The moment of truth was when the front desk people realized that the problem we reported was not just a minor complaint or just an example of customers being too picky or demanding. It was fairly clear that the hotel personnel immediately empathized with our situation and that they felt obligated to rectify the problem for us. The wrong response would have been to tell us that we should just try to live with the noise for one night until another room like the one we booked became available or to turn off the air conditioner when we wanted to go to sleep and then turn it back on in the morning. In addition to being insulting (because nobody needs to be told that they can do either of those two things), that type of response would have conflicted with any demonstration of reliability, assurance, or responsiveness.

There were both tangible and intangible elements to this issue: the obvious tangible element was the discomfort of having to (either) sleep without air conditioning or try to sleep with the horrible noise; the intangible element was the impression given by the hotel staff about how seriously they took our complaint. The hotel was responsive from the start, such as by sending a maintenance person to our room within a few minutes after we called about the problem. When the front desk supervisor called back to change our room,...

That demonstrated both assurance and reliability because it indicated that the hotel is committed to customer service.
More specifically, I realize that it may or may not have been true that the hotel had no more available rooms of the type we booked. It is possible that the front desk supervisor knew that it would demonstrate more empathy and generosity to tell us that she was giving us the one remaining suite. That would have been a shrewd way for the supervisor to salvage the situation as much as possible under the circumstances because it might leave a more positive impression than just giving us another room of the same type we booked. By informing us that there was only one suite left, she demonstrated maximum empathy and maximum commitment to our comfort.

The experience that started out so negatively for us actually became a positive experience. From the tangible respect, we did enjoy the more extravagant layout and amenities of the suite; from the intangible respect, we were left with the impression that we could count on this particular hotel to take care of guests' needs and that the hotel could be counted on in the future to "do the right thing" for the benefit of its guests.