I promised a report on my success with the casino hotel upgrade game played with check in clerks. Well it worked like a charm at the Golden Nugget.
My $20 dollars, nice smile and friendly disposition(thank you TER posters for the rules) got an immediate cheerful upgrade to the Gold tower with the polite young guy checking us in.
Our stay there was very nice by the way..nice change from the cavernous places on the strip.
Happy New Years everyone..!

I enjoyed this part on LV too!  A real change from just staying on the strip.

Not a stupid question at all. Ive read slipping the $20 and remaining silent will get the message across. I however politely inquired about a "complimentary upgrade."

It appears the difference between a basic room and a room in the gold tower is a modest $14 on a weekday. Obviously this difference will vary depending on hotel and night of the week and to what extent the upgrade is, but I wonder what is the "normal" upgrade? I know the hotels won't be upgrading to their top suites but in this case, if one was staying in the hotel one night during the week, he would've actually come out behind, lol. 2 nights would've reaped the whopping savings of $8. The longer you stay the more it becomes worthwhile I suppose.

Not sure if this has been shared before but here is a great site with tots of other stories and experiences about this little trick to help you get the upgrades!!

http://thetwentydollartrick.com/

Every hotel general manager that can do to do a Google search knows about it now.  That will put a stop to it.  It was nice while it lasted.

Happy you got a cool upgrade for $20 .......... I just hope you didn't dine at the Golden Nugget Restaurant ..........

Check out this link -
http://www.ktnv.com/news/local/183262572.html
.......... Yikes .

No wonder they were giving upgrades .......... I bet they lost lots of business.
and usually when things are slow the $20 upgrade works ........ try doing that during CES

Just keeping visitors up to date on local news.

xoxo CindySpice

I keep thinking that every time I read here about the so called  $20 trick. If you are tipping 20 bucks for a 15 buck room upgrade that is pretty stupid. Just pay for the damn upgrade. Now if 20 bucks is getting you a $50 upgrade or upping from a room to a suite that is different.