Front desk staff generally have limited authority to change a confirmed prepaid booking, but walk-in guests (arriving without a reservation) have real room to negotiate, especially at independent hotels and smaller chains where the front desk has more pricing flexibility than a large branded property.
The best leverage is timing: arriving in the evening, when a hotel already knows roughly how full it will be that night, gives staff a clear incentive to fill an otherwise empty room at a discount rather than leave it unsold.
Politeness and a specific, reasonable ask work far better than a hard negotiating tactic — asking "is there any flexibility on the rate tonight, since I don't have a reservation" tends to get a better response than demanding a discount outright.
