Canceling vs. changing a hotel reservation

You probably have to travel as part of your job. If so, and if you ever need to arrive at a hotel on a date later than your original reservation, never tell the hotel staff that you are "canceling" those first few days. Instead, tell them that you are CHANGING your reservation, specifically that you are changing your arrival date. The danger in telling them that you are canceling the first x days of your reservation is that the hotel staff might end up canceling your ENTIRE reservation. This situation happened a few years ago to a friend of my wife. The friend was a senior at Franklin and Marshall College, in Lancaster PA, and had made a reservation for her parents, who were arriving for graduation. The friend had called the hotel to "cancel" the first day of the parents' reservation, and the hotel ended up canceling the whole stay. I don't remember what happened, but do remember that our friend was quite agitated.