travelinandgolfin

I've been calling around a couple of hotels and have been asking questions the views of certain rooms.

One hotel told me that certain rooms usually face the street. I asked them if any of those room catagories might face the courtyard instead. The response was, "we can upgrade you to those rooms for $xx.00 more."

I found it interesting that she would call this an "upgrade," though I guess technically it was. Why not just say, "you would need to book a higher catagory room to guarantee a courtyard view."

To me, when you say "upgrade" I think it conotates a "complimentary" move up. If you have to pay for it, it's just booking a more expensive room.

I was tempted to tell her "so it's not really an upgrade, I just need to book a more expensive room," but I think wisely bit my tongue.

Anonymous

"Upgrade" and "booking a higher category of room" are synonymous. Some upgrades are free, some are not.

jlm_mi

To me, the word upgrade has never implied or connoted "free". When my car gets too old for my liking, I will upgrade to a newer model. When my house is too small for my family, I will upgrade to a larger one. And if I'm not satisfied with the lowest category of rooms offered by a hotel, I'll upgrade to a higher category. All of them will typically cost me money.

Suzie

I think the cost of an upgrade is specifically tied to who decides on the upgrade. If the hotel staff or rental car staff say they are upgrading you what they mean is that they no longer have the category of room or car that you reserved and they are giving you a step up. If however you want an upgrade you will most likely have to pay if they have rooms or cars in the category you reserved.

Patrick

I'm with the others. If a person upgrades his car or his apartment, or upgrades a wardrobe, I've never ever assumed those things were free. Even on the airlines, most people pay a fee to upgrade to higher class of service. Of course, a free upgrade is always nice, but I never think that upgrade means "free".