“Do you have complementary upgrade?” “Let me check”, he said. ID, credit card and $20, then I got an extremely good suite in venetian. It’s so easy..

Reserved a Luxury suite (most basic room) through Priceline for $120 per night. Slipped the $20 under my credit card when I slid it to the clerk. She smiled and looked around, then asked if we were celebrating a special occasion. I told her it was our anniversary.

She put the keys together and told us we should be quite happy. We got a 1400 sq. ft. Piazza suite for our stay… much bigger than their standard suites. Granted, we didn’t get the view. Ours was on a low floor and backed up onto a dingy courtyard, but the suite was lush with a jacuzzi tub and it was twice the size of our apartment, so we weren’t complaining!

Upgrades with Priceline reservations are possible, just gotta get the right clerk!

Had reserved the basic room, low floors, no view. Upon checkin, handed over DL, CC, and 20, and asked if there might be any upgrades available. Clerk set aside the 20, typed away, and found high up room, floor 29, with nice view (per website, these rooms were 50 more per night). Only problem was, that next morning, could hear heavy construction noise from room renovations nearby. Called front desk, and they moved us to an even nicer room. Newly renovated, two 42″ plasma tvs, electronic window treatments, etc. Very nice.

I checked in with my wife in tow. When asked for ID and credit card, I put a $20 under both. She took the cards, left the twenty on the counter and just kept typing away. She then asked for me to sign an electronic signature pad verifying the conference rate. No mention of an upgrade at this point, I went ahead and signed the pad. The pad was now partially covering the twenty. She said that we were being upgraded to a Venezia Suite with a strip view. I told her the $20 was for her and she said thanks. The room really had a great view of the Mirage Volcano and the mountains in the distance.

I talked with other folks at the conference and they were on low floors with a view of the back of the Venetian.

On a related note: I tipped the bell hop $5 when we picked up our bags (they were being held for us after checkout). The bell hop had us skip the taxi line (about 20 people) and called the next taxi to pick us up. This worked 2 years ago at the Bellagio as well.

From a standard to a VERY NICE Sweet 26th floor with a great view of the strip. Young lady vERY nice and helpful. COuld not have asked for better service from this point on.

When the clerk asked for my ID and credit card I handed them over with a folded $20 bill and asked him to upgrade our room if possible. We were put in a room with a king bed on the 33rd floor over looking the strip. Great view, king bed. I paid $140 on Priceline. I feel like if I would have just smiled and asked for an upgrade with out the $20 tip I would have received the same upgrade.

Put the $20 under my credit card, the clerk glanced at it quickly checked his computer said an upgrade was available. Same type of room but in the Venezia tower (claimed it was $45 more a night.) Had a view of the pool area. Once I agreed the $20 quickly went into his pocket.

I went to check in at about 12pm, gave my ID with the $20 and my credit card in plain site. She gace me a room with a really low floor, probably a view of a wall. I asked if anything else was available, she said that was it at the moment. I then tapped the credit card with the $20 which she then noticed and said “let me check”. She then finds a 29th floor room with a view of the strip which was nice.

Asked her if there was anything better she can upgrade us to, and she said strip view for a extra XXX per night, i declined and asked if there was anything she could do for a tip? she said no.

(thinking back on it now seems i didn’t do it slick enough)

Checked in at the Venezia Tower at the Venetian last week. All the rooms are suites and very nice, but I figured I would take a shot at getting up onto the concierge level which includes a little fancier room, free breakfast, cocktail hour, etc. The front desk clerk was as clueless as they come – we struck out. Very nice property though and a good deal at the $200/night rate that we paid.