I was walked on an award stay in Venice this past year. At first, I was mad, considering we had saved up quite a few points specifically for the trip, and I was really looking forward to the Heavenly bed of the Westin Europa. I immediately fired an email back (in a very nice tone) asking for more clarification on what that meant, and why I was being bumped as a Platinum member. The GM very politely wrote me back and mentioned that a Middle Eastern Sheikh had purchased the ENTIRE hotel for the weekend we were there for a wedding, and that he profusely apologized. He did say however that he believed I would be happy with the "walk" as it was a switch to the Hotel Danieli, which was a higher category hotel, and was almost double of the rack rate per room. After a quick research of the hotel, I emailed him back thanking him for the "walk".

Point of the story... make sure you find out all the facts... I obviously did not ask for compensation, as it was provided to me.