Under what conditions would you ask to change rooms?

We drove from Illinois to California. We spent the night at a motel off the highway. We walked into a dark room that smelled of urine and cigarette smoke. light. Some work. We went to the front desk to complain. The front desk (another employee) apologized and said that room should not have been assigned because it was under maintenance. They didn't have open rooms so sent us to other best west locations. This new hotel is in a better location and more expensive. Even though we didn't have a reservation, we were given a room at the (lower) price of the first room.

Another time, we drove to Chicago and booked a week's worth of tickets a few months before departure. We booked through the Travelocity website and requested a room with two beds for people with disabilities. I travel with my father in a power wheelchair. When we checked in, we were told that no such room existed; all handicap rooms have a queen bed. The hotel took no responsibility for this and told us to call Travelocity as this was a non-refundable booking. We called Travelocity and after some arguing and citing the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), Travelocity sent us to a different location. Unfortunately, the cost per night was higher and being an hour closer to family we had to take two toll roads. We complained to Travelocity and our credit card company to no avail.

In many cases, we were assigned to smoky "non-smoking" rooms; often, we were assigned to different rooms.

Another hotel horror story; not that we asked to change rooms (although we did). My fiancé and I booked a motel stay for three weeks, paying the full price six months in advance. We got there and there were ants in the disabled room. Instead of giving us another room, they sprayed the room and told us to come back a few hours later. Luckily we left our luggage in the car. When we got back, the chemicals triggered my asthma. They finally gave us a new room but it wasn't classy enough.

Ten days later, we received a call asking us to pay the room fee at the front desk. We were confused because we paid in full when we booked the room, which was booked directly with the motel. They said that because of this meeting, the room rate increased from US$35/night to US$250/night. (Vegas was fully booked and the closest room took 90 minutes to arrive.) We said they should have taken this into consideration when we booked the room. They said just pay with the credit card we used to book the room. I called Visa and they called the motel. A "compromise" was reached; we paid $135 per night for 3 days and $35 per night for the other 11 days prearranged.