One evening the desk shrugged and said the property had been overbooked; luggage stayed in the car while the staff hunted for alternatives. Phone menus sent me in circles, so I gathered screenshots, the confirmation email and the payment receipt, then opened a formal complaint through booking, attaching everything at once. That clear packet pushed the case into a local escalation queue: an on-call agent secured a comparable room nearby, arranged a shuttle and approved a small rate adjustment for the inconvenience. Messages and a quick SMS kept me updated without more calls. The key was tight documentation and asking for local escalation rather than generic troubleshooting turned a near-ruin into a sorted night.