I think they should honor a reservation made in good faith (say a single room for a couple of nights,) but the guy who booked the 300 rooms took those rooms as "hostages" in order to leverage free goodies.

I think Hilton should adopt the credo of the former Soviet Union:

We do not negotiate with hostage-takers.

Why? Because it only encourages more people to take hostages.

I also firmly disagree that this issue shouldn't be discussed here on FT.