But I’ve never RELIED on it,
This is certainly the only option if the hotel only has:
First come first serve spots
Of course, if:
Valet handles the charging. Dropping the keys and saying “please have it charged by morning” is easy peasy.
This is but only one type of hotel and, likely, only one type of travel since few of the hotels I'm referring to even offer valet parking. I'm more concerned about hotels one would use on road trips when one is trying to get somewhere, not resorts or extended business stays where one may have downtime with the luxury to be able to
charge the car during downtime
Then there's the issue of:
rules that are actively enforced. Active charging only.
and
an EVSE like ChargePoint that allows you to jack the rate way up after a certain number of hours or if the session is idle.
which will be a total deal breaker for me.
The hotel might as well not even bother to have a charger if I must wake up at 0200 to unplug and move my car lest get charged heinous overage fees.
Active charging limitations should, IMO, only apply to DC Fast Chargers. Even with DCFC, I'm not happy with overage fees, although I understand their need, given some abusers. It is annoying to have to leave one's meal to unplug one's car and move it. This is a detriment to EV usage, leaving an advantage to ICE. Leaving one's meal is particularly obnoxious if the restaurant is not near the Supercharger.
Also, there's the issue of cold weather where it is far better to be able to leave one's car plugged overnight so that it can pre-warm and fully charge by the time one will be ready to depart a hotel to resume travelling.
Clearly, different people use hotels for different purposes but, for my usages, reserving a space with a charger and using it over night is a necessity. Otherwise, its barely worth having a charger at a hotel since I'll seek a different one that meets my needs.