Beware of reservation cancellation
I booked the Courtyard in South Boston for my husband and I for a weekend in October 2011. The night before we were supposed to leave, we received a devastating phone call that my husband's mother had passed away. I immediately called the hotel to cancel, since we needed to be home with the family and help with arrangements. My husband is in the Navy and we live several hours away. The lady that answered the phone said it was "no problem" to cancel our reservation and that we would not be charged a cancellation fee due to the circumstances, and they also had 18 hours notice before our check-in time. Turns out, they charged our credit card anyway. It was my fault for not getting a name and cancellation number, but I was grief stricken at the time and not thinking clearly. So beware if you need to cancel your reservation, even in the event of an emergency.