How I Screwed Up The Las Vegas $20 Trick

This check-in agent can really be in trouble after describing her in detail here.

Ben, I admire your willingness to admit it when you've done something, well, dumb. I'm looking forward to hearing more about this stay.

One of the keys that's always said about the $20 trick is to research AHEAD OF TIME which room type you want and specifically ask for that. Implicit in the research is knowing its face pricing.

I expected the "Las Vegas $20 Trick" to be something else entirely. 🙂

Your exchange just sounds awkward personally. Research the hotel and adjust accordingly - if all the rooms are priced similar, a single 20 for the stay is more than sufficient. If the hotel has substantial price spread for the nicer suites, only then give me.

This only works out well when you know specifically what to ask for 😉

I'll preface by saying I'm one of those people too scared of the possible awkwardness in trying the "$20 trick."

Your story of the trick is just too funny. The only way it is funnier is if you actually got downgraded.

Love these stories.

Thanks.

Sometimes when you do this, they'll also waive the resort fees or throw in other comps (without necessarily telling you about it). If they do, it's more than worth it. Did you still have to pay resort fees?

Ben, any wild guess: would the 20$ trick work to get upgraded to eg a club room on an IC award stay ...???

I was in Vegas 10 days ago and wanted to try the $20 trick at the MGM Grand, but had no cash. Instead I just asked politely for a complimentary upgrade and surprisingly the agent upgraded me for free from a 2Q grand premier view to an Exec king suite! I am MLife Platinum (courtesy of Hyatt) which may have helped.

Sometimes using these trick can get you other things than just room upgrades (drink coupons, resort credit, etc). If you see the same check-in agent and she isn't busy you may want to pay him/her a visit and ask if there are any perks associated with your room. Perhaps the person will feel guilty for having sort of screwed you.

Stories like these are a big part of why I enjoy reading your blog. Thanks for willing to admit when travel plans go awry and for willing to poke fun at yourself.

I don't get it. Why do Las Vegas hotels allow these shenanigans? Sounds to me like yet another reason to avoid LV, as if I needed one.

An extra 16 sq ft? Nice... DOH!

Well, if you opt for late checkout, then you got your money's worth! 😉

Just stayed for one night and left this morning. Great rooms! And service was good too....this is what happened. I could hear some music from their club on top and I called ....since I had a morning flight to catch and they told me over the phone that they would call the club to close terrace windows and asked if I need earplugs
I replied...I have them already and it's really too late to move to a quiter side.

This morning upon check out, the sweet desk agent asked me if I had a great stay. I replied with "I love the design but don't like the noise from the hotel that kept me awake." She aplologised and waived the resort fee and removed my lunch bill in the hotel......I didn't even ask for compensation. Now that's impressive

the $20 trick used to mean something ... now it's upgrading from low floor to high floor

wow, the whole thing sounds super tacky but it's vegas so i guess that's to be expected. i suspect if you tried the "$20 trick" here in new york you'd be laughed at in most of the better hotels.

My first thought at seeing the headline was that Ben better be careful not to catch anything from a $20 trick. 😉

Thanks for sharing the story. So funny!

Lucky, while I enjoyed your telling of the story, I'd really rather have heard the desk clerk's version of how she stuck it to the poor sap who tried the $20 trick.

@Pavel: Agreed, which is why its typically specifically called the Las Vegas $20 Trick. Doubt it would work really much of anywhere else.

@snic: Considering the sheer number of rooms most of these hotels have, it really costs the hotels very little. Not sure what 'shenanigans' you're really referring to or why that'd be a reason not to visit Las Vegas.

That is exactly why it's called the "Las Vegas $20 trick". The $20 for an upgrade on the website tricked you to pay an extra $30 per day to get the same thing. 😉 Maybe we just had been interpreting the trick wrong the whole time.

If you received this room on a high floor with a strip view then it worked. That is way it works nowadays. Prime view rooms go to their elites and high rollers. Regular folks get low floor rooms with a "mountain view."

I'll be in Vegas next month, rate for Sat night in this hotel is $599!

Delano LV used to be TheHotel Mandalay Bay, so not really brand new, though I'm sure they did a big refurb.

$20 is all it takes, and I've always gotten upped to a strip view from the cheapest room category.

