On Mar 21, 9:31*am, (Steve Firth) wrote:

hotels have probably junked your reservation unless you paid
in advance

Not convinced of that argument; most hotels of any size these days
will take a credit card number as guarantee, and I would be very
annoyed if my room if so guaranteed was given away even if I arrived
at 4am.

Possibly true for smaller hotels and B&Bs that lock up at night, I
suppose. But I have on a number of occasions, for business travel
purposes, travelled the night before and arrived at the hotel around
midnight. It isn't at all unusual if you've got a long journey,
something to do the day before and a 9am meeting.

Neil