????
The same happens with VRBO, Airbnb, and private rentals.
How could it not? The variables are the same = people arriving, people departing, schedules changing, weather issues as well as mechanical issues.

I disagree. If I'm walked at a hotel, as a minimum I'm going to get my night's lodging paid for plus cab/uber fare to get there.

For a London trip last year, my airbnb host lopped two days off of the end of a confirmed & paid for reservation (family emergency). They refunded me the money and offered to cancel the whole thing with no penalty but I was 24 hours out from leaving for the trip. Two nights of last minute bookings in London cost me a precious bit more than the airbnb.

$hit happens. I don't avoid hotels or airbnb b/c of it.

My friends booked an airbnb in NY last year and trusted the photos. It was so bad when they got there (dirty, etc.) that they had to change locations. Airbnb was willing to move them to a better apartment but the time it took to arrange that and make the move ate up one whole day of their long weekend.
I like big hotels, chains. It's unlikely I'm going to be walked.

I disagree. I've been "walked" using private rentals at the beach. Things happen. In rentals. In hotels. People are people. Things happen.

Ok.
I still prefer rentals:)

Interesting thread. Caboose sounds like fun. Was there an elevator in that lighthouse?

1. First trip was all booked, including the homes of 2 widows who told us 3 single gals in our 20's when we should get in and when we could take baths. We were just thrilled to be in England!

2. Next was fully guided and with DH. We simply went where we were told. We were just thrilled to be in Greece but wished for more "our" time.

3. For the next few years, we worked with an agent. We forewent all guided tours but hooked on to the hotels and flights offered.

4. Enter the internet big time and we often booked flights and hotels directly with the airlines.

Up until this point, the price was the guiding factor.

5. By the time we were in our late 40's/50's, we were DIY. Proximity to the places of interest, and a resto in the hotel became more important to us. We both wanted to return to the room after breakfast, be able to swing by during the day if needed, and/or have a restaurant at the end of the day in which to crash. Attention to the bottom line lessened slightly in importance.

6. As a widow with an asthma issue, proximity to the sights and a hotel with a restaurant became crucial. I look for non-stop flights first. Search online for hotels near my favorite place. I still have a bottom line but take more taxis. I don't mind being treated like an old person. "Kindness of strangers" works well.

Oh, add having places to charge tech stuff!

I've only been walked once in the many years of road warrior travel. It was a late night arrival. They moved me to a nearby hotel. I didn't really like it because it was so late, but the hotel was comparable.

What happens much more often = upgrades. The first time was an amazing suite at the Hyatt in San Francisco. GORGEOUS! The most fun was an upgrade to a suite for Atlanta Pride. Not only an upgrade to an amazing room but they brought cookies on a silver platter - complete with milk! Also wine and other munchies. It was the last event before the Sheraton was converted to a W. I get upgraded to 2 bedroom "suites" at Hampton Inns/ Homewood Suites almost weekly. There's just one of me, but they move me to the bigger rooms to make room for the other folks in the class of room I booked. I don't need a 2 bedroom suite, but it's nice to have an almost guaranteed place to stay.

No one really tracks who booked which room when, but loyalty members vs 3rd party bookings are considered. Even so, it's very rare for it to happen, but "walking" does happen. A main contributing factor = people who do not check out as scheduled. They can't be kicked out. They can be charged the rack rate to encourage them to leave, but you can't make someone leave the room. That reminds me of a poster who years ago was outraged that she didn't get the cottage that she wanted. She was adamant that the beach complex should have kicked out a guest so she could have the cottage she wanted. She was the same poster who asked if Universal really checks to see if you arrived in a rental car vs a shuttle - to save the parking fee. I thought that was strange.

No, I freeze at 65 to 70 degrees. I attended a elder law conference in Maui, and I spent every morning sitting and shivering in a hotel ballroom freezing to death while my husband and daughter played on the beach. I know, I know...poor me. I think most restaurants feel too cold, too.

