Some hotels provide 'guaranteed upgrades' for hotel guests with special memberships as part of the hotel's promotion deals, or just whenever there's availability. My boyfriend and I love staying in suites and as you know, suites can be rather expensive! However, we've managed to stay in suites for almost every stay thanks to free upgrades.

For example, during our last stay at The Westin Singapore, we really wanted to stay in their Junior Suite. it was a little out of our budget, but there was a promo running which basically allowed us a free upgrade upon availability. So we booked just one tier below the Junior Suite and crossed our fingers... and got the free upgrade during check-in!

This is a really sneaky staycation hack if you want to pay a little less for the room you want. It's not always guaranteed of course, since it depends on luck and whether there's availability. If you want to try this hack, it's best to go on a weekday.

It's not always worth booking a stay for one night because you hardly get any time spent at the hotel. Check-ins are usually around 1pm-3pm, and check-outs are the next day around 10am-12pm. If you really want to maximize the most of your stay, send an email to the hotel requesting early check-in. If you ask nicely, 90% of the time they'll say yes!

Requesting for early check-in is also beneficial to the hotel since they usually want to avoid the check-in crowd, especially now during Covid times and needing to socially distance and all that. As for late check-out, don't request for it on the same day, but do it the night before checking out.

This staycation hack also works best on weekdays since not many people are staying on workdays.

The Head of Reservations is an important person, so you'd definitely want to keep their email address. Not only do they have the power of offering early or late check-outs, they can also offer perks such as upgrades or discounts - ones that are not offered to the general public.

Last year, my boyfriend got an email from the Head of Reservations regarding our stay at The Fullerton Hotel. She asked if we would want a switch to The Fullerton Bay Hotel since our stay at The Fullerton Hotel was postponed twice due to the 2020 Circuit Breaker. We said yes, provided that we could get a room with a great view (because our original room at The Fullerton Hotel had a gorgeous one) - and she agreed!

We ended up getting a room at The Fullerton Bay Hotel that cost at least S$800/night when we originally paid about S$260 for the previous one. And that's all thanks to the magic of the Head of Reservations!

And the story doesn't end here - this year we wanted to stay at The Fullerton Hotel again, and we saw this 1-for-1 deal on their rooms. We loved the deal but there was one problem - we wanted to stay for three nights instead of two. So my boyfriend emailed the Head of Reservations and reminded him who we were, and requested if we could have that same deal extended to the third night for the specific room we wanted. And guess what - she said yes!

The only downside to this hack is that it's not easy to get the email of the Head of Reservations. Most of the time you'll get a confirmation email after booking your stay which is usually an auto-generated email. Sometimes you may also get an email from someone from the reservations team to follow up with details of your stay. Even if it's not from the head, it's good to keep the contact details of the reservation team, or you can politely ask them to provide you the Head of Reservation's email address.

Mentioning a special occasion is a staycation hack that helps you get lots of perks during your stay. During my birthday, boyfriend's birthday, or our anniversary, we would always mention it to the hotel via an email, and politely request if "something special can be prepared". We did this for our staycation at The St. Regis, where the reservations team not only prepared a cake for us, but also a room upgrade!

Be careful with this hack and don't push it. Also be honest with your 'special occasions' - this is about integrity okay, so let's not be cheats just to get ourselves benefits. Don't be a horrible person!

If the hotel has a membership program, join it. If it offers multiple membership programs, join all of them! Hotel members are usually the ones who enjoy exclusive perks such as special discounts, room upgrades, free dining credits, butler service, as well as early check-in and late check-out.

I'm a Marriot Bonvoy member as well as a HoteLux member, and these two memberships combined have given me soooooo many benefits during my staycations. I've also joined other membership programs for other hotels and they're great as well, but so far these two have been the most worth it!

Check out my stay at The Westin Singapore to see the amazing deals we got from HoteLux!

So there we have it - the five best staycation hacks for you to get the best out of your hotel getaway! All of them have been tried and tested by myself and my close friends, so I hope it works for you too.

Happy staycation you guys, and see you next post!