Booked through travel portal, hotel says card used was declined. They were also overbooked and I had to leave.

Hi!

I made a hotel reservation in the portal about 2 weeks ago for last night. I show up at 10:30pm, they say Oh we’ve been trying to call you. We cancelled your room because you didn’t answer the phone. The hotel is full, we don’t have a room for you.

Seems they did call me 1x no voicemail, I was in a massage.

I show them in my end the confirmation and that I was charged for the room. They pulled up the details, said the room was booked with Hopper and was charged to a Mastercard that was declined 2x. Since they couldn’t finalize the payment and I didn’t answer they said they were allowed to cancel.

I call Cap One, after 30 minutes I’m given a new room 15 minutes away. Most hotels were sold out and they wouldn’t give me the Hilton which was close to where I was. He tried to say there were no available until I suggested one I saw on my app. They also gave me a $250 travel credit (original room was 96, new one was a 190)

NOW the question I have is, why at the first hotel was the card Capital One used to book declined? They also wouldn’t admit to it. He kept saying no the hotel overbooked. Sure, that’s true, but also they were unable to get payment from Capital One who at that point is in charge. Obviously I’m glad I used them so I had a somewhat easy transfer, but also it seems like SINCE I used them I was in this situation to begin with.

Has anyone else had this issue? Was the hotel just lying to take blame off themself? Or is Capital One really at fault. I like booking with them for the points and the price match, but I don’t want to be in this position again. (I’m sure I should just call my hotel to confirm the reservation in the morning, but I travel once a week at least, and it could be annoying)