Guides
Nine booking habits that get you upgraded
Upgrades aren't luck — they're information. The habits that move a booking from the room you paid for to the room you hoped for.
Filed under
Guides
Published
19 December 2025
Reading time
8 min read
Written by
Marcus Chen
Hotel upgrades follow a logic nobody publishes: inventory, timing, and how easy a guest is to say yes to. None of it is secret. All of it is learnable from inside a desk that watches availability every day.
The first rule is structural: upgrades flow to bookings with flexibility in them. Prepaid, non-refundable, locked rates are cheap because they buy certainty for the hotel — and certainty doesn't need upgrading.
The habits that work
Book the middle category. The upgrade from a base room to a suite crosses a revenue line hotels guard; the step from Harbour King to Jewel is one door, not three. Pay for the second-cheapest room and let the building do the rest.
Say the occasion early. 'Anniversary' written in the reservation at booking beats a hopeful mention at check-in, because the room can be set before you see it. Hotels can't surprise guests they know nothing about.
"The front desk decides upgrades at 3 pm, not at 9 pm. Arrive early, and the good rooms are still there to give."
Front-office truism
And the ones that don't
Asking at the desk loudly works in films. In Sydney it mostly doesn't — the upgrade list is already set by the afternoon, based on who's arriving and what's free. Politeness is table stakes; the reservation is the argument.
What actually moves the needle
- Flexible rates over prepaid — flexibility is what hotels reward
- Mid-category bookings — smaller step, easier yes
- Early check-in request — the day's inventory is still open
- The occasion named at booking, not at the desk
- A booking channel the hotel knows — regulars' agents carry weight
Length of stay works against upgrades at the high end. The hotel will upgrade a one-night booking to a suite it can't sell; it won't upgrade a week, because a suite sells weekly. One and two nights upgrade easiest.
Or skip the lottery
Membership removes the uncertainty. Our Insider tier upgrades at booking — written into the reservation when the category is available, not hoped for on arrival.
For everyone else: book flexibly, book the middle, name the occasion, arrive early. The room you get is the room you positioned for.
Mentioned in this article
About the writer
Marcus Chen
A member of the Best Staying Australia desk. Our writers stay in the rooms, eat at the tables and walk the neighbourhoods they write about — nothing on this journal is assembled from press releases.
The services behind it
Common questions
The monthly journal
One email a month. No noise.
New guides, rate changes worth knowing and the occasional suite that opens up at short notice. Unsubscribe anytime.
Know someone planning this trip?