First, please understand the Monte Carlo is under construction and it was Cinco de Mayo weekend when I tried it. They are doing renovations and had no wiggle room for upgrades.

Gave him the $20 dollar sandwich and he giggled. Said thank you and see what he could do. Wanted to comp our parking but we flew in and had no car. Explained to us that the hotel is under renovations and will be rebranded. He moved us to a lower level floor as far from the construction as possible. Had a great view of the T-Mobile arena and the Park for people watching on the 6th floor. We feel it was worth it based on zero noise from the construction. Slept like a baby.

Checked in around 4 at the monte carlo. Used the $20 sandwich and said i would appreciate any room upgrades or comps. Room upgraded to strip view and received $40 food comp.

This place can be a bit hard to do the $20 trick. When we arrived it was mid-night, and there was no staff available but just kiosk check-ins. They seem to use this more than staff. I started off using the kiosk, but was confused as to how I would do the $20 with no staff there. A staff appeared and asked if I needed any assistance, and she then helped me to check in. She looked at my room and noticed that it was a handicap room, and she said she could assist me to change it. When I went with her to the desk, I placed the $20 on the desk and asked if there were any upgrade available. She smiled and said she would look but the rooms were all booked because of a microsoft convention. At first she said it was all book but she could upgrade me the next day (since i was staying for two nights). I said that’s fine. Then she spoke with her manager and actually stated a room seemed to open up and she offered us to have a strip view on the 32nd floor. We were originally going to be on the 18th floor. She asked if i wanted the double queen size bed room or the one king size bedroom. I opted for the one king size bedroom. She was cordial and nice. It wasn’t an epic upgrade, but I’ll take it.

My recent trip to Vegas, we stayed at the Monte Carlo. We got there at 11:30am on a Monday so it wasn’t busy. I handed the young woman my card, ID, with the $20 bill in between. She upgraded us from a deluxe room to a high floor strip view room. She also waived our resort fee and gave us tons of coupons. At the end of the transaction she handed the $20 back and said, “Use this on a cab ride or something. Free upgrades for you today.” Very successful for me!

Arrived at 8pm, the night before New Year’s Eve. I slipped $20 in between my credit card and ID while asking the gentleman if there were any complimentary upgrades. He saw the $20 and said, “let me check, a lot of our VIP rooms are usually booked because it’s New Years.” Then immediately got on the phone to make a call asking about room availability. After patiently waiting about 10 mins, we got our keycard to a strip view suite.

Checked in on a Friday morning at 2:30 AM (after a series of delayed and cancelled flights). Check-in was fairly busy due to a storm that moved through Vegas earlier (causing all the delays). All the self-check kiosks were down (a fairly common problem apparently) so I had to go to the VIP check-in. Immediately, I was told that there were no suites available due to the busy weekend that I went. I was offered a Stay Well room, but they only had a King and I wanted a Queen. I was offered a Strip View Queen and I accepted. Cheekily, I asked for a food voucher too and was given $75 in food credit as well.

I had stayed at the Monte Carlo before and didn’t know it had been rebranded to Park MGM. My previous experience with the Monte Carlo was not great. The rooms were dated and prettt dingy even the suites.

I found this website before our trip and thought why not give it a try. We arrived to the hotel at about 9am on Sunday and the checkout craze hadn’t started yet. I asked about an early check in and was told that I would have to check in via their kiosk system.

I thought great there goes my chance. After checking in I asked a nice attendant if there was any upgrades that they had available. He said “let me check” went up the computer and said all the suites were taken but that he would see if there was a room with a better view. Ended up on the 26th floor with a view of the mountains. Also the room has definitely been updated with a more contemporary decor

There was about 7 guys spread over 3 rooms – each room had 2 queens. We rustled up about $120 between us and went to the reception where it was dead (being a Tuesday night). I basically put the money in my passport, handed it over and said ‘are you able to offer any complimentary upgrades?’ making sure he saw the $$$.
He then proceeded to type things and made a phone call in which he then told me he could offer me a suite for an additional $80 per night instead of $160. Being 7 of us the suite was suitable so i just asked for 3 rooms next to one another on a high floor overlooking the strip. None over looking the strip unfortunately but got one over looking the pool on the 31st (those high floor rooms have flat screen tv, ipod dock and free wifi) and we had our resort fee waivered for all 3 rooms so was extremely happy with that.

We checked in pretty late, after 5pm. The hotel seemed pretty busy since it’s the Sat of halloween weekend. I didn’t think it was going to work but decided to give it a shot anyways. It’s Vegas afterall.

The clerk was cute and had a nice smile. I thought she’s worth talking to even if we don’t get the upgrade. To my surprise, she smiled when she saw the bill and returned it. But said she’ll see if she could find anything nicer. To my surprise, she had us upgraded to a nice room on the 31st floor.

Kind of worked?
We arrived around 3pm and there was a line leading to the computers. I was a little curious as to if I’d get to try at all, but someone came over and started the process saying we would finish on our own on the computer. When I gave her my ID she handed me back the $20, saying there was a Hockey game that night and they were booked to almost capacity but she would get me a better view. She asked if we wanted a strip view and we didn’t care what happened. She said it was good we didn’t want a Strip because the view is much better looking out over the pool, you can see some of the Aria and get a gorgeous view of the mountains. It was beautiful.
I tried giving her the $20 when we were all done checking in with her help (we needed extra keys), but she said it was nice to actually talk even after she told us no initially, which is more than most people do, so she didn’t want it. I tried giving her the money again, because that’s a solid answer, but she declined again.
So kind of an upgrade.