Hotel Mattresses
Are They Really Better?

Weary travelers can easily be seduced by a good night's sleep. Hotel chains are increasingly cashing in on this fact by selling you over-priced versions of their mattresses, which they position as more premium and unique than they really are.

Many readers have come to us with questions about mattresses from various hotels. In doing the research needed to answer these questions, we've learned a lot about what mattresses are used by hotels, who makes them, and how they're marketed. So we thought we'd put together a helpful primer for anyone that is considering buying a mattress from a hospitality chain, or any product that is positioned as a "hotel mattress."

What type of mattresses do hotels use?

Hotels do not make or design their own mattresses. They purchase them from the same manufacturers that make the products found in your local stores. Some mattress manufacturers may have product lines that are made specifically for hotels, but in most cases these lines share the same fundamental construction as mattresses that are available in stores under a different name.

Hotel mattresses tend to be about as middle-of-the-road as you can get, and this is by design. The goal of a hotel owner is to maximize satisfaction for the largest number of people — and perhaps just as importantly, to minimize dissatisfaction. Since the majority of people sleep on spring mattresses, and some people greatly dislike the lack of bounce in an all-foam mattress, hotel mattresses skew heavily toward innerspring construction over all-foam or other mattress types.

In terms of feel, to appeal to the broadest possible segment of the population, most hotel mattresses have a traditional quilted surface with a medium softness level. This softness may then be accentuated by a pillow-top or even fluffy detached padding added under the sheets, which can give the mattress a more cushy and luxurious feel. Likewise, in spite of the huge popularity of memory foam, very few hotel mattresses have any "memory feel," since memory foam has a distinctive slow-melting sensation that can be polarizing.

Are hotel mattresses better?

Depending on the caliber of the hotel, the mattresses they buy will typically be equivalent to something that is at the lower-end or mid-level part of that manufacturer's lineup. In some cases, a hospitality mattress will have a unique feature, such as a flippable design. However, it is extremely rare that the construction of a hotel mattress would map to anything above a mid-level store model.

As an example, the most famous hotel bed, which advertises celestial-quality sleep, maps to an entry-level model from one of the major mattress brands. If you tried this model in a store, you would more than likely be underwhelmed relative to other options from this same manufacturer. And if you bought that mattress from the hotel, you'd pay approximately 2-3x more than what that model costs in a store.

One reason hotels don't invest in higher-end mattresses is that a hotel mattress needs to be replaced far more frequently than a mattress in your home. This is true for hygiene reasons alone. Thus, for a hotel it doesn't make sense to invest in a mattress that will last 10 years or more, when they would want (or need) to discard and replace that mattress after 2 to 4 years anyway. Hotel mattresses are a little like staging furniture in a model home — they look good and feel fine at first, but they’re not designed for many years of nightly use like a mattress for your home.

For the same reasons, many hotels will also place a thick detached pillow-top on top of the mattress. This topper, which can be replaced even more frequently than the mattress, serves as the first line of defense for absorbing moisture (namely sweat). And a newer pillow-top can add some extra cushy softness, making a middle to low-end mattress feel like a much more luxurious mattress than it really is.

If I sleep great in a hotel, should I try to get that mattress?

There are lots of reasons that people tend to sleep great in hotels (more on this below). But as we explain everywhere on this site, mattresses are highly personal, meaning no mattress can be a great fit for everyone. Hotels know this, and as a result, hotel mattresses are like neutral colors — they are chosen to be purposely unexceptional so that they'll meet the bare minimum satisfaction standard for most people. This may mean that it's better than your mattress at home (especially if your mattress at home is worn out and needs replacing). But it's statistically unlikely that any hotel mattress is truly an ideal match for you. The reality is that the vast majority of people and couples will be able to find another mattress that is a much better match for their needs and preferences.

As an analogy, just because you weren't offended by the grey or earth tone tile in the hotel bathroom doesn't mean that same exact tile will be the best choice for your bathrooms at home. Likewise, when it's your bed in your home, and you have hundreds of options from which to choose, you'll probably want to pick one that more ideally suits your individual needs and preferences.

Why do I sleep so well in hotels?

Many readers have reported to us that they love the sleep they get in hotels. There are a number of common explanations for this, so we've listed them here in order from most likely to least likely.

