Starwood Preferred Guest - Beware of twin beds

I am a frequent business traveler, but I never have to face this until my recent stay at New York Essex House.

This is one of my favorite hotels in New York. I like her elegancy and tranquility in the busy New York. I usually travel solo and get a room with a heavenly King bed facing Central Park. You really can’t beat the million dollar view!

Recently I traveled with my 73 years old father. He wanted to visit New York and of course I booked the Essex House. First they upgraded us to a junior suite with 2 Queen Beds on the 7th floor. It’s not facing the park but I was told no rooms with 2 Queen Beds facing Central Park. It was roomy but my father was complaining the humming noise from the exhaust of the air condition unit down below. I called the front desk and they graciously switched us to a “specialty suite” which is on the 9th floor facing Central Park.

The room is even more spacious than the junior suite. It’s a two room suite with two bathrooms, 4 phones and antique-like French furniture. I have never gotten upgrade to this room before. The only problem is this room only has 2 twin beds.

The front desk did tell us about this. I haven’t seen a twin bed for years and didn’t realize how small it is. I am guessing it must be some fire codes preventing the hotel to put two double beds because there are plenty space to do so.

Needless to say, I ended up on the sofa bed after flipping and turning on the tiny twin bed. I am average build and couldn’t image a heavyset person sleeping on the tiny bed. My father didn’t get a good night sleep either and he ended up napping on the double deck tour bus.

I guess the lesson is there is no “heavenly” twin bed, at least not for me.

In that case, you may want to stay away from the Westin St Francis in SF. A while ago I had a single reservation at this property, and what a surprise I encountered upon entering my room---a single bed! I was only there for one night, it was late and I was checking out early the next morning, so it was not a big deal. I was only a Gold at *Wood at the time, so didn't expect much. I assume it originally had been used as a maids room, as it was high up (but overlooking the inner buildings.)

At my first stay in Vienna a couple of years ago, I was shocked to also find twin beds in my suite. When I pointed out to the valet that I had requested a 'king' room, he said 'oh, sorry about that', walked over and pushed the two twins together.

Makes for a funny story today, but at the time I was not really amused - particularly the morning after sleeping on my new "king" bed.

The same thing happened to me in the Courtyard in France -- two twin beds pushed together became a king. Of course, I kept sinking in the middle....

From what I've read, there's a handful of hotels in NYC and SFO that have this issue, and several in big European cities.

I can top that. About a dozen years ago (when the Essex House was run by Nikko?) my gf and I arrived at 1:30am after 3-hour train delay from DC. We were "upgraded" to a park view suite. When we entered the room, I went to look for the bedroom but could not find it. Whereupon I was informed by the bellperson that there was only a pullout sofa "since most of our Japanese guests choose to sleep on mats on the floor."

Needless to say, we were pretty outraged (Do we look Japanese? I don't think so) and immediately returned to the front desk to demand a room with a real bed. Eventually the night clerk managed to find a tiny viewless room even though the hotel was "sold out."

The next morning my gf went to the manager and read him the riot act, whereupon we were upgraded to a one BR suite (with a bed) which proved handy as a friend of mine ended up crashing on the LR couch that night.

Not sure if they still offer these rooms, though I was shocked that anyone would pay $200+ per night for a room without a bed.

I suppose now that room should have heavenly mats and heavenly floor, isn't it?

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by Boraxo:
I can top that. About a dozen years ago (when the Essex House was run by Nikko?) my gf and I arrived at 1:30am after 3-hour train delay from DC. We were "upgraded" to a park view suite. When we entered the room, I went to look for the bedroom but could not find it. Whereupon I was informed by the bellperson that there was only a pullout sofa "since most of our Japanese guests choose to sleep on mats on the floor."
</font>

That's original. They could've just admitted that they'd cocked up and booked you into a day suite by accident.