I reserved a room at Days Inn Inner Harbour, Baltimore, MA. The reservation was made in March, online for 3 nights in mid-June. I confirmed in early June.
I e-mailed the address on their web site about a week ahead to alert them that I had a late flight and would be arriving after midnight. The reply e-mail said I needed call the day of arrival. Although I thought that the e-mail *should* have been enough notice, I called before boarding my flight to let them know I would arrive between midnight and 1am. They said "OK."
When I arrived at Days Inn, an angry-looking man was being escorted to a taxi by the desk agent. When he returned to the desk, the agent told me "I have some good news and some bad news: The good news is that you won't have to pay for your room tonight. The bad news is that it isn't here."
I told him that there was no good news: I wasn't paying for my room anyway - I was on the job for the state of Georgia. I was being sent to the Mt Vernon Inn, "about six blocks north" (more like 8) and that I could come back to the Days Inn the next day. I complained that the Mt Vernon Inn was considerably further from my conference location - he gave me a total of $15 for taxi fare. I was also given a letter to give to Mt Vernon and was escorted out to a waiting rattle-trap taxi.
While the Mt Vernon was older and not as nice as the Days Inn, I decided to stay and negotiated to get the room for all three nights for the same rate that Days Inn paid for the first night ($99 vs $155 market or $122 govt employee rate).
The extra walking was a bit of a hassle (esp the last day w/luggage) and the neighbourhood a bit "more interesting" - the REAL problem is being booted out of my room so late at night and having to present at the conference the next day.
Shortly after cancelling my room via phone, I did stop by the Days Inn. The front desk manager was very apologetic and said they felt bad about it. I was NEVER given an explanation of what happened. I do know that a national extreme sports competition was in town that weekend, so I'm certain that I just lost out to the highest bidder.
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