I don't know if this is appropriate for this forum or not. I hope it's helpful, and not just the ranting of a disgruntled traveler.

I was traveling on business, driving from Chicago to St. Louis. About half way home I stopped to spend the night at the Comfort Inn in Champaign, IL, using Choice Privileges frequent guest points. It looked like a nice facility, as I’ve come to expect from the Choice Hotels brand. When I went in to register, there was no one at the desk. There was a sign indicating that the desk clerk was away helping other guests. I understood this, and waited for him to return. I was tired and admittedly out of sorts, and was a bit sarcastic when the young man returned after about 10-15 minutes. He asked if he could help me, and I asked if he could check me in, “If it’s not too much trouble.” He said, “Why would it be any trouble?” I replied, “I don’t know, but I’ve been waiting for over 10 minutes.” He smirked, and said, “I put out the sign.” I explained that the sign didn’t check me in, and he responded, sarcastically, that he had to wait on other guests. At this point, I asked for my credit card and ID, and said I’d go elsewhere. As I said, I had a bit of an attitude myself, and take half the blame for this exchange, although I've been in a number of hotels where the staff were very courteous to me when I gave them reason not to be. That's no excuse on my part, I know. But this is not why I was so upset by this particular incident.

I called Choice Privileges to see if I could cancel the reservation. The guest services representative said she would call the hotel to see if they would allow me to cancel. “Or,” I added, “just apologize for my delay. That’s all I really want."

She came back on the line after talking to this young gentleman, and said he’d agreed to cancel the reservation. “He’d rather cancel my reservation, than apologize?” “Yes, apparently so. He sounded rather snooty to me,” the guest services rep admitted.

Choice Privileges ultimately took good care of me, and found me a room nearby at another hotel, and compensated me somewhat for my inconvenience. I don’t know when, if ever, I’ll find myself again in Champaign/Urbana, but I know I won’t be staying at the Comfort Inn on Marketview.