Travel Enthusiast Reveals the Simple Hotel Trick That Saves Her ‘Hundreds of Dollars’ Every Single Stay

A frequent traveler is sharing the one trick she says saves her “hundreds of dollars” in food and free upgrades every time she stays in a hotel. 

TikTok user @azartravelz revealed the tip in a “Travel Hack Tuesday” video earlier this year. The self-described “personal finance nerd, school nurse and family travel enthusiast” says she frequently uses the hack, of sorts, for every family vacation.

Azar says the first step is to search for the name of the general manager at whatever property she is staying at. For example, she searched for the “general manager Hyatt Ziva Cancun” prior to her Mexican vacation. From there, she seeks out their email address.

“You might have to do some internet sleuthing, or just call the hotel and ask for the name and email address of the general manager,” she says. 

After that, she uses a simple template to inform management of an upcoming stay. 

“I send them an email that just says, ‘Hey, we’re coming to your hotel [on] these dates. Here’s our confirmation number. We’re so excited to stay with you. We’ve heard such wonderful things about the property,’ ” she explains.

“ ‘We’re celebrating my birthday and I’m just wondering if there’s anything you could do to make our stay extra special, such as a room upgrade and/or a free breakfast or club access,’ ” referencing some property’s exclusive club-level offerings that sometimes offer breakfast and snacks throughout the day. 

Azar says the whole process only takes her 10 minutes, from searching for the email, composing it, to hitting send. Although it takes little effort, she claims it works “100% of the time.”

“At minimum, I’ve gotten a room with a better view or a slightly larger room,” the creator says. But sometimes, the upgrade is much larger. 

“My most recent trip, we went to Turkey and we stayed at a Hyatt Regency. They upgraded us to a suite,” she says. “The cash price for this for a whole week was like $6,000, and they gave us [the] free breakfast buffet for my family of five.”

Azar says the family saved “hundreds of dollars” over the course of the week, just in food alone. 

“Whether you’re paying for your hotel on points or cash or whatever, do this little trick,” Azar says. “The worst they can say is ‘no.’ And if they say no, you’re staying in the room you booked anyways.”

“Ask for what you want and see what you get,” she says at the end of the video.

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer​​, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

In the comment section, other TikTok users shared their own success stories using the simple trick.

“I did this for our Niagara Falls trip (here now) and the manager upgraded our room to a falls view suite with a bottle of wine,” one user writes.

Another said, “Followed your template with my own twist and our room was upgraded within the hour and when we checked in this morning they also gave us a bar credit.” 

Meanwhile a user claiming to be a hotel general manager offered their two cents: “Join the rewards program first. Much better chance of this working. Members will always get first debs on perks and upgrades.”