You can certainly ask to be rebooked to another service, I doubt that would be refused, you may need to call BA on the USA number using Skype. It may prove problematic there if the ground staff haven't offloaded you from their system, but hopefully that has now been done. The hotel bit is tricky. Essentially you would have to argue that the coach offer was not "comparable transport conditions" and therefore a hotel was the alternative if other flights were not offered . I think that's fairly strong but may engender hassle in terms of claiming it, but if you did this, keep the cost reasonable and just send in the bill without commentary after the event. I would book it yourself rather than getting the ground staff to help.

However don't forget to ask exactly why the flight was cancelled.