Is this not what airlines do (or at least, what I'm led to believe they do, it might just be a USA thing?) - overbook seats because they know some people won't turn up?
In the days of only full-cost airlines this is/was common, considering that a lot of bookings were on open/flexible tickets, so there would always be a good number of no-shows. With the advent of low-cost airlines where most tickets are non-refundable and check-in can be up to a month in advance, I suspect there are fewer no-shows. Putting Travelodge on the same level of service as RyanAir, does the latter overbook in the same way, and bump people? Even if they'd checked in (which is probably the equivalent of calling the hotel to warn of late arrival)?
