Travel plans for next week are still uncertain, so, to allow flexibility, 4 consecutive 1-night reservations (at corp rate with same-day cancellation) have been made at the same hotel, with the intention of cancelling one or more of the intermediate nights as plans are confirmed.

The hotel has 'helpfully' combined these reservations, which now show as a single 4-night stay. I'm sure they have done this with the best intentions, but it means that the intermediate nights can't now be cancelled out online and it'll take phone calls/emails or a protracted checkin dialogue to untangle everything.

I'm wondering now how widespread this practice is. Should hotels, by default, assume consecutive reservations should be merged into a single stay, or should they leave them alone and only merge if specifically asked to by the guest ?

In any case, do members have any tips to stop them merging reservations ?