How can SPG Gold Members not lose their reserved rooms?

It's 1am and I so angry that I was motivated to sign up for a new account at The Lobby.

My husband is a Gold Member with 190,000 points. He travels almost exclusively with Starwood Hotels across the nation. I am confused, frustrated, and dumbfounded about what happened last night at the Sheraton Hotel and Towers New York and tonight at the Le Meridien in New York. Here's my question - considering his SPG gold status, how can we get the rooms we reserve and pay for?

It seems like a simple question.

Last night, my husband was in New York and was told at the Sheraton that the only rooms available for him were those with Murphy beds. He reluctantly accepted, negotiated an offer of taking starpoints to settle the matter, and made it fine through the night.

Tonight was the real problem. He had 3 nights reserved at the Le Meridien. His assistant confirmed the reservation this morning for late check in, and I confirmed it as well a 9pm for late check in. He arrived at 11:45pm tonight and was told that there were no rooms at all. Instead, they made him WALK to the Mandarin Oriental, where they proceeded to put him up in a smoking room (all that was available, and he's asthmatic).

Finally, after another angry call to Omar, the on-duty manager, my husband was driven to a non smoking room at the Ritz at about 1am.

2 nights in a row - for a Gold member - our reserved rooms (paid for, by the way, NOT redeemed for points) were not there for us.

What in the world do we have to do to get our reserved rooms that we paid for and confirmed hours prior to check in?