{"id":32911,"date":"2015-03-25T09:08:23","date_gmt":"2015-03-25T14:08:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.orbitz.com\/blog\/?p=32911"},"modified":"2018-03-01T14:00:16","modified_gmt":"2018-03-01T20:00:16","slug":"travel-pro-the-20-trick-should-you-shouldnt-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.orbitz.com\/blog\/2015\/03\/travel-pro-the-20-trick-should-you-shouldnt-you\/","title":{"rendered":"Hotel pro: The “$20 Trick”\u2014should you, shouldn’t you?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"20<\/a><\/p>\n

Ever heard of the $20 trick? It goes like this: Slip whomever’s manning the hotel’s front-desk a 20-spot between your driver\u2019s license and credit card when you are checking in and ask if there are any \u201ccomplimentary\u201d room upgrades. The next thingyou know, you\u2019ve been upgraded to a suite with a view of the Las Vegas strip<\/a>. It\u2019s a win-win, right?<\/p>\n

Not always. Some people \u2014 like hotel officials \u2014 think it could have adverse effects on business, and on service.<\/p>\n

RELATED:<\/strong> Why don’t hotels have 13th floors? Here’s why.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cYou get into a very sticky situation in terms of unreported income,\u201d said Michele Marsee, director of sales and marketing for the Plaza Hotel and Casino<\/a> in Las Vegas. \u201cThat is not a policy of the hotel to ever encourage that kind of thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Marsee wouldn\u2019t confirm or deny that she had ever seen the $20 trick in action, but she had heard of it.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the hotel business, people will tip to get a lot of things,\u201d Marsee said. \u201cIn any business people will try to buy their way into something.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s true. Bribery, or tipping for extra services, may not be as ubiquitous in the United States as it is in some other countries, but it has definitely worked its way into American culture. (Think Elaine in \u201cSeinfeld\u201d trying to bribe the Chinese restaurant hostess for a seat, or Lily in \u201cHow I Met Your Mother\u201d slipping $100 to the bartender to make sure she always had a drink in her hand.) And the $20 trick is right there with it.<\/p>\n

Multiple websites such as Frontdesk Tip<\/a> and The Twenty Dollar Trick<\/a> are dedicated to explaining how the trick works, there is a Facebook page dedicated to the practice<\/a>, where people can post about their successes with the trick, and dozens of travel bloggers have discussed it.<\/p>\n

The consensus? The $20 trick tends to be pretty effective. Some front desk workers have even handed back the $20 and just given guests an upgrade for asking. The trick is mainly used in major metropolitan areas, but the most success has been found in Las Vegas. And travelers who have found that success certainly don\u2019t see it as a problem.<\/p>\n

ALSO:<\/strong> How about a trick for saving on your next hotel? Try Orbitz Rewards!<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cEvery time we’ve been to Vegas, we’ve given it a shot. We\u2019ve had a little better than a 50 percent rate,\u201d said New York City-based Johnny Galbraith, who runs a finance blog with his wife called Our Freaking Budget<\/a>. \u201cUsually the \u2018upgrade\u2019 is a preferred location (Strip view) or renovated suite, but we’ve heard from readers of our site who have hit the figurative jackpot with penthouse suites.\u201d<\/p>\n

Monica Bay, an analyst and lawyer based in New York City, has also found success with the trick. And she feels good about it, because as she says, “it’s no secret that front desk folks aren’t making very much money.”<\/p>\n

Bay first learned of the trick from the book Heads in Beds: A Reckless Memoir of Hotels, Hustles, and So-Called Hospitality<\/a> by Jacob Tomsky.<\/p>\n

“One of the big lessons of the book is how much power the front desk folks have,” Bay said. “I’ve gotten better rooms, free breakfasts, free wi-fi, faster service, free access to the elite lounges, later checkouts, etc.”<\/p>\n

Marsee said the Plaza teaches their receptionists not to accept the tips and suggest an upgrade option customers can purchase. But she also knows that hotel officials can only micromanage so much.<\/p>\n

“You can only hope and train your agents to be of good ethics and do the right thing,\u201d she said, \u201cbut we are talking about human beings.”<\/p>\n

