Starwood Preferred Guest - Problem with Rate for Room

I booked a room with the Platinum concierge for $84. He indicated the room would have a King bed and a pull out sofa. He also indicated a rate of $79 was available for a king bed w/o the sofa.

The room I was provided did not have the sofa bed. When I inquired about this the next morning at the front desk I was informed that specific room amentities, such as the sofa, cannot be guaranteed. This seemed strange as I was quoted separate rates.

My question is: Should I be able to get my $5 back?

I would send a note to customer service. This seems like a reasonable request to me and if they say no, then there's no harm in trying. This is why I usually try to email with my Platinum concierge instead of calling her. Do you have anything in writing about the different rates or could you try to book a room in the future and get it in writing so that you can prove that they are differentiating the rates based upon room amenities?

Welcome to one of the incomprehensible aspects of the hospitality industry (this is really an industry wide thing so you shouldn't single out Starwood).

The truth is you should consider yourself lucky that you got the king size bed. All the hotel is really promising is to give you accommodations for the number of people in your reservation.

Apparently it is even worse than that in that hotels can overbook, and then turn you away despite having guaranteed the room with a credit card (it seems that you are guaranteeing payment, but they aren't guaranteeing the room). Most reputable hotels will do things to make this up to you if it occurs (e.g. find alternate accommodations and pay for them along with a taxi to the other hotel).

That said, Starwood is usually pretty good about making things right. I would give them a call, I suspect that you can get your five bucks and/or a quite satisfactory number of starpoints for the inconvenience.