a smart desk clerk can make a loyal customer
Drove cross-country (CA to PA) in September with 1 kid and 2 furballs. One dark and stormy night we had serious car trouble 30 miles west of Peoria, and limped the car, with no headlights, into town (thank you, Mr. Illinois State Trouper for your assistance!). Using an outdated GPS and a cell phone with intermittent reception, I got a number for the local Residence Inn which I know accepts pets, albeit with an obscene $125 non-refundable fee, and secured a reservation for the 4 of us. The desk clerk was an angel in human form as he spent 25 minutes on the phone with me talking us through town (GPS lost signal in the storm) to their location, hidden behind a shopping mall. Once we got there, I was prepared to pay the fee, 'cause by then I'd have paid anything to get off the roads. However, seeing my Marriott Rewards card at check-in, he knocked the fee down to $25.
Marriott may have lost (in theory) $100 on this, but gained a loyal customer for life.
BTW, if you're traveling with a litter box, those new jumbo XXL Ziplocks hold a standard size one, and keep the litter from getting all over the trunk.