Las Vegas- Why you should try tipping the reservations front clerk

Las Vegas can be one of the best cities for getting hotel deals. If you look online, you'll notice there is only different places you can choose from. I had a very hard time when I went to Vegas a couple years ago with regards to try to find the right hotel.

I used hotwire.com, and I made my reservations for the middle week. This was a very slow time and there were no conventions, or anything which would cause Vegas hotel occupancy to shoot up.

For under $100 a day I got a room at the palms hotel. The palms is a a little farther down off the strip, then I would like however this was the best experience I ever had in a Vegas hotel. I am an avid reader of the FatWallet forums and the $20 trick.

For those of you who do not know what that is about use Google and search for that term. Basically, Las Vegas is a very tourist centric city and many people count on tips for their income. One of the best things to do, when you check into hotel room is to tip the reception clerk.  When I took the reception clerk at the palms, I was greatly rewarded.

To say I was greatly rewarded, is actually an understatement. What ended up happening was I was given a free upgrade, and I am staying in the Adrienne suite.  The suite was larger than my house, and had better furnishings.  This suite was featured on the travel channel on the special of the top 10 suites in Las Vegas.  Unfortunately, I lost the video clip which I made.  To give you an idea of how large this room was, it had two bathrooms the dining room and living room combination was the same size as my downstairs of my condominium.  The total square footage of the Adrienne suite was 1500sf.  By the way, in my condo I don't have remote control curtains, floor to ceiling windows on the top floor, or fancy mahogany grain Walls.  My shower also does not have jets coming from the side, and top.  It literally felt as if you were in a rainfall.

I later checked online, and the room normally sells for $1500 a night.  I guess as they say, what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.  I'm really not sure how they get away with doing that.  You would think that a hotel clerk would be fired, for getting such a large upgrade for no good reason.   However, if you look on the FatWallet forum, this happens all the time and I'm not the only recipient of upgrades from the $20 track.

You need to be subtle as this is not a bribe but merely a gratuity for the wonderful service you expect to receive.  You make what is known as a $20 sandwich.  A $20 sandwich is basically a credit card and your license with a $20 bill neatly folded in between. For best results, use a clear credit card such as the American Express clear card.

The AMEX  clear card was on top, then it's a $20 bill, followed by your license.  What happened then, was the hotel reservation clerk subtly took $20 bill and set it aside.  She then began to type away furiously at the keyboard, and eventually made a phone call as well.  She came back and told me, that she apologized our room was not ready. 

She then offered to make it out to us by giving us a complementary upgrade (as you can see, there was no explicit arrangement made however the $20 gratuity in advance must have influenced her in some way or another).  She told us that we would be complementary given an upgrade, to the penthouse suite.  The suite had a special elevator which was reserved solely for rooms on the penthouse level and the Rain nightclub above.

If you are ever looking to score big in Vegas, I would definitely try the $20 trick the next time you make a Las Vegas hotel reservation. You do not have to use Priceline or hotwire to make your hotel reservation. In fact, you may be better off reserving with the hotel directly, so they you not look like a cheapskate. Needless to say, I definitely got my money's worth with the Palms hotel.

Here is a view of the hotel room. This is from the bathroom side, looking "into" the bedroom area.  If you are looking for more information, check out my other hub on Las Vegas hotel reservations.