Woman Checks In At Las Vegas Hotel. Then She Tries A Sneaky Trick To Get Room Upgraded For Free

One of the purest joys in life is getting a free upgrade.

Whether you get a complimentary hotel suite or you get bumped up to first class, being able to spend time in a luxury space without the luxury price tag is pure bliss.

The problem is that these upgrades seem to happen at random. You can charm the socks off of hotel reception or your airline’s gate agent—but whether they choose to respond with a smile or by smashing the “give this guy the works” button seems to be a complete roll of the dice.

So, is there a way you can guarantee good treatment or even an upgrade?

How To Get A Free Room Upgrade In Las Vegas

In a video with over 1.4 million views, TikTok user Maddy (@maddylinelove1) says she recently tried out a viral hack on a trip to Vegas.

“I saw this trick. If you put a $20 in between your card and your ID when you’re checking in at a hotel in Vegas, they might give you an upgrade,” she says.

While this didn’t give them a room-category upgrade, Maddy says her mom received other benefits. These benefits included getting a room with a great view and a “$110 bar credit for her birthday.”

“I will say the view makes up for no upgrade,” Maddy remarked upon looking out of the room’s window.

In the caption, Maddy summarizes, “It didn’t work, but it’s OK ’cause she was super sweet still, and we got in our room 2 hours early!”

Las Vegas Free Room Upgrade Trick: Does It Really Work?

Las Vegas visitors have discussed the “sandwich trick” for decades. There was even a website that documented travelers’ attempts to use this trick—which provides us with some meaningful data about whether it’s a good move for your next trip.

Using over 3,700 reports from the now-defunct site FrontDeskTip, a researcher at the Copenhagen Business School determined that tipping the front desk led to a positive outcome about 26% of the time. In this study, “success” was defined as “either a room upgrade or other complementary services.”

This does not mean that tipping your front desk worker will result in a room upgrade a quarter of the time. Rather, it just shows that, in a dataset encompassing the years 2006 to 2021, people who used this site found success with this trick just a fourth of the time.

Other Ways To Get A Hotel Upgrade

Another study found that there were other ways to increase your odds of an upgrade that didn’t involve just silently sliding over a $20 bill.

A study in the peer-reviewed Journal of Business Ethics looked at 886 reports from the same website.

According to this research, a covert handover like the one performed by the TikToker was moderately successful. It was also more successful than an overt handover. However, other factors correlated with higher odds of an upgrade.

For example, mentioning a special occasion, checking in between 4 and 8pm, and making small talk were all shown to increase the odds of an upgrade at a higher rate than a silent tip alone.

This study also looked at whether the tip amount had an impact. According to their research, there was no evidence that increasing the tip amount led to a greater likelihood of an upgrade.

So, should you leave a secret tip for your front desk worker and hope for an upgrade? You certainly can—but you may want to add these other factors into the mix as well.

What Las Vegas Travelers Say

In the comments section, users claimed that, in their experience, this advice actually worked.

“I gave $100 last time at the Cosmo with my Marriott status and was given a huge corner suite,” wrote a user.

“It worked for me. I got upgraded to a suite at PH!” exclaimed another.

That said, others claimed that a $20 bill was no longer enough for an upgrade.

“Inflation. $100 minimum for an actual upgrade,” declared a commenter.

“20 dollars was 20 years ago,” echoed another. “[It’s] a Benjamin now.”

BroBible reached out to Maddy via email and TikTok direct message.