Well if you're staying in a hotel, you can get free services from them if you know what to say.
It goes along with the whole 'service industry' thing. The employees and managers of large hotel companies (think Hilton, Sheraton, Hyatt, etc.) are trained to behave like their organization exists solely to keep the guests comfortable and happy, at the risk of immediate profit. You can see how this can be turned to your advantage. I have a friend who travels a lot, and she has given me these pointers for getting the most out of your stay in any large corporate hotel. This is what you are paying for when you stay at one of these upscale establishments, so don't feel bad about milking it for all it's worth.
Whenever some minor thing goes wrong with your room or its amenities, always remember: if you make a fuss, the management will instantly don their "kid gloves" and do anything in their power to pacify or placate you. It's not unheard-of for a well-spoken complaint about a stopped-up toilet to result in a complete room upgrade. Be sure to look over the entire room upon arriving there, and examine every aspect, every piece of furniture, every appliance for signs of any defect or problem which can be exploited to this end.
Many hotels use card-keys. These employ encoded information on a magnetic strip and whenever card-keys are made a new code is usually automatically generated, so all cards for the same door have to be made at the same time. You can exploit this to your advantage, by erasing youir card-key with a magnet, then complaining that it won't work. They will make you another one, and you can use it for awhile then erase it again and go complain again. Eventually, they'll just assume there's something wrong with the card reader mechanism and move you to another room, but with a little finesse you can exploit this to finagle an upgrade.
If your room is located at the end of a hall near the stairwell, next to an ice machine, or near a service station, you can complain that the noise of the staff activity or the ice machine kept you up all night and never again will you be patronizing one of this hotel comapny's establishments. Often they will comp you a night or two just to shut you up.
Warning: don't expect these stunts to work at a hotel that is hosting a hacker convention though; I'm sure that during these events the staff is placed on red-alert for scams, excessive complaining, social-engineering and other feats of con-artistry!
