I love tips and advice on saving money that comes straight from the horse’s mouth. Whether it be from an employee of a company, or someone with intimate knowledge of the inner-workings, you can often score some very useful info that will save you money. So when I discovered an article published on MentalFloss.com written by Jacob Tomsky, a current front desk hotel employee, with over 10 years experience, my interest was piqued. He didn’t disappoint as he spilled the beans on some cool insider hotel knowledge that will save you money and get you free upgrades. Here are a few of my favorites…

 1. The Best Way to Get a Free Room-Upgrade

Think about the 7th president of the U.S., Andrew Jackson, who adorns the $20 bill.

Apparently slipping the front desk employee a twenty will almost always works when asking for a room-upgrade. Despite what you’ve been told, there is always a better room available.

Along with free room upgrades, you stand a great chance of scoring things like “late checkout, free movies, free minibar, room service amenities, and more.”

Front desk employees are authorized to upgrade for special occasions, and a twenty-spot fits the bill according to Jacob.

See Also: Google Flights: 8 Insider Tips and Tricks To Score Cheap Airfare

2. Know How to Complain to Get Stuff

Not happy with something in your room or the hotel in general?

Don’t shoot the front desk employee as they typically had nothing to do with it.

From the article, instead ask questions like “Should I speak to a manager about this?” or “Should I speak to housekeeping about this?”.

By taking this approach, the front desk employee will typically handle the problem for you.

Also, ask for their name to create accountability and to guarantee they actually do something about the problem.

3. Indulge in the Minibar…But Never Pay

Apparently, charges stemming from the hotel minibar are horribly inaccurate.

Things like double-stocking, and delays in re-stocking, cause most front desk employees to simply remove them from your bill if you claim you never indulged in the overpriced Snickers or Coke.

4. Beware “Getting Walked” by the Hotel

The term “walking a guest” was a new one to me and simply means the hotel is over-booked and needs to send you to another hotel on their dime.

A major pain in the butt for most travelers.

You’re more likely to get walked if you book for a single night, use a discount travel site like Expedia to book, or are being a total JERK (you’ve been warned!).

5. Discount Travel Sites are a Bad Deal For Travelers

Sure, you might get a good nightly rate using a site like Expedia, Hotwire, Hotels.com, or Orbitz, but the hotel earns the least on these bookings and is gonna stick you in the worst rooms.

Hotels assume you booked for the rate, not out of a sense of loyalty, and are less likely to bend over backwards to make you happy.

I’ve written about this phenomena before and how you can often get a better deal by dealing directly with hotels and airlines.

These secrets are just the tip of the iceberg. Check out the article below to see the rest of the goodness.

Example: Lemon Pledge in hotel room drinking glasses, ewww. Thanks Jacob for the insider tips.

By Kyle James

Have you ever had something show up at your door from Amazon.com, or another site, that you didn’t order? If you have, it can be a bit of head-scratcher. This happened to me last week when we received an item that Amazon sells for a whooping $339.

I knew I couldn’t just keep it without contacting Amazon first as I figured someone had paid for it and was wondering when it would be showing at their front door. Here is how the whole thing went down and what Amazon told me to do with the expensive item…

Huge Box Shows Up at My Door

So last week, a big ol’ Amazon box shows up at our front door and my son tears it open thinking it’s his new school backpack.

To his surprise, and disappointment, the box contained a VERY expensive BIG brown comforter set for a full-sized bed.

We all scratched our heads and tried to figure out if my wife ordered it, or maybe it was a gift from someone?

We don’t have a full-sized bed in our home so we were quite perplexed. Once my wife got home, she was equally confused and had no idea why it showed up.

See Also: 6 Brilliantly Slick Ways to Get Amazon Prime for Free

Amazon Has No Record of the Order

So I took to the inter-webs and logged into our Amazon account to see if there was any record of the comforter set. Nada.

So I hit up Amazon live chat and explained the situation to the operator.

The only record of the order I had was the UPS sticker on the front of the box as it showed up without a packing slip.