Your a dork man but you crack me up with some of your antiques, I mean that in a good way.

HAHAHAHA

Ben.....dude! Seriously? This post would have been a lot more useful before I checked into the Park Hyatt New York!

My wife asked me why I'm laughing out loud.

$60?!? Are you crazy? That's enough to last me 2 minutes at the blackjack table!

It certainly didn't work at the 4 Seasons Las Vegas!

Great story. Thanks for sharing! 🙂

You win some and you lose some. In Vegas, most lose and end up losing a lot more than $20. Hopefully this makes you feel a bit better! An enjoyable read - Thanks for sharing.

$50.00 at the bellagio got me a room on the 2rd from top floor dead center overlooking the fountain
$56.00 in resort fee's credited back
1 box of chocolates

If I were a hotel owner/manager I'd fire any employee on the spot for accepting personal bribes and implicitly diminishing my cashflow/profit.

Wow, she was smooth 🙂

Been at every single one of the nice and expensive Vegas strip hotels. Have been upgraded every single time without doing the $20 trick. How? Just by asking nicely and being a decent human being about it. Most of the time if you're just nice, smile, ask them how they are, etc....you know, just be a nice, normal, decent person....that gets you pretty far in life. And everytime except once (,when it was a big fight night), I was upgraded into a much nicer room...sometimes a huge suite (at the Mirage and MGM), sometimes just one step up (Wynn and Encore), sometimes a couple steps up (Aria, Cosmopolitan, TI).

@Mike: "Considering the sheer number of rooms most of these hotels have, it really costs the hotels very little. Not sure what ‘shenanigans’ you’re really referring to or why that’d be a reason not to visit Las Vegas."

By not stopping this, the hotels are condoning bribery. It may not be a crime, but it is sleazy and dishonest.

Would you fly an airline that lets flight attendants accept $20 to let passengers self-upgrade?

Would you patronize a movie theater in which all you have to do to get to the front of a long line is give an employee $20? (Well, not that there are long lines at movie theaters anymore, but you get the point.)

Would you eat at a restaurant where you have to slip the maitre d' $20 to get a decent table? Yes, there are plenty of examples of this in the movies, but I doubt it happens that much in reality. Why? Because it angers customers. Like it angers me.

Did you notice what the agent did with the money? Usually in Vegas, because the casinos are very strict about employees moving cash around, the agents actually have to clearly demonstrate to the cameras that they are taking cash from you. So it's not even really "under the table" and it's not clear if the employees even get to keep it.

Thanks for the laugh because it is something that would have totally happen to me! You took it with the best attitude too 🙂

Any idea if this would work on Maui and the Hyatt for getting resort and/or parking fees waived?

@ Bgriff -- She left it on her side of the counter until I was fully checked in.

@ Barry -- Highly doubt it. In most places people would get fired for doing that. In Vegas it's the norm.

Makes sense… although it has worked in Cabo. Resort fees and parking on Maui add significantly to the bill. Thought I'd test the waters here.

Sleazy, plain and simple. I am constantly amazed at how slimy people involved in this game are. Bloggers especially. This place is a moral sewer.

@ Taylor -- Good thing we have the internet moral high ground police to call us out!

Does anyone have any idea whether employees get to keep the money or if they have to give a certain cut to management?

Micro-Inefficiencies are a common occurrence, either due to imperfect information or situational dependencies.

I recently paid for 3 hours on a parking meter only to find out that metering stopped at 7PM two hours later.

The $20 to $100 trick definitely plays by the rule of YMMV.

I was once given a suite with 3 bathrooms (one with a bidet), sauna, an over sized shower with three shower heads, living room with fireplace , dining room, full bar, and jacuzzi over looking the Las Vegas strip.

Cheers

front desk agents have a lot of leeway in choosing your room (so comparisons to upgrading on a flight don't really work here) - i've given clerks more like 30 euros, and said i would appreciate anything they can do to make my stay more special - sometimes they say with a smile that i've already been upgraded (and make sure i take my money back), sometimes they take the money and i get a better room than last time, but nothing specific is said - remarks re: management getting pissed off about this don't really obtain here, since again, part of a front desk clerk's job is to assign rooms and they have a lot of discretion

@Taylor - If it's a big upgrade, they often have to check with their manager on duty and get it approved. If it's a small upgrade, or room selection with a category, that's probably within the desk agent's power and discretion.

