My dad slipped a $20 to the clerk and said “Hey I’ve got my son and his Girlfriend, we are celebrating their college graduation. Are there any possible upgrades for an event like such?” She said “why of course 🙂 how does The Hotel sounds.” It was around noon on a Friday. Very pleased will do this again.

Long lines. shortest line was an asian woman. mid-day Monday.

Had comped rooms this past weekend and went to check in at the VIP line round 5pm on Friday. Put my cards and $20 on the counter and the clerk immediately grabbed all 3 and mentioned he would upgrade my room without me even asking anything. Asked if I cared about the view or floor which I didn’t and put us in a Bay Suite. The only thing I owed was the $74 for the resort fees and he said he would take care of those as well. This was probably the best upgrade I’ve gotten since tipping $20 at check in.

The money sandwich did not work for me. Made my attempt on 9-27-2019 for a complimentary upgrade. Tried to tip $50 but the receptionist shut me down pretty quickly and said that the hotel was pretty busy and no upgrade rooms were available. I did not even get the king room I had reserved but got a room with two queens on the 16th floor facing The Delano.

We arrived at Mandalay Bay about 11:00 pm on a Thursday evening. There were approximately 10 other guests in line with 4 front desk/check in workers. There were 2 older Asian women, an African American woman who looked very by-the-book and a mid 20s white gal. My 21 year old son was with me and I told him to make sure he smiled and looked happy when we it was our turn to check in. Sure enough we got white 20 something. The first thing I did was put the $20 bill on the counter in front of me. I was friendly and she asked if we had a reservation. I said yes and she asked for DL and credit card. I did not sandwich but made sure the $20 was in plain view the entire time. She found the reservation and asked if we booked 2 queens non-smoking. I said yes and that I was hoping for an upgrade since this was my son’s first time in Vegas and I wanted it to be a memorable experience. She seemed engaged with the idea of my son being 21 and his first trip to Vegas. She said she could move us to the 32nd floor with a full view of the strip. Then she reached in and pulled out a handful of free drink tickets. I told her we really appreciated her customer service and asked if she was allowed to accept tips. She nodded and I handed her the twenty. Mission accomplished. The room absolutely exceeded my expectations.

Lines were a few people deep for each of the 5-7 front desk clerks so I tried to find someone who didn’t look already annoyed.
She seemed nice, I provided her with my license and CC and included an unfolded $20 bill and asked if she had any complimentary upgrades available.
She commented that the hotel was quite full but she would check. She typed away for a few minutes then, as expected, stepped away for a few minutes to have a conversation with the front desk manager. They spoke for a few minutes, laughing, etc. and didn’t appear to be looking at the computer at all.
She finally came back and said she had a great view suite for me on the 32 floor, overlooking a view of the strip.
I was very pleased with the results – for $20 I got a great suite for 6 nights!

Checked in Mandalay Bay around 1am, December 6th. There was only one woman checking in a couple ahead of me and I wasn’t getting a good vibe from her, but thought she would be my only option. About the time I thought that, I man (25-30yrs), opened up a line 3 or 4 computers down from the line I was in.

Thinking about the possibility of an upgrade all week, I approached him with the “sandwich” ready to go. We were staying 5 nights, so I thought I would up the ante to a $50 tip. It was well worth it. I gave him the sandwich and told him that my wife and I had gotten married less than 9 hours ago (truth) and that we had a baby due in April (truth) so this could be our last “hoorah” for awhile. I asked him if he could help us out with any complimentary upgrades. At first, he said we are all booked up, but it was almost like he was saying it because he had to say it or something. He then immediately, hesitated and said, I’ll be right back. He went to the back and then came back out, did alot of typing and then said “You both are going to love this room. This room is bigger than my townhome I have here in Las Vegas. It’s about 1600sf” All of the sudden I forgot how tired I was from getting married 9 hours earlier, being on a plane for a total of 5 hours and then waiting in the cold (it was 35 degrees when we got there!) for a taxi for longer than expected once we got to Vegas.

I thanked him and when we were impressed before we even saw the room. As we walked down the hallway, we realized our room was through the double-doors at the very end of the hall (always wondered what those rooms looked like inside). We opened up the doors and found 5 TV’s (3 plasmas), floor to ceiling windows with panaramic views, 2 Bose Audio Systems, 2 full baths, jacuzzi tub, wet bar, etc. etc. Needless to say we were thrilled. This was especially true considering we only booked a standard room – 550sf (almost booked a suite from the start, but thought I would have faith in the sandwich trick.)

We had a great stay (as we always do at Mandalay Bay) and it was nice being successful on my first try with “the sandwich”.

I am a HUGE skeptic about things, so, not to be cliche’, but……”if it worked for me, it can work for you too.” Good luck!

Gary

we arrived at the lobby around 1030pm and the registration wasn’t very busy so we just went into the first available clerks line and i had the 20$ sandwich ready in my pocket. his name was jeff and in his early twenty’s, handed over my ids and he put the 20 dollars clearly on the desk in the middle of him and i and went to work typing away on his computer for about 5-10 minutes without saying much. (i asked for the comp upgrade) he said the room would be a bit smaller but would have an excellent view and a jacuzzi. it was for my girlfriend and i so i thought that would be alright! well he checked us in and gave us a map to our room it was a little confusing at first it was so big. we got to the elevators for the hotel at the manadalay bay and we discovered jeff had upgraded us to the penthouse suite on the top floor with a breathing taking view. for 20$ DEFIANTLY worth it put the cherry on top thanks jeff!

Checked in at 4 PM on a Tuesday for 2 nights. Had my choice of clerks (1st time ever) so I chose a young, friendly-looking female. I handed her the sandwich and asked for any free upgrades. She dropped the cash on the counter like it was on fire and said, “I’m sorry we don’t do that, you can purchase an upgrade if you’d like.” Perhaps Mandalay is cracking down on free upgrades. I was happy with the room I got (nice strip view), and I got the $20 back, so no harm done. I’ve still had many more successes than failures, so it never hurts to try.

We arrived at the hotel very early in the AM (7 vegas time). I prepared my $20 sandwich (nom nom nom) and presented it to the next available host with the phrase “any complimentary upgrades available?”. She was startled a bit at first but threw the $20 on the desk and begin looking. The hotel was very full as there was a conference booked there and the pool was opening this weekend. She found us an upgrade to a executive bay king suite with a strip view (that is 2 tiers of upgrade I think). Even better, she got us checked in to an already ready suite (that is normally a $50 upcharge) and extra late checkout on Sunday (normally another $40). So thankful, normally checkin is at 3pm and the place becomes a zoo! Also 2 buffet passes! When I looked at rooms, a exec over a bay room was an extra $200 or so a night, so for our 2 night stay, we ended up with $500 worth of value for our $20 bucks. Total win!