Any request - no matter how it is made - is ONLY a request. There are never guarantees. There are a finite number of rooms that would meet any given request, and sometimes it's just flat-out not possible to grant them.
From what I have read on this and other forums, the commonality of those that ARE granted seems to be they specifically list out their priority for the requests.
Like... "My requests are in this order of priority: 1) Surfs Up; 2) Top Floor; 3) King bed." as opposed to "I'd like a room in the Surfs Up section on the top floor and with a King bed."
While on the surface they look the same, the first makes it clear what I want as my highest priority, second, and then and only then third. So the assigner would (in theory) look at the Surfs Up section for availability. Assuming availability there, the assigner would then look for any top floor rooms in the Surfs Up section. Assuming both of those were met, then and only then, the assigner would look to see if any of those were King rooms. But if there were no King rooms, the assigner would know that it's ok because the first two were met. Or even just the first. The second phrasing makes no distinction and so the room assigner has no clue what is most important to me - and therefore I might end up with one portion of the request but not the main one, or may end up with none because the assigner doesn't know what is most important.
Also requesting a general area is usually easier than a specific room. And limiting the requests to no more than three.