I reserved a room at Days Inn Inner Harbor, Baltimore, MA, in March, 2008, 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 my 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. At the Mt Vernon, I caught up with the aforementioned angry man - he had been booted from his reservation too.
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 only a bit of a hassle (esp the last day w/luggage) and the neighborhood a bit "more interesting" - the REAL problem is being booted out of my room so late the night before having to give a presentation at the conference.
Shortly after canceling 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.












