I’m writing this review after getting my room for an hour. I went to the second floor check-in. It’s brighter and not as crowded. I waited on line and immediately saw the only male cleak. He’s around 25-27. I waited and waited, It was around a 13 minute wait. People was just chatting it up. They were calling people one by one and i was a little nervous they’ll direct me to someone else. FInally, I got him on my turn. Didn’t get to small talk much as he asked for my name and credit card. Handed him the sandwich 20 and asked “I was wondering if there’s any complimentary upgrades.” He said he’ll see what he can do for me. He placed the 20 on top of the desk in plain sight. We chat a little while he’s typing away. He said there’s a bella room with a strip view and a bella room with a pool view in the venezia tower. Which one would i prefer? I told him i’ll take the strip view. Then he found another bella in the venetian tower that is newly renovated, only opened for 2 months with plasma tvs and has a view of the pool/strip. I took it. It’s on the 19th floor. I dont know which was better, the venezia tower or the regular building with the newly renovated rooms.

FIRST TIME TRYING TIP UPGRADE. WAS VERY EASY AND GOT BEAUTIFUL ROOM WITH VIEW OF TI. NEWLY RENOVATED WITH 3 TV’S. THANKS FOR THIS IDEA.

I handed her the $20 between cc and license, and asked if I can get an upgrade of any sort. First she said yes, for a fee, then she saw the $20 and said let me see what I can do. She then said she found a room with a strip view on the 16th floor. We’ve never stayed there before so I just took her word for it. When we got to our room, it was right above the pools and couldn’t see the strip. Then the construction noise started and the club down below was pounding loud music. We couldn’t stand it so asked for a room change. The original room was a renovated one. It was really nice excet for the noice. The new room we got was inside the Venetian Tower, and it sucked big time….ground floor and a concrete wall in front of the window. Needless to say, we don’t plan to stay in the room more than we have to now. Luckily I booked our 3rd night with the Bellagio. Don’t know if I would tried the $20 again. Feel like it was a waste of money.

Could not have been smoother. Chatted it up with gentleman who escorted us to our front desk clerk, and then with desk clerk. Told her we’d be grateful for any complimentary upgrade that might be available. She did a little typing and told us there was a newly renovated suite w/strip view on 30th floor. Fantastic! Overlooked pools and pirate show at Treasure Island.

Booked two suites on Priceline for four nights at $120 per room per suite. Arrived late (11:30 p.m.). No front desk supervisors in sight, so walked up to the female clerk, did the sandwich 20 and asked with a polite smile “Could you please check if there are any complimentary upgrades available”. Clerk puts the ID and credit card above the 20 and types away. Needed a smoking room for one person, and a non-smoking room for two people. Got a 1,500 square foot (not kidding) hospitality suite for the smoker on the 3rd floor (the only drawback was that it was a hike from the elevators), and a renovated non-smoking suite with two beds on the 14th floor right by the elevators. The non-smoking suite was about 20% larger than other comparable suites due to the angled wall, and there were no problems from noise from the elevators or the hallway. No view on either but that didn’t bother us. Best $20 ever spent – I figured I got at least $400 in upgrades … and the biggest ROI on the trip!

I found an awesome deal at the Venetian(on the FatWallet forums of course). $139 a night, which was even cheaper than most of the standard rooms at other strip hotels(MGM, Caesars, Mirage, TI, Mandalay…). Since I felt like I was getting a suite for so cheap I coughed up a $50 this time around. I know I would be getting 100s of dollars in upgrades so I shrugged it off. I walk up to the check in desk. It was very busy, mostly from people checking out. I scouted the hosts and I wasn’t feeling any of them. They all looked real stiff. Before I could decide who my best bet was, I was approached by a staff member who pointed me in the direction of a set of elevators. She told me to go ahead and go up to the next floor and I could check in there. I was very excited to scout a whole new crew.

We got upstairs to a much nicer lobby area and about 4/5 hosts looked fine so I was just gonna try and avoid the one. I approached a young girl who like always, immediately asked for my ID. Instead of putting the cash between my card and ID like before, I just gave her my ID. This bought me some time to get some words out while she looked me up. On a side note, I never ask if there are any upgrades like everyone else is writing(see my past 2 posts as well). I simply make it known what I want without saying it. I feel like I’m being a lot more smooth that way. Moving on. I just let her know this was most likely going to be my last getaway before school started and I was hoping to have a “very comfortable room”. She said of course and asked me for my credit card. I then gave her my card with the $50 underneath, but showing a little. It was gone in a flash lol.

