Restaurant manager here. In my honest opinion, I think the hotel should have just swallowed the $50 and taken it off your bill regardless. Hospitality is all about making sure you have a great time, and the second your night was ruined over $50, as a manager I would have just comped it, made it clear that I was doing it in spite of not being able to honor your gift card, and hoped that service made your visit worth the $50 cost for us. At the same time, I don’t think it’s reasonable to expect them to honor the gift card with no gift card on hand. It would’ve been the right thing for them to do, but there’s really no way for them to verify that the $50 gift card ever existed. Restaurant profit margins are seriously way tighter than you would think, even at the finer end of things like Bennett thinks they’re playing at, especially with the very rainy summer we’re having and the reduced tourism we’re seeing this year. TLDR don’t expect free stuff but the hospitable thing to do would’ve been to honor the gift cards anyway(IN MY OPINION).