A Few Rules to Receive Free Hotel Room Upgrades
Traveling back North from New Orleans to State College after New Year’s Eve, my two friends and I decided to book a last-minute hotel on HotelTonight in Nashville. Having never been to Nashville before, we decided to book the cheapest hotel so we could have some more spending money on a food and drink.
This wasn’t my first HotelTonight booking. We stayed in a beautiful hotel in Atlanta on our trip down.
We arrived at the hotel sometime around 7 pm feeling pretty good knowing that 8 hours of the road were now behind us. Having the reservation under my name, I was the one that needed to check us in. We drove thru an empty parking lot to make it to the 5-minute parking area. I walked inside entertaining the idea of asking if there were any corner rooms or suites available for tonight.
So, I asked her if we could receive an upgrade.
At this point, all we needed was a hot shower after a long day’s drive.
Somehow, she obliged to upgrade our hotel room for the night. Free of Cost.
There are a few tips I try to follow to get free upgrades:
- Make sure to have your award account registered with the hotel. Even if you don’t have status.
- If the hotel looks empty, they probably have a few suites available.
- Be polite. I cannot stress this enough.
Accept the fact that 9 times out of 10, you probably won’t be upgraded and that all you need to do is ask. The worst thing that can happen is that they say no. The best case is that you get a bigger hotel room to call home for a night or two with a better view of the city.
It doesn’t hurt to just ask.
