Hotels are a good resource when searching for perfect mattress
On a business trip to Chicago last month, I woke up in a strange hotel and had the oddest sensation. My lower back, which usually feels like someone poured concrete down my spine, felt as loose as licorice rope.
That’s odd, I thought. My back feels great. I checked the date to make sure it was 2019, not 20 years ago. The next morning, it happened again.
Normally, I get that loosened-up feeling eventually. The morning wears on, and the stiffness wears off. Next morning, same story. (If you can believe the statistics, 80% of you know what I’m talking about.)
But on this second promising morning of waking up feeling half my age, I tore back the sheets to reveal the label of this miracle mattress: A Sealy Posturepedic Plush Euro Pillowtop, custom labeled for this hotel. If I could have taken the mattress home in my suitcase, I would have. Instead, I snapped a picture of the label with my phone.
Back home, I pulled back the covers to see what my husband and I had been sleeping on. Underneath was a Sears-opedic, circa World War II, judging from its sagging sides. (For the record, the Sears-o-pedic label offered a 25-year warranty, though experts recommend replacing your mattress every eight to 10 years, or whenever your back gives out.)
How was it we blended households and didn’t buy a new mattress? This mattress was officially an exmattress. And I knew just the replacement.
Tempur Sealy’s rep said the mattress came from the company’s Fairmont Hotel collection. I didn’t stay at a Fairmont, I said. That didn’t matter. They referred me to Bill Blendick, who handles hotel mattress sales, and Michelle Gaffney, retail manager for Fairmont Hotels, one of a growing number of hotel chains that offer ways to purchase the bed you slept on.
“I get three calls like this a week,” Gaffney said. “Were you on vacation? I ask because customers call and say they had the best sleep ever and want the mattress, but they were in Maui, with daily housekeeping, fresh sheets, an ocean breeze and the sound of the waves all night. I don’t want to get their hopes up.”
We both know a mattress can only do so much.
Order placed, I’ll find out in six weeks if this mattress is the fountain of youth, or if I was just dreaming. Meanwhile, here’s what else experts say we can learn from hotel beds.
REST TEST >> Lying on a mattress in a retail store is one way to shop, but if you have a great night’s sleep in a hotel or at a friend’s house, that’s even better.
AGE FACTOR >> The biggest difference between hotel and home mattresses is age, said Mary Helen Rogers, spokeswoman for the Better Sleep Council. Hotels replace their mattresses every seven to nine years. “They feel great because you won’t ever sleep on a worn-out one.”
LABEL AND BRAND >> If you sleep on a mattress you love, take a photo of the label. Gaffney can still track down a mattress by calling the hotel and finding out what room the guest stayed in. (Hotels often have more than one type of mattress.)
SELECTION PROCESS >> “Of the 12 hours guests spend in their rooms, eight of them are on the mattress,” Blendick said. Because mattresses are the most important furnishing in the room, hotels take great care when choosing. The Fairmont may test as many as 30 mattresses. Guests sleep on trial mattresses and take a short survey at checkout. “That goes on,” Blendick said, “until we find the mattress that meets most people’s preferences for comfort and support.”
TOUGH STUFF >> Just as furnishings made for commercial settings are stronger than those for residential use, hotel mattresses are “designed for more punishment,” Blendick said. “People throw heavy suitcases on them. Kids jump on them because it’s vacation. We know that and design accordingly.”
Manufacturers use commercial-grade foam, which is denser and more resilient. Mattress covers, ticking and inner springs are higher gauge. The foundations, what the rest of us call box springs, are typically solid-wood units, so they provide stronger support.
Join me next week for Part 2, when we ask a doctor if a mattress really can relieve our aches and pains.
Syndicated columnist Marni Jameson’s At Home column is published here weekly. Contact her at www.marnijameson. com. To see all of Jameson’s columns, go to www.mercurynews. com/author/marnijameson. Jameson is the author of four home and lifestyle books, including “Downsizing the Family Home: What to Save, What to Let Go.”