From what I understand from having read that $20 trick website, the key takeaways are to ask for complimentary upgrades, not paid upgrades; to adjust the $20 upward depending on how big an upgrade you're going for, how much the room is, how long you're staying; and know what you want and either ask for it directly or be prepared to answer if the desk clerk asks. Also to pick the friendliest looking check-in person. That said, with all this in mind, I tried the $20 trick at Bellagio not so long ago. I had my preferred person picked out, since they let you choose who to line up in front of. Of course, the people this guy was helping took forever, so eventually, I caved when the woman next door had no one in her line, and I moved over to her. Probably a mistake, like I knew it would be. Tried the smooth version, but it was pretty akward as the $20 sat there between us the whole time we are discussing everything else. Asked for a comp. upgrade, preferably to fountain view (from cheapo package deal with flight mountain view). Right away she didn't seem like she was going to put much effort into it or it just wasn't a realistic possibility due to occupancy levels. She eventually got us a high floor mountain view in the tower in the back - not exactly the upgrade I was looking for - possibly not an upgrade at all - except when you're able to obtain an obvious great upgrade, there's no guarantee your $20 did anything - like in this case - so, as befits Vegas, it's always a bit of a gamble.

Oh I just lol'd out loud in a public place at the story. I didn't even try the $20 trick last time I was in LV, the lady at the desk at the MGM grand had no interest in me as a guest whatsoever.

I research availability at the hotels and cost of the availability. That's why when I went to Mandalay Bay, I slipped $20 and asked for the best view they had vs. the $100 I've slipped before.

Also, you can tell them that upgrade isn't good enough and they'll give you the tip back proactively. It's a silent code.

for $60 you can get a real trick into your room

hahaha You suck. $60 is crazy money. Looks like she pulled a trick on you. You should have told on her. hahaha That would have upgraded you. hahaha You have no reason to keep your mouth shut now. You can stay at an awesome hotel for like $20 a night in Las Vegas. I think that room looks gross, and all I can see is Vegas hooker in there. I don't know how you can stand being in hotels all the time. Everything is gross in there. The room is not that nice looking either. Hooters hotel was like $20 a night.
Really, if you can't charm your way to get an upgrade you are just getting a hooker like a lazy, dirty, old guy like thing. You think you can just get there with your money! hah!
Your people skills are far from what you think they are.

Ivan Y- As Fog Horn Leg Horn used to say, "You probably think a Mexican boarder pays rent."

The $20 trick isn't just for Vegas, it works everywhere. However, there is a line for that amount. If you're going to a 5 star hotel and staying in their entry level room, then you need $50. If you do this correctly, you don't just get a higher floor. You can get many other perks from suites to comped resort fees. Most people do not realize how much pull the front desk clerk has.

And for the people screaming about morals, get off your soap box and go fight the battle on drugs, Ponzi schemes or any of the actual ILLEGAL things in the world. Improving the odds of getting a better available room or suite isn't.

just used the $40 trick and got upgraded to a suite in New Orleans

Lucky Lucky Lucky lol still learning?! 🙂
I don't write a blog but even if I did I don't think I would share all my strategies
Wouldn't want to devalue or end what works for me the vast majority of the time all over the world
I'm simply to selfish and I like to help only those I know personally and or care about in my circles
I'd ask for big bucks to share that information publically and eventually that would die
once everyone was doing it.
What I will share is that if I were to do what you did I wouldn't compensate until after the upgrade was cinched and I was satisfied with the upgraded accommodations in or out of Vegas
And in Vegas there is a whole other pecking order to getting the mission accomplished to super premium rooms and VIP suites being a non gambler here.
The other thing I can add is that agents at MGM properties do not have authorization to do great upgrades at all to the real VIP accommodations
So essentially you are asking the wrong individual in this case a mere check in agent who needs permission/authorization to get access to the best luxurious, spacious premium room inventory .
As Gary stated you have to know somewhat in advance what you are after and then the right individual can even exceed your expectations
So the amount of money one offers is typically going into the toilet essentially at MGM group properties
There may be some exceptions to what I share but I have studied the system and to the best of my knowledge came up with a work around with front desk lack of empowerment .
I do tip but only once the satisfaction is there and then even more generously then 60 if its an extraordinary accommodation as my last stay which was bigger then my house
Occasionally they even waive my resort fees as a regular which more then takes care of any gratuities I have had to dole out. On the flip side I spend heavily during my stay on Food and beverage primarily within the MGM group of hotels not that many others don't do the same thing
Traveling and making great decisions is an art form and we all have various strengths but we all learn every day what to do and what not to do!
Cheers

