Originally Posted by
MSPeconomist
In your example, presumably the red and blue shirts sell for the same price and are otherwise identical.
A better analogy would be a note that says that as a special favor to you, you have been given a special more expensive shirt made from gold thread but you will be charged the price for the blue shirt. However, you ordered and paid for the pricey gold shirt, so you were sent exactly what you purchased (with no discount involved).
In the hotel industry, you also have a bit of opaqueness as well. When you check in, the receptionist types away for a while and then they come and tell you ... we've upgraded you, or we got you a nice room on the xth floor, etc. As the consumer, you know what you booked but you have no way of gauging exactly what you got.
Let's take an SPG hotel in NY as an example, let's say the W @ Times Square. Choosing a random date, I note various available rooms: Wonderful, Spectacular, Cool, Fabulous. All showing at 288 sq ft. It's not as if each room has a label inside that identifies what type it is. So, when they tell you "I upgraded you to ...", with the latest pitch of upgrade to the next available room, giving you a room with a better view can constitute an upgrade. So, unless you stay at this particular hotel frequently, you have no real facts for debating the particular room you got.
With the shirt example, the color is evident and different models will typically have a different tag -- they may be the same shirt but at least you can get comfort on it being labeled differently.