\"Orbitz,<\/p>\n

Save<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The trick that’s big with Vegas regulars has some hotel managers ruffled.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":118,"featured_media":33205,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1514,10],"tags":[2228,2220],"class_list":["post-32911","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-feature","category-las-vegas","tag-hotels","tag-travel-tips"],"acf":{"api_active":null,"api_title":null,"api_excerpt":null,"api_featured_image":null,"api_lob":null},"posts_api_cpm_point":[{"name":"","description":"","thumbnail":"","address":"Las Vegas, NV, USA","latitude":"36.1699412","longitude":"-115.13982959999998","icon":"\/images\/icons\/marker.png"}],"yoast_head":"\nHotel pro: The "$20 Trick"\u2014should you, shouldn't you? | Orbitz<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"You know the $20 trick- slipping whoever's manning the front desk between your driver's license and credit card upon check in. Should you or shouldn't you?\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.orbitz.com\/blog\/2015\/03\/travel-pro-the-20-trick-should-you-shouldnt-you\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Hotel pro: The "$20 Trick"\u2014should you, shouldn't you? | Orbitz\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"You know the $20 trick- slipping whoever's manning the front desk between your driver's license and credit card upon check in. Should you or shouldn't you?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.orbitz.com\/blog\/2015\/03\/travel-pro-the-20-trick-should-you-shouldnt-you\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Orbitz\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Orbitz\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-03-25T14:08:23+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2018-03-01T20:00:16+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.orbitz.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/20-trick-crumpled-bill.1265x725.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"820\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"470\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Ally Marotti\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@orbitz\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@orbitz\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Ally Marotti\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.orbitz.com\/blog\/2015\/03\/travel-pro-the-20-trick-should-you-shouldnt-you\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.orbitz.com\/blog\/2015\/03\/travel-pro-the-20-trick-should-you-shouldnt-you\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Ally Marotti\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.orbitz.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/9fe1c60c7c2f66da5be847d78ee362d0\"},\"headline\":\"Hotel pro: The “$20 Trick”\u2014should you, shouldn’t you?\",\"datePublished\":\"2015-03-25T14:08:23+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-03-01T20:00:16+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.orbitz.com\/blog\/2015\/03\/travel-pro-the-20-trick-should-you-shouldnt-you\/\"},\"wordCount\":631,\"commentCount\":9,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.orbitz.com\/blog\/2015\/03\/travel-pro-the-20-trick-should-you-shouldnt-you\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.orbitz.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/20-trick-crumpled-bill.1265x725.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Hotels\",\"Travel Tips\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Feature\",\"Las Vegas\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.orbitz.com\/blog\/2015\/03\/travel-pro-the-20-trick-should-you-shouldnt-you\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.orbitz.com\/blog\/2015\/03\/travel-pro-the-20-trick-should-you-shouldnt-you\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.orbitz.com\/blog\/2015\/03\/travel-pro-the-20-trick-should-you-shouldnt-you\/\",\"name\":\"Hotel pro: The \\\"$20 Trick\\\"\u2014should you, shouldn't you? | Orbitz\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.orbitz.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.orbitz.com\/blog\/2015\/03\/travel-pro-the-20-trick-should-you-shouldnt-you\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.orbitz.com\/blog\/2015\/03\/travel-pro-the-20-trick-should-you-shouldnt-you\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.orbitz.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/20-trick-crumpled-bill.1265x725.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2015-03-25T14:08:23+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-03-01T20:00:16+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.orbitz.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/9fe1c60c7c2f66da5be847d78ee362d0\"},\"description\":\"You know the $20 trick- slipping whoever's manning the front desk between your driver's license and credit card upon check in. Should you or shouldn't you?\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.orbitz.com\/blog\/2015\/03\/travel-pro-the-20-trick-should-you-shouldnt-you\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.orbitz.com\/blog\/2015\/03\/travel-pro-the-20-trick-should-you-shouldnt-you\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.orbitz.com\/blog\/2015\/03\/travel-pro-the-20-trick-should-you-shouldnt-you\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.orbitz.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/20-trick-crumpled-bill.1265x725.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.orbitz.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/20-trick-crumpled-bill.1265x725.jpg\",\"width\":1265,\"height\":725},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.orbitz.com\/blog\/2015\/03\/travel-pro-the-20-trick-should-you-shouldnt-you\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.orbitz.com\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Hotel pro: The “$20 Trick”\u2014should you, shouldn’t you?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.orbitz.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.orbitz.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"Orbitz\",\"description\":\"Travel Blog\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.orbitz.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.orbitz.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/9fe1c60c7c2f66da5be847d78ee362d0\",\"name\":\"Ally Marotti\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.orbitz.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.orbitz.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Ally-Marotti_mug-150x150.jpeg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.orbitz.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Ally-Marotti_mug-150x150.jpeg\",\"caption\":\"Ally Marotti\"},\"description\":\"Ally is a Chicago-based journalist, recently transplanted from Ohio.