We're going to Japan in July. My wife booked some hotels but ended up with a hotel in Tokyo that wasn't (in a city as enormous as that one is, and with incredibly expensive taxis) in an optimal location. When she tried to cancel it and book another hotel in a better location for us, the booking web site said that it wasn't cancelable. (BTW, why does web browser spell-check not like "cancelable"?)
Long story short, I found a way to cancel the reservation and then got the second reservation for $300 less than she was going to pay for it (through finding a web site with a better price and then finding a great coupon for that web site...shout out to Orbitz in this case!)
So even congested and mute I can still find a bargain!