw it in the car, then check back in that evening. Mom once again was successful in getting us a Lanai suite - 346 this time. We arrived in the room and found it was at least 80F in there. We set the air to max cool and cranked the fan, then went and played for a few hours. Upon getting back in the room we found it was not any cooler, so we walked back down to the desk, and the same girl that had checked Mom in apologized and moved us to Lanai suite 341. We were quite happy with this room, although the blowdryer is broken in there.
Monday morning we did the "Mom is checking out-I am checking in - same room?" thing without a tip and were successful.
All in all, we were quite happy with our $20 tricks at the LV Hilton!

BlindPilot

With my luck with things like this, I might just be the first one. But hey, it's Vegas, might as well gamble.

CosmosHuman

My dear daughter and I checked in on 5-13-08. Slipped the desk clerk the folded $20 between the credit card and my ID, was upgraded to the "Hollywood Hip" room on the 21st floor. Huge room and bath and a huge flat screen TV. All went well there and I think I'll be staying again.

jes999

Intentionally deleted.

Boraxo

No dice at the Flamingo

Checked in late Sunday night, asked about an upgrade with a not so subtle $20 peeking out from under my visa. The clerk said they were at 103% of capacity (not sure where they stick the extra 3% - slot chairs ) and the best he could offer me was a smoking king or a non-smoking suite with a murphy bed. Neither was acceptable so I asked to speak with a manager who apparently did not want to leave his chair but was able to find a decent 2-bed nonsmoking room on the 23rd floor.

The next morning I went down to the front desk and was able to upgrade to a Go! room for $40/day. The new room was still pretty inferior to most of the new strip properties but still well worth the money (think average Marriott v. Comfort Inn).

FlyingBear

Just wondering if anyone has tried it the Orleans recently?

CosmosHuman

I instead asked for an upgrade, and received one. At PH.

briankoenig

This past Wednesday I spent a couple nights, two of them comped, at the Flamingo. I had a pretty strong feeling as I walked up that it wasn't going to work, since the only open clerk was a male in early-30's and wearing a suit while the others were in the standard shirts. (I have better luck with the mid-20's girls and the post-50's women)
Tried the "$20 sandwich" and he very abruptly said "I wish there was something I could do" before I even said anything, and tossed the bill back across the counter at me. I was traveling with my brother, and he even checked my brother's ID to confirm that we had the same last name.

Oh well. Still had a great time.

Oxb

At least he did not keep the $20 and pretend to upgrade you

I did the $50 sandwich at PH a couple of weeks ago and had it returned to me. Oh, well. The $20 sandwich worked well at Ballys before that. We will see how it works at Luxor next week.

kaukau

It's typically tougher on weekends than weeknights in Vegas, I'd venture to say.

Lonely Flyer

I was considering trying at Ballys but is it worth it as we are 3 adults in a 2 queen room at moment.

aamilesslave

Why would he check your brother's ID? Were both of your Total Rewards numbers on the reservation?

goalie

fri-sun, sept 5-7
i'm a diamond card holder
3 of us checking in for 2 rooms
my room comp'd
$50 sandwich beteeen cc & diamond card but making sure the 50 was visible.

very politely returned saying "they have been cracking down" but the rooms were changed to the newly renovated rooms on floor 26 with a full strip view of the bellagio fountains.

briankoenig

Mine was probably on the reservation, but my brother's definitely wouldn't be. I don't really know why he had to check his ID. This is what happened:

Him: "Is anyone staying in the room with you?"
Me: "Yes, my brother" <who is standing right next to me>
Him: "Your brother? Same last name?"
Me: "Yes."
Him: "Can I see your ID?" <to my brother>
Brother: "Sure" <hands him id>

I can't think of any reason why they'd need his ID. Even if they thought he was under 21 (he's 27) I thought only the primary needed to be 21. Weird.

Sammythebarber

together with the credit card charge for the upgraded room.