Been playing catch up with the old topics and hit this one. Hard to say if the confusion is Marriott in general or this hotel specifically. Our group, too was told that the double beds could not be guaranteed for Hollywood; however when we got there we didn't have any problem getting a room with them.
On the other hand, this hotel messed up my reservation royally in 2003, which was my first fest. Never sent me the confirmation email they promised, then, when I called back to follow up, sent it but the reservation was cut short one night. (FYI this was NOT thru the general Marriott reservation #, but booked with the hotel directly.) Of course at that point they had no more rooms at con rate. Fortunately I was able to connect with someone who had crash space for the night I needed, but the point is it shouldn't have happened in the first place. I'd really advise everyone go over their confirmations with a fine tooth comb and make sure it's exactly what you asked for. The problem mentioned with getting different answers depending on who answers the phone is the experience I had in '03, so I would also document EVERYTHING you are told over the phone with date, time and name. Considering they are positioning this hotel to be a business center, they seem extraordinarily sloppy and unprofessional in handling reservations. (Please know that I'm not being gratuitously nasty in saying this. I've been attending various types of SF and Media conventions in most of the major hotel chains since the 70's so my opinion is based on a comparison of services of hotels in the same category.)
Oh as to the oddness with the smoking/non smoking thing: NYC has very tough no smoking laws. I would believe that the whole hotel would be required to be non smoking. All restaurants are, and now that's being extended to bars too.
