A Bestselling Author Shared His Sneaky Trick for Scoring a Hotel Upgrade

Some people accept whatever hotel room they’re handed at check-in. Gary Janetti is not one of those people. On the latest All on the Table, the bestselling author and Family Guy writer let host Katie Lee Biegel in on the travel habits he’s spent decades perfecting—and they come with real credibility. 

Before the books and the TV shows, Janetti worked in hotels for 12 years, including a stint as a bellman in Times Square. He knows exactly how hotels operate behind the desk, which is precisely why he’s so good at getting what he wants out of them.

Treat your first room like an opening offer

When Janetti checks in, he refuses to commit to the first room he’s given until he’s seen it, bags still in hand. “Don’t put the bag down. Don’t put anything on the bed. Don’t touch anything,” he says, and he’ll ask whoever’s at the front desk to walk up and see it with him. The logic is pure negotiation. As Biegel puts it, “the first room is like an opening offer,” and Janetti agrees completely. Even when he likes the room, he’ll gently push. “Is there something that maybe has…”

Leaving your stuff in the lobby signals you’re not the type to just settle, which is half the battle.

Never do your laundry at the hotel

Janetti travels carry-on only, even if he’s “gone for 14 days,” packing “five of everything” and washing it mid-trip instead of checking bags. One thing he won’t do? Use the hotel laundry service. He’d rather find a local cleaner, which, he notes, will often deliver everything back to the hotel for free.

He’s not exaggerating about the savings, either. When Biegel recalls spending $12 to launder one tiny piece of her daughter’s clothing at a luxury hotel, she jokes, “You could buy a new pair of underwear for what they charge you.” 

Biegel instantly understands the appeal. “I love to save money,” she says. “Aside from an upgrade, the other thing that pleases me the most is saving money on something like that.” In other words, they may enjoy luxury hotels, but neither of them is above walking down the block with a sack of dirty laundry if it means avoiding a three-figure bill. 

The smaller tips that add up

A handful of his other rules:

• Always ask for free breakfast. Just say “does it include breakfast?” and see what happens. He likes “a little something” in the morning without getting hit with a surprise charge.
• Turn the resort happy hour into dinner. A cocktail-and-snacks event at the beach? “That’s dinner,” he says.
• Book the nicest hotel’s cheapest room. He’d rather take “the smallest room” at a top-tier hotel than a big room somewhere lesser, since “those hotels always have the nicest amenities that are free.”
• Learn your server’s name. From his service years, he knows it’s both kind and strategic. If you don’t have it, getting someone’s attention feels “very kind of crude,” but a name changes everything.

Be the person people want to help

Janetti’s years in hospitality stuck with him, especially when it comes to how people treat staff. Back when he was dating, watching someone be “rude to the waiter or dismissive” was an instant dealbreaker. “This is never going to work out,” he recalls thinking, because how a person treats service workers is “kind of showing you who they really are.”

That same warmth, it turns out, is also the cheat code for getting into an impossible restaurant or scoring that upgrade. Be nice, ask in person, remember a name. As Janetti has clearly figured out, the perks tend to follow.

Listen to the full episode on All on the Table, available wherever you listen to podcasts.

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