Mattress shopping isn’t what it used to be. There was a time when choosing a mattress meant answering a simple question: soft or firm?
When it’s time for a mattress makeover, today’s innkeepers look for features like memory foam, pocketed coils and moisture wicking fabrics, all in the service of that vital factor of any customer’s stay: a good night’s rest.
“It’s become a topic growing in importance just in the general public,” Errol Williams, vice president of the Americas brand operations at InterContinental Hotels Group, told USA Today earlier this year. “Our travelers have consistently identified sleep … as one of the critical parts of their experience.”
So important that AccorHotel’s Fairmont brand spent more than a year testing mattresses, writes USA Today’s Nancy Trejos.
That meant three rounds of testing at five different hotels all in different climates. They looked at hotels that marketed mostly to business travelers, as well as those whose customers were primarily people on vacation, before finally settling on two custom-made mattresses from Sealy.
“Realistically, it’s the one part of room that gets used the most during the guest’s stay,” Fairmont Vice President Jane Mackie said in the USA Today piece. “It has the most potential to have an upside and potential to have a downside if we don’t get it right.”
Is there a mattress makeover in your property’s future? There are many types of mattresses on the market, all with their own advantages and drawbacks:
1. Innerspring
These are among the most common type of mattress, offering support through a series of coils underneath a pillow, latex or foam padding. Innerspring mattresses range in firmness and price to fit everyone’s comfort and financial need. The downside is that cheaper mattresses aren’t likely to offer as much support.
2. Memory foam
Memory foam gets its name from what it does: conforming to – or in other words, remembering – the shape of your body. Memory foam reduces pressure points and alleviates pain, and also absorbs movement, meaning you’re not likely to wake your partner – nor will they wake you – by moving around.
But there is a downside to this type of mattress: the foam can absorb heat, and thus can feel especially warm during the night. Tempurpedic has “SmartClimate” cooling fibers and materials that are cool to the touch.
3. Latex
Latex mattresses are made from either natural or synthetic rubber, and are known for giving firm, bouncy support. They provide a similar level of comfort to memory foam, but may not be the right choice for people who aren’t fans of a firm mattress.
4. Air Mattresses
We’re not talking about the inflatable things your kids use for sleepovers. These are mattresses that use air-filled chambers in place of coils.
They can be tweaked so that they don’t always put pressure on the same parts of the body, and are beneficial for couples who have very distinct preferences when it comes to mattress firmness. But there’s a hitch: if you fail to make the mattress firm enough, your guests could wake up feeling achy.
It is important to get the choice of a new mattress right. That’s where InnStyle can help. We’ve spent more than 30 years advising innkeepers who want to give their properties a mattress makeover. InnStyle is a distributor for Tempur-Sealy Hospitality Mattresses. Hospitality mattresses are manufactured differently than a homeowner‘s mattress as they have to accommodate many different body types and preferences. Contact our sales team so they can explain why Tempur-Sealy mattresses would be the correct choice for you and to help you choose the right mattress for your property.