It might be something that, fire codes aside, I could live with for one day. 9 to 5...good chance I'm not there. If a hotel reached out in advance with notification and a token bit of compensation (20k HH is worth barely a hundred bucks these days), I might shrug and leave the stay as-is, especially if the hotel is convenient for my trip.

It's really the 2nd night - note under the door, an hour later into the evening that I can't be in the room - and an even *more* trivial "compensation" that would have set me off.

It's super-common that people are coming back into the hotel around 5PM. That's true on both business and leisure trips. Being forced out of my room for that hour is almost worse than the rest of the midday hours. It's mainly a resort hotel where I'm likely to want midday access.