I guess I did not do a very good job of explaining my concerns. Rut Dog did a much better job. Thanks!
First a couple points brought up in this thread.
-The hotel was not sold out. I did check that.
-They had a fairly strict cancellation policy. 6pm the day before arrival.

I completely understand that the waiving of the cancellation fee is certainly a courtesy. My post was to have a couple of points.
First, the problem was not with the fact that they would or would not waive the fee. The problem was that the answer I received was - "Call us back tomorrow and we will tell you whether we will do it or not" because the night manager was not authorized to make those kind of decisions. The question that I should have posed was "Is that standard for Hamptons?" I have since found out that it is not. I am staying at a Hampton right now. I asked the night manager here if they had the ability to make a decision on cancellation policy. They responded "Of course, we can make decisions like that."
Second, it had been my experience in that past, that if travel delays cause one to miss a stay, cancellation fees are waived. That has mainly been with Starwood and Marriott properties. And yes, I realized that people sometimes are not completely honest when cancelling. Given a choice between hotels that are fairly similar, I would chose the one that is more flexible and empowers their employees to help their customers. In this case, the hotel got their money for the one night. They made a business decision. But in the future, I will chose the Courtyard across the street. I checked, the staff there at night said that they have the ability to make a decision and it is a judgement call based on several things, including capacity, Marriott rewards level, and the reason for cancellation.

Thanks for everyone's input.