Originally Posted by Friendly Traveling Deathmerchant

Thursday night, I was flying from ATL to the west coast. Flight had problems, so I needed a last-minute hotel around the airport.

Since I was using a corporate discount that I don't know the code to book through the app, I called the hotel directly to make sure it would be accepted. The hotel answered, immediately put me on hold without asking me anything (ok, you're busy, fine...) then after a while, I was forwarded without asking to Hilton's normal reservations. I would have called Diamond desk if I needed a person, but fine - someone at the normal reservations helped me book the rate, gave me a confirmation code.

A few minutes later, after I walked landside and passed the baggage claim, I now needed info on the hotel shuttle. So I opened the Hilton app for shuttle info. App showed no upcoming reservations. I searched using the confirmation code I'd been given. "Reservation not found."

I called the hotel directly again: The phone rang and rang maybe 20 times, no answer. Hung up called again, same thing. Eventually, it got picked up but I waited on hold for ten minutes. Finally picked up on the fourth call. I asked about the shuttle (it's out of order, take an Uber...)

With a bad feeling about how this was going, I asked "Okay, it's been one of those kind of travel days, can you confirm the reservation, because it's not showing up in the app?"

Hotel says "we just sent you an email that we cancelled your reservation. We're full."

That's odd: Hilton rep was able to make me a reservation twenty minutes ago...

I check the app. It still shows there's three types of rooms currently available at this same property, queens and kings.

I booked another hotel in the area (a non-Hilton chain), shuttle was friendly and quick, breakfast better than Hampton, $25 cheaper overall.

Once checked in, an hour or so later, Hilton property #1 still showing a couple room types available, even at HHonors discount pricing.

Just for funsies, I replied to the email they sent cancelling my reservation and asked why it was cancelled. There's been no reply yet 24 hours past the initial cancellation.

Is this common that perhaps they did not want to honor the cheaper rate, and cancelled me?