What are my rights if my hotel is overbooked?

Overbooked hotels are caused either by current guests staying longer than planned, or deliberate overbooking. As with airlines, hotels regularly overbook knowing that cancellations and no-shows will generally leave them right where they want to be – with a full house. Occasionally though, there are fewer cancellations than usual and the room you reserved, guaranteed, and maybe even prepaid will not be available when you arrive. Unlike airline overbook situations, there are no laws surrounding hotel practices and no formal rights for the guests; however, good customer service dictates that hotels will nearly always take certain actions. If it’s just a case of another room type being available instead that’s fairly easily solved – the hotel will upgrade you at no additional cost, or will downgrade you with the appropriate refund. In the worst case scenario where no rooms are available at all, the hotel will “walk” the guest; that is, arrange and pay for one night at a nearby hotel of equal or greater level and transportation to get there. The next day the guest is transported back to the original hotel for the remainder of the stay, often with an upgrade or some sort of free amenity as a further goodwill gesture from the hotel.