Hotel bumped us to another hotel at midnight!!

It's true. We too check in on arrival, and not at 3pm.
In the middle east it's typical for your flight to land at 6/7am and you go to your hotel & check in. Usually your room won't be accessible until 3pm, but they'll store your luggage, complete the paperwork & message you as soon as the room is free.
If you're arriving from 12pm as OP suggested, sometimes you can bag yourself the actual room early.
If my flight lands late, I always add a note to my booking that they can expect me later.

I think this hotel messed up, and they should've been more accommodating in rectifying it or making it right.

We've had this. We were going to a gig and couldn't get a nearby room and had to stay in a town 15 mins drive away.

Arrived at the hotel and the room wasn't ready. Explained we were going to a gig. They said we could get changed in the bar toilets and leave the luggage with them, then check in after the gig.

After the gig, our booked taxi cancelled and it took ages to get another taxi to take us to the hotel. Arrived after midnight and they told us they were now overbooked and I had to drive to another hotel half an hour away. I couldn't drive as I'd been drinking and was over the limit.

We had to wait an hour until they manged to get us another taxi to the other hotel.

In the morning we had to get a taxi back to the original hotel to collect the car.

I do think they should have honoured our booking as we did try and check in at the correct time and it's our fault they were behind with cleaning and our room wasn't ready.

because it's so bloody obvious you want the room you BOOKED and tried to check-in for, that you don't need to tell the hotel? 😂

I don't call the hotel the day before my booking to check they understand my booking means I actually want the room?

Why do people need to be babied so much
😂😂this must be the most ridiculous comment I"ve heard on here

When we dropped DS off at Uni stopped night before in hotel paid for early book in - was supposed to be able to book in from 11 am got there just after 1 pm. Has list of things we needed to get done and been traveling for hours - so wanted to drop cases and head off.

25 minute stood around waiting while they ascertained if the room we should have been able to get from 11 am had actually been sorted. No urgency - no undertanding we'd like to get in get sorted and get on - they just tried to get us to book evening meal there - they didn't apologise either.

DH had booking can't get to till late and he does let the know this - and luckily had no issues but collegues have turned up after hours or travel and their book and paid for room been given to someone else.

They really should have checked your friends in (ie did all the paperwork) when they arrived at 12pm and told them to just collect the key at reception when the room was ready (or they were ready to go to their room)

This happened to us when I went to a gig in London with my daughter. We were moved to another place around the corner. Last minute cancellations are so regular in some hotel chains that they rely on that trend to fill the rooms and off-load their extra guests if needed. Mistakes happen in the booking system (some of the third party platforms don't synch properly), and hotels will try not to cancel the room altogether if it is reserved using a third party platform (as they get fined/ pushed down for performance/ risk bad reviews etc). Overbooking is also a word used to replace the truth sometimes (maintenance needs or they think the guests will be trouble (not suggesting you were)). There is probably something in the terms and conditions that permit them to move guests due to unforeseen circumstances. I own holiday lets and have such terms in our booking form to cover unplanned events (like it being trashed by previous occupants). If you are upset then you can reflect that in your hotel review.

To be honest, if I was told that my room wasn't ready, I would assume that I had a room to come back to when I did turn up later.

I have learnt now that that is not good enough.
Why can't hotel staff accept that this person has shown up and not give their toom away?

Travelodge do this a lot. They essentially overbook the hotel, because they know a small percentage of guests won't show up. You tried to check in at midday, the room wasn't ready but you then didn't come back until 11 pm to check-in. By that time other guests had checked in and in essence taken the room. Your other guests were then told to go to another hotel (within the same chain) as they had available rooms. 11 pm is too late to be checking into a hotel, without notifying the hotel in advance. When you tried to check in at midday, if you'd told them you wouldn't be back until 11 pm, they may have held the room. It's common practice unfortunately.

It’s never happened to me that late but I’ve arrived at a hotel on holiday to be told we’ve been moved to a different hotel.

You physically can, I do it all the time, not sure I am somehow avoiding all the ones with strict rules. Midday would be pushing it, but I can't think of any hotel where you can't get your room one hour early when it's ready.

The cheap ones often offer, when available, a fee for early check-in/ late check-out

but most hotels at least offer to store luggage and help out if rooms are not available.

Regardless, telling you a few hours later that they gave away your bedroom to someone else after all that, is just not acceptable.

I meant leave luggage in the reception luggage room.

It doesn't even sound like the friends left any luggage.

Why do people need to be babied so much, why not just say please could you hold a room for us, we're out until late?

then whoever was working at reception should get sacked for being completely incompetent. It's not rocket science, and it's so very common, it's not an unreasonable request that would leave the staff flabbergasted.

It happens, more often than it should. Like some airlines, some hotels are bad at planning their occupancy levels.
However, they have legal obligations since you have a contract with them. So you're entitled to alternative accommodation at or better quality than booked (and it must be agreeable to you - if you don't like it or it's lower quality you are entitled to a full refund even if the rate is non refundable. And they must still pay for your alternative accommodation).
They must pay for any out of pocket expenses - so taxi fares to/from the new hotel as needed. If food is more expensive at the new hotel etc.
You can also claim compensation depending on how inconvenient they make it.
Honestly, they should offer these things but many are just chancers who think they can get away with it.
I've been bumped a few times where they've upgraded us to a better hotel/room, free drinks as an apology. That's how it should be done.
I suspect the ones who don't do this are the ones who do it so routinely it would cost them a fortune.

You can’t physically check in at many hotels prior to 3pm. With the automated systems, they won’t allow a check in early.

Yes it's common

Please accept these vouchers/ a refund for your inconvenience and of course a bottle of wine.
no, of course they never do that 😂

The difference in your case is that people tried to check-in earlier, and were not "late arrival" ,that's where the mistake is, and where the hotel completely in the wrong.

They may not have left their details?

Is that actually a question...

Yes, it's happened to me 4 or 5 times when travelling for work. Usually if you check in late. They often overbook rooms because of no shows so the last person to arrive gets bumped.

The most annoying one was when I was actually running a 3 day event at the hotel and was sent to another hotel miles away. I was checking in at 8pm so not massively late.

Someone should have checked them in, this is what I did for my best friend. She would not have been able to have her room otherwise.

It's Kafkaesque. Sorry too early. Sorry, too late. I'd ask for a full refund for your inconvenience. And people wonder why some of the hospitality sector are struggling. Might it be because they are utterly rubbish?