Lately I haven't even been making hotel reservations, actually. Just show up, and they should have a room. However, I have had a couple times before where I had a reservation but didn't think I'd make it. If worse comes to worst, you can always explain that you're an airline employee and need to cancel because you couldn't get on if you're past the deadline time, sometimes they're pretty understanding (I had run across a former airline employee, even). The worst are actually with hostels. So far I'm 0/2 in getting any sympathy, though once I was arguably within the cancellation window (one part of the email said 24 hours, the other said 48. I had to involve the bank, and they were able to do a chargeback for the $90 I was out.