Good bye $20 trick

Thank God.

I have no idea why some people take 10-15 minutes to check in, but this is fantastic. If it keeps idiots from insisting on a suite when they booked a standard room, I'm all for it.

I read some where they may start fees for rooms of choice if you want to be near/far from elevator, smoking non smoking rooms anything that would not be a random choice of a rooms maybe because a kiosk will be choosing for you!

We used the ones that were at Flamingo about a year and a half ago. It was odd there was this long line for check in, and then there was these automated kiosk with no line. So we used them and they were real fast. There was a supervisor standing behind them that asked us how we liked them when we were done. We said they were great but why is there no one using them. He shrugged his shoulders and walked away. We stayed there again last April and there was a long line at check in so we thought lets use the kiosk. We looked around but no kiosk, then we saw the same supervisor so we asked him about them. He said they worked great but no one used them so they took them out.

Just curious, when you used the kiosk were you able to make selections, such as smoking/non, king bed, etc.? Was your room to your satisfaction? Thanks.

Hilton has let you choose your room online the day before your arrival date. So far, it seems like the computer system only offers the worst rooms in the house, and even overlooks the room type you originally reserved. I've used the online check-in five times in the past 2 months, and every single time, the crappiest rooms were offered (small, next to elevator, ice machine, and so on). For whatever reason, Hilton can't seem to program their Room Selection Screen to offer rooms in the category for which you actually booked and paid. Twice, I had reserved a junior suite, and both times Hilton offered me standard rooms.

I use Hilton as an example only because I imagine the kiosks might also be limited in recognizing the room category originally booked, and then throwing out to you the worst rooms available. If you care, then I guess, you'll walk straight from the kiosk to the front desk queue.

I must say, I agree with speck72's comment above, that people waste a lot of time checking in. At the Cosmo, for example, it is typical to see folks spending more than 15 minutes checking in, and trying to score a Wraparound Suite for the price of a City Room.

I never understood the $20 trick. Why is it okay to ask the clerk to "cheat" the hotel by giving you a "free" upgrade for a tip that goes in the clerk's pocket and not into hotel coffers?

It only gave a room number and if it was smoking/non smoking and king/queen. Not knowing the layout of the hotel I had no way to know where the room was, it did end up being way at the end of the hall, a every long walk. Now that I think about it we had two nights comped and two nights paid. After the second night we were locked out of the room at 1 in the morning and it took 30 minutes of arguing with the front desk that we had a reservation and have paid for it.