My wife seems to have all the luck with travel. She arrived at the Birmingham Sheraton tonight for a trade show and was told that the two-night reservation that she had already paid for had been given to someone else. She was sent to the Doubletree, which is certainly inferior for her purposes, and told that they were picking up her first night, and that she could move back for the second night. She said "no thank you," as they did not offer to send anyone to pack and move her bags.

She is on expense account, so having them pick up a cheapo night at an inferior hotel does her no good. They are giving her no compensation for her having to work her tail off going back and forth to the trade show she is working.

My wife does not have status with SPG and did not have her number on her reservation, for what it's worth. She was going to have them try to look it up for her when she checked in. There is really no way for her to get status, as there are so few SPG properties in the areas that she works. A pity, since we generally like them.

Anyway, I'm just curious what type of compensation, if any, others have gotten for this. The fact that the Sheraton picked up one night at the Doubletree means that my wife has gotten ZERO compensation for having to do a lot of extra work. Thanks for your input.

Also, be forwarned about this hotel. There were a lot of people bumped. I think it was intentional.

I'd ask for the 2nd night comped, and add her number to the reservation if she has an spg number and ask for points for the inconvenience.

Unfortunately, a second comped night really doesn't help her any. She's on expense account, so she's just had to work harder and the company saves one night's room, although I'm sure time will have to be spent getting a refund on the prepaid room charge.

She ended up staying at the Doubletree, and while the rate was lower, she said it actually seemed to be a nicer hotel. She won't be back, though. There is another nice hotel nearby that she could have booked, and it will have her business next time.

Well it sounds like YOU need to contact SPG and tell them what you want. Getting walked from one property to another happens. Somebody without SPG status is likely going to be walked before somebody with status.

Just to update, I spent 10-15 or more minutes on the phone yesterday trying to get the hotel to apply the credit for the prepaid room back to my wife's credit card. She had called several weeks ago and was assured that it would happen but it never did. We shouldn't have had to call at all as she was told at the time she was walked that her card would be credited.

Of course, the 10-15 minutes spent on the phone is a fraction of the time spent getting all of the documents together before making the call.

I'm sure my wife will get her money refunded. They are not denying that they are supposed to pay it back, although each time we've called they have had to really study the record and put us on hold to find that my wife was walked. Apparently it doesn't just show up. But for us to have to spend a lot of time fooling with these plagued people who have provided absolutely no service whatsoever just sticks in my craw.

It's usually much easier just to file a dispute with the credit card company.