When we checked out some of the first guest reviews of the new CitizenM hotel in Amsterdam, we noticed a couple of the contributions came from guests who had seen the property a bit early -- they had gotten the chance to stay overnight as "test-sleepers" before the June grand opening.
So, in other words, the hotel hired people to act as bed testers and stay overnight for free.
Seriously? The greatest job ever, maybe? Our calling? Your calling?
After the jump: how those lucky few scored gigs as hotel "test-sleepers" -- and how you can, too.
The ghetto 4-button alarm clock with the red visible-from-space LCD display is on the way out, and the iPod-compatible iHome has taken its place on hotel nightstands everywhere.
So far, we've woken up next to these babies in both big-box hotel chains and boutique hotels alike. In fact, we even awarded it our Must-Have Hotel Amenity Award for 2007.
While it's great to be able to wake up to our iPods, frankly, the damn thing has a whole hell of a lot of buttons. Don't get us wrong -- we are young, tech-savvy folks and all -- but even we had to say a little prayer that the shiny little beast would function as planned the first few times we used it.
Thus, after many close encounters with hotel iHomes and a comfortably intimate relationship with the consumer version (they're a smidge different), we present to you: How to Successfully Set the Hotel Room's #%$@ing iHome Alarm Clock.
Last week we received a distress call from one of our friends who had just arrived after long cross-country flight in New York to the Six Columbus Hotel.
Our friend had actually booked the hotel after reading about it in our HotelChatter Reader Deals when Quikbook was offering 10% off two nights or more. He paid $360 a night for four nights in a queen-bed room.
Yet instead of being whisked away to his room to relax, our friend was pulled aside by the General Manager and over a complimentary drink at the bar, was told that the hotel did not have a room for him.
Naturally, our friend was shocked. Where was he going to go? How would he get there? The GM's only explanation for the lack of a room for our friend was this:
Sometimes people don't always check-out when you want them too.
Riiigghhht. That's really just hotel-speak for "We oversold our rooms tonight."
Over at About.com's Budget Travel site there's an excellent rundown on how to score a hotel deal through Priceline. The writer wanted to stay in downtown Indianapolis for a sporting event but didn't want to pay the $140 a night he was seeing on the usual booking sites. So he checked the message boards, went to Priceline, and scored a deal for $60.47 after fees and taxes. He doesn't say which hotel he scored, but judging by what's on the BiddingForTravel board, it was the Omni Severin or the downtown Hyatt Indianapolis.
We have had our own frequent success with this method, scoring cut-rate deals on leftover rooms at Hotel President in Kansas City, Millennium St. Louis, and the Omni Shoreham in Washington, D.C. We also managed a bargain all-inclusive deal in the Bahamas by visiting the message boards before hitting Hotwire. As we showed last year, it's even possible to score an under-$200 room in Manhattan if you do it right.
If you're the type that doesn't mind paying list price for the satisfaction of knowing which hotel you're sleeping in for the night, then never mind. But if the general location and star level matter more than which chain's logo is on the building, you can save a bundle this way.
Ever wonder how the guy next to you gets champagne on the house when you've been downgraded to the broom closet? Getting hotel upgrades and perks isn't rocket science--in fact it's generally pretty intuitive-- but we're not sure most travelers take full advantage of what's available. We caught up with Becky Veith, travel agent extraordinaire, to see what she knew about workin' a hotel for perks.
We all want to get the best hotel room possible when we travel, and the UK Telegraph just put out an article with some handy tips on making sure your hotel stay is at least as good as you've hoped for.
Savvy traveler Nick Trend divides his tips into two parts: looking for the best room, and getting the best room when you actually book or check in. And like anything else in this world, you have to ask for you what you want.
Before you book, Trend suggests, you should have a chat to the hotelier (or reservations agent) about the merits of each kind of room. You should also avoid rooms near the kitchen (they're noisy, even if room service does arrive faster) and beware of rooms with a view if that side of the hotel will be on a busy (read noisy) street.
Once you have worked out which room or room category is the best for you, and you've booked it, Trend suggests getting something in writing from the hotel about what you've agreed on. Then when you arrive at the hotel--early, if possible--discuss the room some more with the receptionist, both to make sure you're getting what you asked for and in case there's any chance of an upgrade.
And if you don't like it, complain about it. But straight away, before you've started messing it up.
Frequent travelers who live by the maxim, "If you don't ask, you don't get" swear by the $20 room upgrade move. It works like this: when checking in to your ho-hum standard room, you casually slip an extra 20 bucks to the front desk clerk and ask if there's any chance of a "complimentary upgrade." In most cases, one of three things will happen. Either nothing (and you keep your $20), an official upsell at official prices (usually a poor value), or you score and get a much nicer room.
Judging by this site devoted to the topic called FrontDeskTip.com, your odds of $20 upgrade success in Las Vegas are far greater than they are at the gambling tables. As in a 74 percent success rate overall.
Some hotels have too limited a sample to really judge, but a few notable ones score an above-average success rate on a good sampling. These include the Venetian (pictured here), Wynn, Mirage, Bellagio, and Mandalay Bay.
As the site reminds you, if you're going to post about your successful upgrade, please don't mention who specifically helped you out. Many front desk managers seem to have a sort of "don't ask, don't tell" policy on spontaneous upgrades (whether the money goes into the till or into a pocket), but naming names can get someone in hot water.
A tipster who probably read our feature article, How to Get a Comped Hotel Room in Las Vegas, offers up a new place to hit up that we hadn't considered before. Laban writes:
I was a small time player for the last few days at the Plaza Hotel and Casino downtown. I started with a mere $20 initial bet [on the roulette table] and spent 2-3 hours a day going up and down. After initially doing well I probably sent most of the time with only about $10-20 dollars on the table per spin. For this small effort I was comp'd a buffet meal, a $20 voucher for the gift shop and got the impression that if I was staying longer that I might have been able to get more.
The Plaza Hotel, while less desirable than the Bellagio, is off the strip and as with most hotels off the strip and with less foot traffic, the chances of getting comps are greater because they want you to stay there longer and play/spend/lose more money. However, is a comped room really worth a chance of sleeping with bed bugs? It's up to you.
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by Jenna
A tipster who probably read our feature article, 