After snapping a pic of the label and getting it to the Amazon rep, she could not find any record of the order anywhere in their system.

What Amazon Told Me To Do

“Keep it.”

Yes, Amazon told me to keep the $339 comforter set.

Since they had no record of the order, and thus couldn’t create a return label so I could return it, they simply told me it was mine.

But I was like, “I didn’t pay for it” and they were like, “Nothing for you to worry about, I will going to leave a note on your account” in case someone claims the bedding set at which point they’ll offer a refund or replacement.

I figured they’d thank me for my honesty and politely ask me to return it.

I guess that’s more of a pain-in-the-ass for them than it’s worth.

I wonder at what price point they’d ask me to return the item? $500, maybe $1,000? Anyone know?

The most amazing part of this whole dealio? A quick Amazon search shows this comforter set is being sold for $339. I guess I’ll put it up for sale on eBay unless you know someone who may be interested?

I plan to donate the money earned from the sale to charity.

Below is the transcript of my chat session with Amazon and details how the whole thing went down…

(Update 1/11/20) – According to this LifeHacker article, scammers could be sending you stuff you didn’t order as a way to steal Amazon boxes from your porch once they get delivered.

Apparently they use your old credit cards on your Amazon account to make it happen then swipe the stuff before you get home from work or brazenly take them while you’re home.

This could be worth a look if you think your account has been hacked recently.

See Also: Did Your Amazon Account Get Hacked? 6 Things To Do Immediately

Ask the Reader: Have you ever had a package show up at your front door that you didn’t order? How did you handle it, and if you contacted the company, what was their response?

By Kyle James

I love me some Chipotle Grill. Fresh, fast, and very tasty.  As a matter of fact, I have a buy one burrito, get one free, coupon on my phone right now that my taste buds can’t wait to use. In the past, I have talked about some clever ways to save money and get mucho chow at Chipotle and today I have the smoking-gun proof that you can indeed get a HUGE burrito or burrito bowl from Chipotle and pay the same as everyone else.

The folks at Apartment List.com have done the painstakingly delicious research and came up with some Chipotle menu hacks that’ll score you a big ol’ meal on the cheap. Here are a few of the major takeaways from their article so you can make it happen too…

1. Order Both Types of Rice

Start by ordering a burrito or burrito bowl and ask for both white and brown rice at Chipotle.

The folks at Apartment List did the math and came up with 93%.

As in a whooping 93% more rice.

This increases the overall weight of your meal by 23%.

See Also: Chipotle Secret Menu: Find Your Next Favorite Burrito

2. Ask for Both Types of Beans

Next, ask for both black and pinto beans and the server will happily oblige.

You’ll end up with 92% more beans and an overall weight increase of 16%.

High in protein, no doubt, just not a great idea if you’re on a first-date.

3. Order Meat Half & Half

Chipotle serves chicken, steak, carnitas, and barbacoa.

If you order half chicken, half steak, you should in theory get a full serving of meat.

But in actuality, you end up with a 3/4 scoop of each.

This ends up being 54% more meat and an overall increase in weight of 9%.

4. Don’t Forget the Veggies and Corn Salsa

Corn salsa and fajita veggies are both free add-ons that are often neglected.

Throw both of these bad boys on your burrito or bowl and get an extra 2.55 ounces of chow, which increase the overall weight by approximately 15%.

Final Weigh-In…

If you do all of these Chipotle hacks you’ll end up with approximately 32 ounces of food.

In case you were wondering, and I know you were, an average burrito at Chipotle comes in at about 17 ounces.

So in the end, you get 86% more food for the exact same price.

The Apartment List article talks about ordering a burrito bowl and a couple free tortillas on the side and wrapping the behemoth yourself.

C’mon, ain’t nobody got time for that.

I’ll stick with ordering a burrito bowl and use all of the tips mentioned above, and in the article below, and get a mammoth amount of food at a very reasonable price.

6 Tricks to Get 86% More Chipotle Burrito (for free!) | Apartment List.com

By Kyle James

Photo by Mike Mozart.