Just wait for the soon coming recesion. As the subprime mess continues to spread and the RE market continues to tank the economy will slide and business travel will dry up. Needless to say I'm looking forward to lower rates, more and better promotions and some groveling on the part of *Wood in order to obtain my business.

I have a list, its the hotel equivilant of a $h!t list, where I keep track of hotels that institute rediculous and aggregious money grabbing policies like the one described by the OP. I've added this hotel to my list.