I agree with much of that. A friend wanted me to go along on a trip to London and Paris and it turned out to be a GroupOn special. The locations were WAY out. I want to be closer in. I want to be able to stop by the room during the day, rather than trek to it in the morning to return at night.

Re being treated by an old person - I gasped when the young things offered help in getting on the boat for the Cinque Terre tour. But I accepted the help. My travel friend (also a Fodorite) just smiled.

I miss my hotel in Paris as much as I miss Paris.

We set the air to 63-65 degrees in a hotel room. I hate being hot when I am sleeping. That being said, I don't like public areas to be too cold - restaurants, ballrooms, lobbies, etc. We were at a casino in Waterloo this past weekend for a friend's 50th birthday and I was actually shivering.

Cowboy, I feel the same. Most of us carry sweaters or jackets in the summer for dining in very cold restaurants.

Kureiff, I've been to Hawaii on award trips but some folks have suggested Hawaii and other great locations for regular meetings. NO! It's cruel to be someplace great and have to be in meetings all day. My friend scheduled both types of meetings and fortunately she was smart enough to know which to book when. Of course, we alternated between Scottsdale and south Florida in July, because rates were super cheap at resorts then. It worked for adding on fun "vacations" before or after, but the meetings themselves were just "travel".

Obx both times it happened to me, I had booked directly with the hotel. I am sure they had their reasons, after all, a hotel is there to make money and the total value of a booking has to be considered when these sorts of decisions are made. I can easily see a group of customers not being subject to a walk whereas a single or a couple - especially one with little or no status with the brand - would be. Just as with airline overbooking. Speaking of which, I won't book a discount airline, I have seen too many cases of flights being cancelled last minute. What use is a refund, I need a dang flight, preferably not at last minute prices on the majors.

What I mainly disliked about being walked, even though it has only happened to me three times (once many many years ago), was the surprise of learning about it literally at the last minute on arrival, when I was tired and looking forward to just crashing on the bed. In a day and age of texting/email and most people carrying phones, I would welcome just being warned even an hour prior to my projected arrival and this way we can sort out the problem as I'm coming in on the airport train or whatever. The last time I came up with an alternative that was better than the one they suggested, as in, it worked better for both us and the hotel (my alternative was cheaper for them to comp) but that was only because my research was still fresh in my head and I could think on my feet. Other times I would like a little longer advance notice. You fairly point out that the compensation is usually generous, with an upgrade for remaining nights.

This.
And it doesn't.
They hate walking people. They really do.

Well, starrs, you travel a lot more than I do, so I'm sure you're right.

Except the very first time it happened, the one years ago. I guarantee I hated that walk (or aborted walk, as you will see) more than the landlady, no way she hated it more. It is a long story involving a room in an alternative establishment where the dustballs I could tolerate but the slimeball operator I couldn't. I was a student, female and alone, and slimeball was playing a game with me that I figured would end with me trying to explain to the Spanish police why I'd pushed him out the window. The whole episode actually ended reasonably well (I mean for me, not for slimeball) but the experience did rather make me exceptionally sensitive, perhaps unreasonably so as others have inferred, to being walked.

Which is crazy in the hot and humid south in summer. :-)
But needed.

Cowboy, the old forge is very near my family in NY. Did you go to the hardware store?

Location location location and a nice place to stay. Doesn't *have* to be sumptuous, just a nice place will do. I do like my spacious hotel rooms but in a pinch I'll take a nice spacious bathroom with lots of counter space - but small room - if I had to choose. For instance my favorite hotel in Paris - perfectly located, small room - but decent sized bathroom and tub, with nice big counter. Asia is really good for having a fantastic hotel room at a reasonable price *for what you are getting*. Meaning it ain't cheap but it's typically huge with great amenities, good room service, and other services - for about what you'd pay in NYC for a Marriott Courtyard, small room - where you fend for yourself on everything.