Checked in on a Friday evening. Got a guy… didn’t target anyone in particular. Greeted him with a smile. I’m Canadian, so I’m naturally kinda nice and stuff. Asked if there were any room upgrades available when I handed him my cc and dl with a $20 in between. Went from a standard room we booked through oribitz for next to nothing to a Salone Fountain View suite, which shows as a $400+/night room. Great stuff. Had a blast.

It was around 8pm when I decided to try our luck with the 20 dollar trick. I talked a bit of pleasantries before proceeding to ask if there were any complimentary upgrades available with the 20. The clerk at the counter after seeing the 20, immediately took it out and said we’re not allowed to accept this until after. He took out the bill and laid it on the counter and then said then unfortunately everything was sold out. There were no talks of discounts or reduced rates at all. In the end we got a standard room close to the ground with nothing extra. I still gave him the tip as that felt like the right thing to do. Maybe just went to the wrong agent or they are really cracking down on these.

My wife and I were nervous to give this a shot. We decided in advance to spend a random weekend in Las Vegas and we stayed at a cheap hotel the night before in order to be a little more spendy the second night at the Bellagio.

We arrived at about 1:00 PM when the lobby wasn’t very busy. We targeted a young man, maybe 26 or 27, who wasn’t close to any of the other clerks. I slipped $40 in between my credit card and ID, and handed it over as I asked if any complimentary upgrades were available. Right away the clerk knew what was going on and told us to hold on a moment. He got on the phone twice and let us know that we would be set up for the Cyprus Suite.

We were beyond amazed with the room we got. We had two bathrooms, one for me and one for her, the most comfy bed I have ever experienced, an amazing view of the Paris Hotel and the Bellagio Fountains, a sweet living room, two TVs, it was amazing. Bear in mind that this was my wife and my first time at a five star hotel so that might have something to do with it.

We are convinced that dropping the $40 tip gave us a room that would have been between $500 and $600 a night.

1. I targeted a younger woman, 25-35, with an outgoing personality. I watched the check-in folks for about ten minutes before I made my move.
2. Time of day was around 12:30 pm.
3. I told her I was an old country boy from Juliette, Georgia who was trying to impress his wife. Told ’em I’d always stayed at lesser properties at the strip, but my wife had always wanted the Bellagio. Then I said the only thing that would make it even better would be a room with a nice view of the fountains. The clerk told me she’d go talk to her boss, when she came back she told me she could help me!

We checked in late, close to midnight on a Friday. There was a short lineup to check in and we went to the first available clerk. He was nice enough, and I handed him the sandwich, asking if there were any upgrades available. He removed the $20 from the sandwich and left it on the counter in plain view, on top of the credit card machine. He quickly checked on his computer and said no upgrades were available. He was very nice and professional, and when it came time to pay, I took the $20 and handed it to him, saying it was for him, which he accepted. I figured it was worth the gamble and I lost, so it should go to him in the end. Of note though, the next day we complained about the A/C in our room and got an upgrade to a higher floor with a nice view (our original room had a horrible view).

Stayed at Bellagio Nov 17-20. Checked in at 1pm on a Friday, with check-in being not too busy. Went to the first available clerk with the $20 sandwich. Asked if there were any complimentary upgrades, clerk looks at $20 and quickly replies “no”. Got the $20 back with no upgrade. While in line saw another clerk pocket a $20, so I think I just got bad luck re: the clerk I dealt with.

We arrived around 4:30 and we weren’t able to “target” a clerk. I actually tipped $25 with the intention of tipping $5 if she st least tried. I asked about an upgrade with a view of the strip/fountain. She immediately got on the phone with her manager to let us know she was able to get us into a higher floor strip view with a “partial” fountain view. Our room in fact, can view the entire fountain/lake, but from an angle. Also, the Paris and Eiffel Tower are directly outside. Still a great room, and well worth the $25.

Checkin at 7pm on a Wednesday night for 1 night stay.

Very friendly older male agent. Handed sandwich and was upgraded from a “run of the house” king room to a Bellagio Suite on the 32nd floor. (no fountain view but hey beggers can’t be choosers!)

Very nice room and massive with 2.5 baths, a separate living room and great high views of the backside of LV city.

Didn’t target anyone, just took the next clerk available. We were there quite early, maybe 09:30 and the desk was quiet.

She was very pleasant, I slipped $20 between our passports and debit card and as I handed them to her I said “Are there any complimentary upgrades available please?”, she put the money to one side and after some tapping on her keyboard she advised that she was able to move us to the 23rd floor with a full fountain view.

We were both (my wife and I) happy with this as I had only booked a resort King, presumably somewhere at the back of the hotel, and the fountain view was incredible, definitely worth 20 bucks!

We checked in on Colombus Day weekend 2017 and stayed from Saturday – Monday. The queue was huge but we wanted to try this trick so decided it was worth the wait. We got a middle aged, female clerk and had the sandwich ready to go. When she asked for my cards, I handed them over and said “I was hoping to ask about potential upgrades?”.
She immediately stashed the fifty under her desk and said “let me see what I can do”.
After a couple of minutes she advised that there weren’t many options as we had already booked quite a nice room. She explained that a penthouse suite would be available for 2 nights but we had to wait for the current occupant to check out. She couldn’t do it for free but gave us a reduced price. I can’t remember the total cost but I know we save around $400.
I don’t have pictures to upload but I did put a video on YouTube of us getting the upgrade and giving a tour of the room which you can see by searching my name – Toomey To You