• The placebo effect. When staying in a hotel, you tend to be more tired from travel, or more relaxed from being on vacation. Either of these can lead to a better night's sleep. On top of that, hotels create a more tranquil environment, in which there are few to no reminders of the chores or stresses of your daily life.
• Your current mattress is older. In evaluating your sleep on a hotel mattress, your best (if not only) frame of reference is the sleep you get on your current mattress. At better hotels, where mattresses are replaced frequently, chances are high that the hotel mattress is newer than your own mattress. Studies have shown that all else being equal, a newer mattress will almost always feel better than an older mattress, and will lead to better sleep.
• Your current mattress is not right for you. Sadly, many people end up choosing a mattress that is wrong for them — led astray by "best mattress" lists, a pushy salesman, fake review sites, or just not knowing how to choose the right mattress for them. If your current mattress is completely wrong for you, then a hotel mattress may feel great by comparison, even if it still isn't your best option. 
• You can sleep on anything. As much as 20% of the population falls into what we call the "invincible sleeper" category. Perhaps unsurprisingly, this group of people skews younger and skews male. If you're fortunate to be in this group, you probably sleep great at hotels — as well as at friends' houses and just about anywhere else.
• The hotel mattress is a great match for you. While many shoppers are quick to draw this conclusion after sleeping well in a hotel, we actually view this as the least likely explanation on this list. That said, for some minority of people, it is certainly possible that a middle-of-the-road hotel mattress is indeed the ideal choice for you.

The bottom line is that when you talk to someone who has the right mattress for them, they invariably say that hotel mattresses are one of the things they like least about sleeping in hotels — because no matter how nice the hotel is, the mattress is never is good for them as the one they have at home.

Should I buy a mattress from a hotel?

While there may be a few rare exceptions, we generally advise consumers not to buy a mattress from a hotel. You are much better off identifying the manufacturer of that mattress and then either buying an equivalent model directly from the manufacturer or finding a local retailer that carries that mattress. Here are the reasons:

• Hotels charge a (MUCH) bigger markup. When you fall in love with a mattress while staying in a hotel, that hotel is in a unique position to exploit this. They have an effective monopoly on selling any mattress that uses their name, so if you are really committed to getting a mattress that has that name, you have to go through them – and they know it. On top of that, selling mattresses is not their core business, which means that in almost all cases they outsource the retail operations to a 3rd party, who in turn usually outsources the fulfillment to another party. And of course, the hotel is going to take a big cut of the action as well. This means that there are twice as many mouths to feed than when you buy through a normal retailer. Each of these middle men marks up the price in order to take their cut, which ensures that you end up paying more.
• Equivalent mattresses from the same manufacturer are usually available elsewhere. In most cases, you can find an equivalent mattress model that is sold either through the manufacturer themselves or through traditional mattress stores. In either case, this equivalent model will be substantially cheaper. Although the hotel may claim that their mattress is "custom designed to the hotel's specifications," there is rarely, if ever, anything proprietary about a hotel mattress. Hoteliers do not design mattresses, and the manufacturer of their mattresses certainly wouldn't give them an exclusive on their best features or materials. As an example, the famous Heavenly Bed from Westin Hotels is a Beautyrest mattress that they mark up by 50-100% over what you'd pay in a mattress store.
• In buying through a hotel, you'll lose out on a number of basic services that most mattress retailers offer. For example, as of the writing of this article, Hampton Inn doesn't offer free delivery (you'll pay $225!), doesn't offer removal of your old mattress, nor do they allow for returns or exchanges (which some mattress stores refer to as a "Comfort Guarantee").
• The bed you get from the hotel may not even be the same bed you slept on. The only reason to buy through a hotel would be to have 100% certainty that you're getting the exact bed you slept on. You may even be willing to pay a slight premium because you've been "pre-sold" by the good night's sleep you got in the hotel. Unfortunately, you'll never have this certainty when buying a mattress from a hotel. For example, not to pick on Hampton Inn again, but this quote is from their own site: "The beds for purchase follow the most current, up-to-date Hampton bed specifications, which may or may not be the exact same bed you slept on at any given hotel."

Net, if you're considering a hotel mattress, your best bet is to find out as much as you can about the type of mattress it is and which manufacturer made it, and then use that information to find the closest comparable to that mattress that you can purchase elsewhere.