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.orbitz.com\/blog\/author\/amarotti\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Hotel pro: The \"$20 Trick\"\u2014should you, shouldn't you? | Orbitz","description":"You know the $20 trick- slipping whoever's manning the front desk between your driver's license and credit card upon check in. Should you or shouldn't you?","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.orbitz.com\/blog\/2015\/03\/travel-pro-the-20-trick-should-you-shouldnt-you\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Hotel pro: The \"$20 Trick\"\u2014should you, shouldn't you? | Orbitz","og_description":"You know the $20 trick- slipping whoever's manning the front desk between your driver's license and credit card upon check in. Should you or shouldn't you?","og_url":"https:\/\/www.orbitz.com\/blog\/2015\/03\/travel-pro-the-20-trick-should-you-shouldnt-you\/","og_site_name":"Orbitz","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Orbitz\/","article_published_time":"2015-03-25T14:08:23+00:00","article_modified_time":"2018-03-01T20:00:16+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/www.orbitz.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/20-trick-crumpled-bill.1265x725.jpg","width":820,"height":470,"type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Ally Marotti","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@orbitz","twitter_site":"@orbitz","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Ally Marotti","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.orbitz.com\/blog\/2015\/03\/travel-pro-the-20-trick-should-you-shouldnt-you\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.orbitz.com\/blog\/2015\/03\/travel-pro-the-20-trick-should-you-shouldnt-you\/"},"author":{"name":"Ally Marotti","@id":"https:\/\/www.orbitz.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/9fe1c60c7c2f66da5be847d78ee362d0"},"headline":"Hotel pro: The “$20 Trick”\u2014should you, shouldn’t you?","datePublished":"2015-03-25T14:08:23+00:00","dateModified":"2018-03-01T20:00:16+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.orbitz.com\/blog\/2015\/03\/travel-pro-the-20-trick-should-you-shouldnt-you\/"},"wordCount":631,"commentCount":9,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.orbitz.com\/blog\/2015\/03\/travel-pro-the-20-trick-should-you-shouldnt-you\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.orbitz.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/20-trick-crumpled-bill.1265x725.jpg","keywords":["Hotels","Travel Tips"],"articleSection":["Feature","Las Vegas"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.orbitz.com\/blog\/2015\/03\/travel-pro-the-20-trick-should-you-shouldnt-you\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.orbitz.com\/blog\/2015\/03\/travel-pro-the-20-trick-should-you-shouldnt-you\/","url":"https:\/\/www.orbitz.com\/blog\/2015\/03\/travel-pro-the-20-trick-should-you-shouldnt-you\/","name":"Hotel pro: The \"$20 Trick\"\u2014should you, shouldn't you? | Orbitz","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.orbitz.com\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.orbitz.com\/blog\/2015\/03\/travel-pro-the-20-trick-should-you-shouldnt-you\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.orbitz.com\/blog\/2015\/03\/travel-pro-the-20-trick-should-you-shouldnt-you\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.orbitz.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/20-trick-crumpled-bill.1265x725.jpg","datePublished":"2015-03-25T14:08:23+00:00","dateModified":"2018-03-01T20:00:16+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.orbitz.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/9fe1c60c7c2f66da5be847d78ee362d0"},"description":"You know the $20 trick- slipping whoever's manning the front desk between your driver's license and credit card upon check in. Should you or shouldn't you?","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.orbitz.com\/blog\/2015\/03\/travel-pro-the-20-trick-should-you-shouldnt-you\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.orbitz.com\/blog\/2015\/03\/travel-pro-the-20-trick-should-you-shouldnt-you\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.orbitz.com\/blog\/2015\/03\/travel-pro-the-20-trick-should-you-shouldnt-you\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.orbitz.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/20-trick-crumpled-bill.1265x725.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.orbitz.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/20-trick-crumpled-bill.1265x725.jpg","width":1265,"height":725},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.orbitz.com\/blog\/2015\/03\/travel-pro-the-20-trick-should-you-shouldnt-you\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.orbitz.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Hotel pro: The “$20 Trick”\u2014should you, shouldn’t you?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.orbitz.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.orbitz.com\/blog\/","name":"Orbitz","description":"Travel Blog","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.orbitz.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.orbitz.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/9fe1c60c7c2f66da5be847d78ee362d0","name":"Ally Marotti","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.orbitz.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.orbitz.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Ally-Marotti_mug-150x150.jpeg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.orbitz.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Ally-Marotti_mug-150x150.jpeg","caption":"Ally Marotti"},"description":"Ally is a Chicago-based journalist, recently transplanted from Ohio.","url":"https:\/\/www.orbitz.com\/blog\/author\/amarotti\/"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.orbitz.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/20-trick-crumpled-bill.1265x725.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.orbitz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32911","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.orbitz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.orbitz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.orbitz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/118"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.orbitz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32911"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.orbitz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32911\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.orbitz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33205"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.orbitz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32911"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.orbitz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32911"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.orbitz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32911"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}