I've had pretty good luck getting my reservations honored, although I've quite often ended up cancelling them since the timing didn't work out. In one case it was octopus travel who honored a prepaid Best Western in Zurich and even let me change the name for another FTer to use, the other two were large hotel chains Le Meridien and Holiday Inn which both confirmed that the "exceptional" rates would be honored. Like the above posters mentioned, unless it's prepaid or an established hotel chain, it's unlikely that "cheap" rates will be honored.