Newbie - FAQ
what the lawyers would call "mutual mistake." It was certainly comical at the time.
It was in Manhattan, and it was a lady I had seen once before. I spoke to her an hour before the appointment, and she told me she was at the X Hotel on Yth Street and gave me the room number.
Now, as those who know Manhattan geography know, every numbered cross street has an East and a West half, extending in opposite directions from Fifth Avenue. As far as I know (now), there is only ONE situation where the same chain has a property on both the East and West sides on the same Street - and I did not know it at the time, nor did she!
The X Hotel on West Yth Street is a relatively new property - about 2 years old at the time, and I had seen it being built. So when she said "the X on Y Street" I just naturally assumed that was it. But she, of course, was in the X Hotel on East Yth Street.
Until that day, I did not know that such an X Hotel existed. Actually, I did know the property - had even hobbied there in the past. But this particular property has changed hands twice since it was built about 15 years ago. At the time of this liason, it had been an X Hotel for only about 2 months, and I still pictured it as a Z Hotel!
But I can't blame her for not specifiying East, since New Yorkers, unlike tourists, do tend to omit the East or West designation when speaking, except when it is necessary to use it, and she had no idea that there was an X on West Y Street!
Like Aries, I was fortunate that no one was home in RoomABC at the X on West Y. I had her lady's cell number - it was an interesting phone call, and it took a minute for the two for us to figure out why I was knocking and she wasn't hearing it! It was also fortunate that both hotels have low number addresses, which means each is relatively close to Fifth Ave, so it was only a 5 minute walk from West to East.
(And if it sounds like I know more about the hotel rooms of New York than any native New Yorker should ... 
Hmmm, I wonder why?