In a really bad disrupt situation there might not be any hotel rooms to book.

A few years ago I faced a night in the terminal because every hotel within 2 hours was sold out after multi-day weather delays. I managed to get the last seat on a special flight put on to an airport 2 hours away from my destination. The airline was only allowing its top status tier onto that flight.

Another time several years ago I opted to overnight at a diversion airport instead of continuing on the airline provided bus. This was because it was in the middle of winter with heavy snow and no rooms at the destination. People due to fly out had not been able to depart so overstayed in their rooms, creating a problem for those arriving by bus.