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.

All the lines were 5 deep so decided to move over to the vip line where there was no wait. Placed the drivers license and credit card between the $20 made some small talk and asked if they had any complementary upgrades. She did her thing went to the back room came back and asked if we have stayed at TheHotel told her no and she proceeded to tell us that we will enjoy the room. The corner unit was amazing and definitely will try this again. Making small talk with the lady at front desk helped tried to relate something to her talked about our kids and told her this was our first time away without them really helped. My wife was shocked that I was willing to try it but guess who got lucky!!!!

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!

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.

My goal was to use a female clerk so I could schmooze her a bit. I think it’s easier to do the sandwich tip when you can have good communication and the opposite sex lets the hormones start running too. When I first arrived at the desk, I gave a nice big smile and then gave her the sandwich tip.

She pocketed the $20 and started looking at the computer for rooms. I then said “do you have any complimentary upgrades?”. SHe immediately nods her head and says yes, we do @ theHotel. She then tells me I will get a suite and ask me how many key cards I want.

SUCCESS!

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!

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

Looked for a male clerk because that worked last time for me. No males were working at the time, so we took 1st available female clerk. Checked in around 2:30PM. No big lines yet.

I had pre-created the “ham sammy” while waiting in line and placed it on the counter when I gave my name. The 20 was offset from my ID and the CC so it was in plain view. She welcomed me to Mandalay Bay and I asked if any room upgrades were available. Keep in mind this is a holiday weekend. I purposely did not ask for a complimentary one, because I was trying to get the real scoop on availability. I had a 2nd folded 20 dollar bill on top of another credit card in my hand in plain view to grease the skids. She was very quick to tell me that they were quite full this weekend and no upgrades were available. She went on to tell me that their property next door “The Hotel” was sending guests to Mandalay due to overbooking. Whatever.
I told her I wanted to use a different credit card and retrieved my original card (with 20 dollar bill in tow). I put down the 2nd card and put both 20s back in my pocket.
I asked for a room with Pool view and not so far down the hall. She obliged and we were good to go. The room was very nice and we had a great stay.

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.

Our group arrived very late on a Wednesday night – more precisely 1230AM thursday morning.
Now I must admit I was skeptical of this concept but I figured what the heck, just try it and see what happens. After all, we’re in Vegas so if it doesn’t work we’ll still have a good time.

The lobby was almost vacant. It was late/early and a few days before the big Memorial Day weekend so we knew it was slow. Only two lines were open. We went to a younger Asian woman. I had the $50 stuck between my I’d and cc and was ready to do the routine. She asked for my last name and confirmed that our reservation was for the 550DR. She then asked for the I’d and cc. With a smile I handed it over and waited to make sure she noticed the $50. Once she touched it, I asked if she could do any comp upgrades. She looked back and smiled. This is where it gets fun.

She set the $50 aside and immediately got to work. My buddy who was with me could see the screen and said she was clicking through the list of available rooms at a blazing pace. I suspected that she was searching for something nice. She landed on one and asked us if a two bedroom, two king bed suite would work. Did we hear that right? No way would $50 get us THAT! We smiled and said yes. I couldn’t believe this was working. It was just like this site said! The $50 was quickly placed out of sight and after a few more clicks we had our room keys and the $50 was in her pocket.

As we got to our floor we wondered if we really got the 1500 suite. The desk clerk’s accent made her somewhat difficult to understand so maybe, just maybe, we got too excited and we got a room with a view- which wouldn’t be all that bad.

We stepped out of the elevator still not knowing what we got and joked how the double door suite at the end of the hall was our’s. With a bit of arrogance we continued to joke about those double doors as we kept walking down the hall. Yet we were still skeptical that this actually worked. Then we realized that our room was the last room number in that hall. We got the double doors!

We really had no idea what to expect when we opened the doors. I mean if we would have gotten any type of upgrade we would have been happy. But this was amazing. We opened the doors to see a huge suite with a lounge area, eating area, two bedrooms with separate bathrooms, and 5 TV’s. Oh yeah, and a full view of the strip on the ninth floor. Each night I went to bed (passed out) I was starring right down Las Vegas Blvd. Simply breathtaking. And if that view got boring I would walk to one side of my room and view the airport…and if that was too dull I would walk to the other room and enjoy the mountains.

So to sum this up, we went from the most basic room category to one of the best Mandalay Bay has to offer just for $50. Plus the daily resort fees were covered and we got a couple free drink tickets.

I am now a believer in this and will do it no matter where I go. This takes no special tricks or gimmicks. Just a little extra cash, a smile, and some confidence.