Translation of tactic in Spanish

When we got our room at the Rex we were shocked once again. The room had a terrible smell of cigarettes and we insisted on moving. The next room they gave us was a non-smoking room.
The books had cost only two or three dollars, cheap even for second hand books and after buying them I discovered that these were actually copied books and not used books. It was too late.
Fortunately and against all odds there were seats available so that we changed our booking to the same day. Our destination was El Calafate in the South of Patagonia in order to see the glaciers.