It didn’t take her long at all to find us a room. We were on the 26th floor, perfect view of TI, Tangerine, and its waterfront, as well as the Wynn, but best of all we were directly over the pool and Tao beach. It was beautiful. I sat there and watched the sun come up both days. If you look at their web site, moving to a strip view alone is a huge dent in your wallet. Its not like the other hotels that charge you $20-$50. They charge like $150. She also let me know It was in a newly renovated room which was easy to notice. We had a large L shaped seating area where you could lay out and talk, pre-party. It was great. We also had 3 large flat panel tvs. A remote control for the blinds and curtains. I felt like a VIP. She also let me have a 1pm check out which apparently is unheard of there. They usually charge you for a half day if you stay past noon, plus they usually wont even let you ask for a late check out till the day off. I was glad I didn’t have to worry about it at all or have to remember to call(which is hard when you drink as much as I do in Vegas).

The Venetian rocked(was my 1st time staying there). I have stayed at almost all of the main Vegas hotels and I would have to say this was my favorite. Even above Bellagio. Yes the Wynn was amazing, but the casino is way too stuffy for my blood. In conclusion, I was put in the nicest room I have ever had in Vegas, but paid one of the smallest amounts. THANK YOU MR. GRANT!

As we were entering the long check-in queue, a bellhop offered to take us upstairs to another check-in area. There I gave the Priceline paperwork for the 2-rooms. Then I reached around the end of the counter with $20 sandwiched between my driver license and credit card and asked if a complimentary upgrade was available.
He immediately started typing, and said he had 2-connecting rooms each with 2-queens. Great!

I had two rooms reserved for my party of 6. Walked up to the clerk who asked me for id. I had kept two $20 bills sandwiched between my credit card and ID. I asked if any upgrades were available and she told me that there is a newely rennovated room in the venetian tower with a great view of the strip for an $85 upgrade charge. She said she will waive the charge and sure enough, we got the rooms on the 24th floor – with a fantastic view of the strip and the pools below. She tried her best to get the rooms connected without success- in the end it didnt matter as our rooms were just 2 rooms apart.
She also looked at the $40 and said “Thank you for that”. I was quite nervous but in the end it worked out just great. I did chat up with her like other people had suggested on this thread, asked her how her day was and such.

I had booked the room through my sister who had blocked off a bunch of basic suites for her wedding. She had negotiated an already reduced rate for us. When we checked in, I put the $20 between my credit card and ID, but it was not visible. When I asked for an upgrade she said it would cost an additional $300. She said there was nothing complimentary. When she saw the $20- she said “let me see what I can do.” We couldn’t get the $300 updgrade b/c there was only one of those rooms left, but she put us on the 26th floor, newly remodeled room with 3 flat screens and automatic drapes. (kind of stupid but cool). The other members of our group were in old rooms on the 5th floor.

I originally booked the room through Priceline at $250 a night. It was only for the Venetian Luxury room (single king). I placed the $20 between my ID and credit card and passed it to the young lady behind the counter. As I the $20 sandwiched between the two cards, I politely asked if she would be able to give me any complimentary upgrades. She noticed the $20, placed the credit card over the $20, then put them down on her desk next to her keyboard. She frantically went to work and found a very nice Venezia Concierge Bella suite( around $400 a night). The room was fantastic, 2 queen beds, 3 LCD TVs and a mini fridge. It was located on the 20th floor with a view of the strip, far down the hall from the elevators, which is a good thing -you don’t have to listen to every drunk person stumble loudly to their room late at night. I have stayed in rooms close to the elevators and you hear every single person go by. She also included a coupon book for the Canal shoppes, a free gondola ride, $25 in slot play and late checkout without a problem.

I originally didn’t think it was going to work since I booked through Priceline, and another member on the forums said they were unsuccessful in upgrading due to the reservation being made through Priceline. Luckily I was able to get an upgrade and then some. $20 well spent.