We tried it this weekend at the SLS in Las Vegas and it worked for us. Gorgeous suite with a gray view. Not of the stripe but none the less great view. The clerk was super nice and we did exactly like the tip asked us to do it.

Hi, is this wise to try 20 usd trick in Vegas during early 2017 trip? Or has the price increased since then (most messages are from 2014), like 30 dollars now perhaps? Or is this still 20? Thanks for suggestions.
Regarding your story, I think you did it all wrong, you shouldn't be asking if they want it paid official or unofficial way and making that sound like something slightly illegal, also you seemed to give too much money and you made it into an awkward situation altogether. Keep it smooth and simple, that's what I'd do anyway ha.

You wonder why CET & other casino's are loosing money and are now charging for parking and installing "drink lights" to justify a free drink?..The money lost on upgrades is going into the pockets of the agents

I would sack any front desk agent on the spot for accepting this bribe...and that's what it is!

The $20 trick works. This guy foolishly recorded himself https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2gBak9PlzrA

When it's not crowded, I think it's worth a bet

I have always found the best way to get an upgrade, especially on a busy weekend or special Vegas event is to be nice to the agent. Smile, talk, let theme dom their thing. Don't be demanding. I always make a comment about the people before me who demanded better service and telling the agent "we always get (blank).

Let the agent have some space and time. Not be in a hurry or fear you will report them.. And they tend to give me or my party a very nice upgrade just for being helpful and courteous.

You’ve never worked in management for the hotel industry before then. It’s very common and most front desk people have a lot of leeway to upgrade people. It’s much easier to fill lower level rooms than it is suites and club level rooms. Mangers would much rather fill the suites with already paying guests than to have suites and club level going unoccupied or having to discount suites bc that just makes the hotel look bad.

I’m scared to try the “Las Vegas $20 Trick”. I don’t want to catch a nasty social disease.

I'm not good at things like this unless no one is around. I just checked into a Vegas hotel and I wasn't smooth about it but I asked if there were any room upgrades and the clerk flat out said no.

I ve tried the dumb male, charming guy approach. In Toronto, for example my wife and I booked into a hotel. I noticed the check in guy was non hetro, with a huge ego, so I bantered with him a little, complimented him on his clothing selection, and then asked him if he could give us a free upgrade, while assuring my wife, that je could make the magic happen. It worked, big time

Another time, we booked into the Fairmont, I got tanked, drank all the booze in the hotel mini bar, and when we checked out the next day, I innocently assured the hotel clerk, nice lady, that I thought it was complimentary? She softly laughed, and gave it to us for free. God I love that word

In Nassau Bahamas, I was so charming to the nice lady check in clerk, that she gave us a nice partial ocean view room on an upper room, above the pool. Thank youuuuuu. In Havana Cuba I just slipped the hotel clerk ten covertable pesos, and walla, upgrade to a junior suite with a beautiful tub, and ocean view. on the Mallicon Yeah, team alexander

Throughout the Carribean, I tip often, and with a smile. Lets call it travel insurance, while others wait in line for their favorite eggs done right, or the nicest piece of fish, i get served first. Always important to remember your manners. Fresh towels, chocolates, ocean views and room upgrades, go along way, when you travel.

in Vegas, the few hotel interactions I remember, was this nice man who was a waiter at NYNY. We had just returned from LA, after the bus tour. I never thought California was such a beautiful state, who was so grateful for the twenty dollar tip I left him, which was genuine on my part, he explained that Vegas was near the end of the dead season, and was hurting

Just being kind, respectful, and genuine, while others act like typical asshole tourist pricks, makes the magic happen